As Bihar votes on 121 seats on Thursday, 6 November in the first phase of Assembly elections, all political parties in the fray are seen raking up the issue of outward migration from the state, primarily due to unemployment.
During an election rally in Sitamarhi last week, Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor said that if people voted for his party, they would “never have to go outside Bihar” for jobs. “The youth of Bihar want employment in Bihar itself,” Kishor asserted.
Last month, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav lambasted the Nitish Kumar-led NDA government in Bihar for not addressing the alarming rate of migration from the state.
“Despite the Nitish-Modi government being in power for 20 years in Bihar and 11 years at the Centre, the NDA government has made Bihar the main centre of unemployment, migration and poverty,” Tejashwi reportedly said.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi linked “the real beginning of mass migration” to two-and-a-half decades back, when the “education system was devastated” and “millions of children were forced to leave Bihar. BJP national president JP Nadda too recently attacked RDJ supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav over migration. He said, “Lalu Yadav used to say that our people from Bihar go out wearing a towel and return wearing a tie and suit. He viewed migration this way."
It is clear that out-migration remains one of Bihar’s most pressing challenges, as it also underscores the state’s deep economic distress. But is there a solution to this challenge?