The in-country migration of Labour from Mithila with decline of agriculture

Migration or in-country exodus of the labour was not till 1970s. Thereafter the unemployment rate rose because of no viable agro- industry in Mithila.Infrastructure damage by flood also cased fruther increment in it.Poorer Mithila had higher fertility rate which further increased the problem.

Till 1960s exodus of Maithilabour was to eastern India, more so to Kolkata as it had a base of jute industry but with the surge of time western India got economic uplift and that with the green revolution Haryana and Punjab became centre of gravitation with the better irrigation facilities due to Bhangra Nangal project.

In Mithila Koshi was devastating perinneally which till 2008 Kushsha breach had already damaged to the tune of Rs. 50000 cr to the infrastructure of Mithila.The namesake HEC, Ranchi, Bokaro Steel plant and the coal fields of undivided Bihar could attract some labour from Mithila but by and large the gradual decline in the agriculture as well as education in Bihar since 1970s made Maithil brain and labour vulnerable for brain drain and labour supply to the developed parts.

The overall decline made an average Maithil fit for menial work only and having been agricultursllabourer it was easy to migrate to Argo developed center like Haryana and Punjab than some other industrialized parts like Mumbai which needed technical expertise. Not that they did not go to Maharashtra ad Gujarat or lately to South India but in miniscule number as compared to the Sutlej -Vyas basin of Punjab and Haryana. Though green revolution in both these states was by Maithi sweats, Haryana was preferred because there was no Sikh insurgergency in 1980s as that of Punjab. Further being nearer to Delhi and hence, to their home in Mithila though this comparison need further study.

However, Delhi and around is also now flooded with semi- skilled Maithili migrants from Mithila and this whole northern zone may be compared to western India , Mumbai as well Gujarat with the economic surge of Gujarat, it is also embedded with Maithili migrants.Even south is not immune not to talk of skill migration in IT sectors but also for labor even to the distant Keral.

The study of in- country migration is the sad saga with which Maithili community is shivering with a socio- cultural and linguistic hybridization so much so that the change it has in past half century is much more comparable to in past 5000 years of the history known since the days of RajarshiJanak in Mithila.

In the history of last 5000 yearss surely Mithila had lost its soverginty in 1326 to Muslim annexation and even statehood in 1774 under the British paramountacy but economic decline had no parallel and today Mithila is the least developed part of India which need resurrection by all possible ways which will need a thorough water resource management as well as human resource management and it’s destiny can be changed by the agro-industrialization as well as revamping educational services.

Unless indices of Mithila are improved India will not be developed country.