Sentinel’s viewpoint
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s revelation that there are “mini Bangladeshes” in several districts of Assam has corroborated what The Sentinel has been cautioning since its launch in 1983. Sadly, the alarm bells rung by this newspaper nearly four decades earlier against the escalating existential demographic threat to Assamese people, posed by the influx of Bangladeshis, were ignored by successive governments in the past. Recent political turmoil in Bangladesh has only precipitated the fear of an increased influx of economic migrants from the neighbouring country, overwhelming Assamese and other indigenous people. When the situation has already gone out of hand, the only hope to save the Assamese people from being overwhelmed by Bangladeshi infiltrators lies in educating the indigenous youth to pick up every single livelihood avenue, menial or skilled, to reclaim the economic space that the infiltrators have started appropriating. More than 11 lakh applications being submitted against 13,000 Grade III and IV vacancies notified by the State Government present the hard realities of indigenous youth chasing the mirage of a secured government job. While indigenous youth are standing in long queues in front of government offices, youths migrating out of Sar areas have seized the opportunity to pick up every single livelihood option that came before them: construction worker, rickshaw puller, e-rickshaw driver, taxi driver, city bus driver and conductor, vegetable vendor, carriage van driver, fish and meat vendor, street vendor, garbage cleaning, plumber, electrician, painter, milk and bread vendor, etc. The average minimum monthly income from most of these livelihood avenues ranges from Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 30,000. At least three to four members of immigrant families from Sar areas migrate to Guwahati, various towns, and villages wherever there is demand for these works. The household income of these migrant families is estimated to be in the range of at least Rs 30,000 to Rs. 90,000, even when only three members migrate to pick up these works. This income is in addition to income from agriculture and allied activities such as dairy farming, fishing, poultry farming, etc. The savings of these families have substantially increased, and they have started settling down in various towns or villages by purchasing land from poor and marginalised Assamese people. The land transfer is not confined to one or two families, and gradually more immigrant settlers with adequate savings in hand also start settling down. When the population of immigrant families becomes the majority in the area, due to the growing difference in socio-cultural and socio-religious practices, even well to do Assamese and other indigenous families will sell their land to immigrant families and migrate to Guwahati or other towns. Ironically, youth and working members of marginalised Assamese farm families whose farming practices have become non-remunerative prefer to migrate outside the state to work as security guards but are shy of picking up scores of livelihood avenues in Guwahati and other places of the state. Educated among them waste many precious years hankering after grade III or IV government jobs and fail to realise that government jobs are limited and are not to be seen as a solution to the unemployment problem. The perception of the availability of employment only in the government, industry, and private sectors is the root cause behind the illusion of a secured job gripping Assamese and other indigenous educated unemployed in the state. In sharp contrast, the perception of unemployment is alien to immigrant families of Bangladeshi infiltrators and of erstwhile East Bengal origin, as educated youth among them are also never hesitant to pick up any menial work as they seek to augment household income and settle in Guwahati or any other place to escape the vagaries of nature that come in the form of ravaging floods and erosion submerging their homestead land or cultivable land in Sar areas and other settlements. This newspaper, through its editorials in the past more than 40 years, has been reminding influential organisations like the All Assam Students’ Union and other organisations championing the cause of Assamese and indigenous people to adopt pragmatic steps to raise awareness among indigenous youth about the importance of building economic self-reliance at the household level by picking up every single livelihood opportunity. These organisations have also been reminded time and again to notice that while the majority Assamese farmers are still dependent on rain-fed agricultural practices and keep their cropland fallow for long periods, most immigrant settlers optimally use shallow tube wells to draw underground water to irrigate their land, go for double cropping, and dominate the food and vegetable markets in Guwahati and various towns with supplies of their produce. Unfortunately, these organisations have failed to realise the importance of building an economic self-reliance movement among Assamese and other indigenous people in parallel with the movement against Bangladeshi influx and pursuing legal and administrative measures to curb the infiltration, identification, and deportation of illegal Bangladeshi migrants. The AASU and other like-minded organisations are undertaking a massive awareness drive among Assamese youth on economic empowerment through self-employment in every single livelihood avenue that comes before them. They should also organise skill development programs in every indigenous village and channel the trained youth to different spheres of economic activity. This is a task not to be left to students and youth organisations but must be shouldered by everyone at the community level with the clear goal of reclaiming economic opportunities. People blame contractors for hiring labourers belonging to immigrant families for construction and other works, but they have no option as a majority of Assamese youth, except for a few who have been completely marginalised and have no other means, are not willing to pick up these works and are not willing to travel long distances to work. The state government initiating land reforms aimed at preventing the sale of land belonging to indigenous people to non-indigenous people is laudable but not sufficient to protect the economic interests of Assamese and other indigenous people. When a nationality loses its economic space to outsiders, the legal and administrative measures, however strong they may be, will not guarantee the protection of its culture, language, and heritage from becoming extinct. The danger of Assamese people being overwhelmed and Assamese language, culture, and heritage becoming extinct due to the unabated influx of Bangladeshi infiltrators and an orchestrated demographic change through appropriation of the economic space by land-hungry immigrants within the state has increased manifold. If the Assamese people fail to notice, it is just a matter of time before the “mini Bangladeshes” in Assam will grow into a virtual annex of Bangladesh and obliterate the Assamese and other sons of the soil in their own land.
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