Show me the money!

By Ranjan Yumnam *

Manipuris are now on the move. They fill up the entire rows of seats in the aircrafts on daily basis and local travel agencies are doing business more briskly than ever before. It seems Manipuris are the new Punjabis--omnipresent, if not omniscient.

Omnipresent, because they are everywhere, from Bankok to Dallas, working in retail, hospitality, and even casinos in the middle of the ocean; omniscient maybe, because they have carved out a niche for themselves in the knowledge economy in blue chip companies, mostly IT. So, what's driving these two trends? Low-cost air travel pioneered by Captain GR Gopinath in 2003 that gave wings to the common man and simplifly. Air travel is now so affordable that it is the first option for most people like railway used to be when air travel was expensive and reserved for the affluent class.

Second, the conflict situation in the State is pushing away hordes of people from the State, among them brilliant young men and women. There are simply not enough jobs that match the calibre and potential of the educated youths here, compelling them to look for greener pastures, and with quick airborne travelling within easy reach, job opportunities are up for grabs for us in any part of the world. The world is our oyster, so to say.

One pertinent question is: Is the mass exodus of the Manipuris good for Manipur? There is no easy answer. The impact of these trends has not been fully realised, and we have no way of knowing the repercussions of globetrotting by Manipuris on our cultural and economic landscape. Are we the cultural ambassadors of our State or are we being swarmed by others' way of life? Do we come back from foreign shores with twisted tongue, mangal sutra and Anglo-Indian kids in tow? Highly qualified and beautiful Manipuri chanuras living away from Manipur, for lack of opportunities, are marrying out of the race, while Manipuri male expatriates are similarly hooking up with non-Manipuri women. The interactions of all these cultural dynamics will definitely give birth to a new subculture in our society with its brighter and darker sides. And with it the confused syndrome of "I am neither a Manipuri nor a gora/negro/*"shall be born. Despite all these gray areas, let's hope that our human resource exports become the key to our economic development. I am looking at Kerala, where one third of its GDP comes off remittances from migrant workers abroad. As more Manipuris are signing up for employment in other States and countries, we need to study in-depth the economic angle of the Manipuri expats sending money to their families back home. Will it be a drop in the ocean or be a major portion in the pie chart of economy of the State? We have no data and no one is doing any research on this. (Now this is an idea for Ph.D thesis. Anyone?)

Fortunately, a World Bank economist, Dilip Ratha, has done a study on global remittance patterns, and what he found out is dumbfounding. Annual wage transfers from across borders in 2003 added upto $338 billion, which means the size of global remittances is even higher than all the foreign aid given to the developing countries by the rich countries which is estimated at about $100 billion in a year. So far, we have neglected the role of remittance in the discourse of economic development of a State. Because it is not sexy; because it is not foreign aid announced in gala presidential summit; because remittances come from numerous ordinary faceless people doing mundane jobs; because it is not as life threatening as AIDS or as life affirming as the New Age spirituality, we do not talk about its significance. Neither do the economists. It's time to talk it up and bring it into the political agenda because migration of Manipuris, whether you like it or not, will take place in the years to come, and in a big way. During the last couple of decades, we have invested in the education of our children by sending money to them so that they can become competitive, get decent jobs and get noticed. We have sown the seeds; now isn't it the time to reap the harvests? That harvest could well be in the form of remittances from the Manipuri Diaspora which will keep growing because of the reasons which we have discussed elsewhere. Policy that will encourage and reward remittance senders is the need of the hour. The push and pull theory of migration is also working in our favour. The grim law and order situation in Manipur is pushing away people from the State, while the pull factor of globalisation and greater cross-border mobility is pulling us from the State to a new way of life and job elsewhere.

No one has championed the idea of cross-border mobility as fiercely as the Harvard economist Lant Pritchett. Pritchett calculated that sending 3000 Bangladeshis to the United States would provide more capital to Bangladesh than a year's worth of Grameen Bank's micro credit loans given out to thousands of Bangladeshis. He asked rhetorically, "If I get 3000 Bangladeshis into the U.S," half-jokingly alluding to the founder of the Grameen Bank, Mohammed Yunus, "do I get a Nobel?".

There is indeed fortune to be made at the bottom of the pyramid, as CK Prahlad says. Small savings and minute contributions in the form of remittance from the Manipuri diaspora can really prop up the tottering economy of Manipur. I wrote the Selfish Manipuri Diaspora. In hindsight, there is nothing wrong in being selfish. I am not asking you to donate money to charities; I am asking you to send small amount of money to your relatives, friends back home. If each of the Manipuri working outside sends home even a nominal amount of money every month, he/she would have contributed to the growth of the Manipuri economy. Remittance is being seen as an approach to economic development. Let's promote the remittance idea and encourage the Manipuri diaspora to give back to the homeland.

If a Bihari labourer in Thangal Bazar can send money orders to his family in Patna, why not the blue and white collared Manipuris do the same for us? Time to ponder and show us the money.

Ranjan Yumnam

* Ranjan Yumnam, presently an MCS probationer, is a frequent contributor to e-pao.net. He can be contacted at ranjanyumnam(at)gmail(dot)com. This article was webcasted on February 28, 2010.