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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Change in Jangalmahal: Suddenly, new jobs and social mobility -Sarah Hafeez

Change in Jangalmahal: Suddenly, new jobs and social mobility -Sarah Hafeez

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published Published on Apr 10, 2016   modified Modified on Apr 10, 2016
-The Indian Express

Jhargram: Even as people return, a steady out-migration, especially of agricultural labour and farmers, continues from the region that has seen poor rain for years now.

Taralata Mahato (25) draws awed whispers from women of Jhambeda village in West Midnapore’s Jhargram block as the only one from the village in the police.

Taralata lives in a pucca two-storey house with whitewashed walls and a huge cowshed — a palatial home by Jhambeda’s standards. Her family is among the more monied in the village. “My father and brother are in West Bengal police services, so it was not difficult for me to get into the police when the all-women police station opened in 2012,” she says.

Soon after Maoist leader Kishenji was killed by police in 2011, West Bengal government created 33,000 police jobs — including 380 posts of women constables — in the adivasi-dominated Jangalmahal districts of West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia. Three years on, an expanding service class — a new rural middle class — is visible in the socio-economic profile of Jangalmahal. But the benefits have been cornered almost entirely by monied and socially powerful families like Taralata’s.

“You get into these services only after paying local TMC bosses and police bribes ranging from thousands to lakhs, depending on the posts,” alleged a 28-year-old farmer who gave his name as Deb. “You should apply only if you have that kind of money,” he said.

The new opportunities have seen many youths who had migrated to neighbouring states in search of jobs return. “I was a driver in Bhubaneswar since 2009. Three years ago, a friend from Nedabohara, my village, told me that posts in civic police were open. I returned, applied and got a job,” said Manoj Mahato (30), a civic police volunteer in Jhargram. He said he makes Rs 200 a day.

Even as people return, a steady out-migration, especially of agricultural labour and farmers, continues from the region that has seen poor rain for years now.

“Nearly 30 per cent of Jangalmahal’s population has moved out to neighbouring districts for work. The Centre is not releasing funds for the 100-day work scheme because the state has been misusing it,” alleged Amiya Patra, CPM candidate from Taldangra.

TMC leader Shivendra Bijoy Malla Deb, however, disagreed: “Jobs in factories, contractual labour engaged in development work have all gone to villagers and daily wages have also shot up since the Left Front days.”

This series is being written under the aegis of the Inclusive Media-UNDP Fellowship, 2015


The Indian Express, 10 April, 2016, http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/change-in-jangalmahal-suddenly-new-jobs-and-social-mobility/


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