Large scale influx of outsiders : Neutralise the pull factor
- Sangai Express Editorial :: June 14, 2013 -

Volunteers/Students of ILP Checking vehicles at Sekmai New Bazaar area on 05 June 2013 :: Pix - Deepak Oinam

Pull and push. A heady cocktail it can be, especially when it comes to human migration from one place to another and it is this cocktail which has led to the demand to implement the Inner Line Permit System in Manipur.

The number of non-locals streaming into Manipur to make a living may be said to be directly proportionate to the push factor of the places from where these migrants have come as well as with the pull factor of Manipur.

While the spirit behind the demand to implement the ILPS should be appreciated in the backdrop of the huge number of non-locals settling in different parts of the State, the issue needs to be seen not only from the perspective of an Act or a law to be enforced by the Government but also from social view point.

The concerns raised are legitimate enough and there are enough material and living examples of how unchecked migrations of people can drastically alter the demographic composition of a place and it is this which has served as the primary rallying point for the demand to implement the ILPS.

Understandably the State Government too has struck the same line, with the State Assembly adopting a resolution to the effect that the Centre be approached to implement the said ILPS in Manipur.

Again, understandably, the State Government has to strike a politically right stand and the pronouncement of the Chief Minister that anyone trying to stop bonafide citizens of India entering Manipur will be dealt with sternly should be seen in this light.

For reasons, which the Union Home Ministry has vaguely spelt out, the resolution adopted by the State Assembly has been put on hold.

This is where the issue of ILP stands, as of now, politically. All the more reason why there is also the need to approach the issue from the social and economic perspectives.

Along with voicing deep concern over the large scale influx of outsiders to Manipur, it is also equally important to study why the State has such a strong pull factor.

One point that stands out prominently is the vacuum created by the local people in the work force. Most of the migrants in Manipur are engaged in petty, skilled and unskilled works.

Jobs, especially those deemed to be menial or which demand physical efforts find no ready takers amongst the local people.

And so it is that today, the job of hair cutting have been easily taken over by the non-locals.

Hawking goods on the lanes and by lanes of Imphal and other parts of the State too have not been taken up by the local population, for reasons which need not be spelt out here.

Cobblers or shoe repairing works are usually identified with the non-locals, which in turn may be read as the local people hesitant to take up this vocation.

Dignity of labour as a principle does not exist in the psyche of the people. Move over to the skilled labour, such as masonry, light fitting, laying tiles or carpentry works and most of these jobs too have been taken over by the migrant work force.

The point is, if these jobs or vocations are taken up by the local people, with the expertise to match the non-local people, then the pull factor will considerably go down.

This is a bare fact but which unfortunately not many have deemed fit to address seriously.

As long as there is a vacuum in the work force, especially in jobs, which are considered 'menial', 'degrading' to the local people, then no law or statute will be able to stop the inflow of outsiders to fill this vacuum.

Not all can become white collar or even blue collar workers.

A large number of unemployed youths and on the other hand a large number of vocations taken up by non-local people says something profound about the mentality of the local people.