On July 16, 2014, one Shyama Chandra Rao and his wife were arrested on the charge that they had sold their one-month-old baby for `5,000. They admitted to have sold two of their children earlier. Family, relatives and neighbours were aware of all these sales. These events happened in Bhubaneswar, the State’s capital and a few kilometers from the citadel of power, the State Secretariat. Three sales would mean that for the last five years this had been happening and in the complete knowledge of the locality. How distant is our Government from the poorIJ Geographically, the distance was barely a couple of kilometers, but in reality, the Government remains light years away from the people.
In more remote areas, the Government is as distant as the stars in the sky. One of the State Cabinet Ministers admitted that this is a shame for the incumbent Government. But such self-abnegation does not reduce the gravity of the situation. Such is the level of deprivation among the poor, despite tall claims and expensive propaganda by the ruling elite, that parents are selling their children not merely in remote rural areas but even in the heart of the capital city.
In December 2013, henchmen of a labour contractor chopped off right hands of two workers Nilambara DhangadaMajhi, 35, and Pialu Dhangada Majhu, 30, both Adivasis, in Balangir district. Recently, the Supreme Court passed some scathing remarks at the goings-on in the State and wondered if the State is in dark ages. Migration of labour for survival or higher wages, particularly during non-agricultural seasons, from the KBK region is widely known, and yet the State Government has failed either to create jobs to prevent migration or stop criminal gangs from turning this economic event into an opportunity to sustain a new form of barbaric slavery and illicit trade of humans as cattle. The savagery in this instance is only an indication of perpetual violence, coercion and unfavourable terms of contract under which a new form of bonded labour perpetuates itself right under the nose of the Government.
In the last few months, police have unearthed illegal kidney transplant rackets. But the suspicion, what has been discovered, is just the proverbial tip of the iceberg. There are many willing people in Odisha to trade organs for making some money. Though, this is a problem that the State shares with many other parts of the country.
last week, a minor girl was rescued from Goa. Again smuggling of girls or flesh trade is not unique to Odisha and is a global problem. But basically, what is unique to Odisha is a convergence of the worst manifestation of poverty and malgovernance; children being sold, bonded labour and forced migration under coercive contractual terms, sale of human organs, smuggling of young girls. It should not be forgotten that Odisha has the highest level of hunger and malnutrition in India comparable to sub-Saharan Africa. Put all these together, and the picture that emerges is utterly depressing.
The national media and elite are hardly interested in any of these, and in Odisha if you raise these issues, you can be criticised for painting the State in bad light by ignoring the “spectacular development” under the leadership of Naveen Patnaik. After all, he recently received endorsement of his 14 years of rule. In fact, my understanding is Naveenbabu’s success is an indication of extreme poverty and backwardness. People do understand the malgovernance, lack of industrialisation and job opportunities. But the problem is in a State with such high level of poverty, depravity and hunger, Naveen Patnaik has found magic potions like the one-rupee rice scheme. If people are willing to sell their children to live another day or sell themselves in the bonded labour market, they will certainly be beholden to a leader they perceive to have given them 25 kg of rice! They are concerned about their immediate survival and Naveenbabu has craftily used money of the Central Government to take advantage of people’s desperation, hunger and depravity.
The poverty-line debate may produce different statistics regarding the number of poor, who need immediate attention. But as the Raghurajan Committee report found, Odisha continues to be the country’s most backward State. Naveenbabu has remained in power for 15 years and has been claiming that poverty is getting eradicated rapidly except that his success and the continuance of poverty are closely interrelated. The problem in the political success of an inefficient administrator is that poverty becomes a necessity for success! Once people are out of their desperate conditions, they will seek employment, better infrastructure, improvement in agriculture and then they will find that the present Government has cheated them all along.
I am surprised how muted is the response of the national media to the story of the Rao couple selling three of their children right in the State capital! The national media wants to cover big news as human depravity of the sub-Saharan standard lacks high TRP in the Indian middleclass homes. The national media is happier projecting the smiling face of Naveenbabu with his English sound bite, much better visual and sound bites than the agony of the Rao’s admitting to selling children or the cry of the two workers whose hands were chopped off!
The state of affairs in Odisha is a result of leadership failure across professions and political divide. Hardly are our intellectuals willing to voice dissent or hardly do I find Odish’a economists publishing research papers exposing the Government. When I meet political leaders, retired professors, retired civil servants, seasoned mediapersons, I find a clear recognition of the debilitating effects of the BJD rule. But most are cynical and express helplessness.
“What do we do if people are voting for Naveen in such large numbers,” asked one. Of course, there are a few, though really very few sensible people, who are still willing to endorse the regime and mostly for securing personal favours from the regime. Despite his political success, Naveenbabu is left without many supporters among the thinking class though they remain silent against the torrent of majority votes. One wonders how does the State come out of this level of pessimism and cynical acceptance of misrule if so many opt to just keep mum. One senior journalist compared the BJD rule to the last years of the left regime in West Bengal. Fortunately for Bengal, a strong political opposition emerged giving people an alternative. Bengal’s intellectuals, many of them left-leaning, supported the change despite their general support for the left ideology.
They realised and accepted that political stability had made the State a moribund society and people had lost their creative energy to go forward. Odisha also needs a strong political alternative and a more vocal intellectual class if the State is to be taken out of the quagmire of malgovernance and stagnation.
(The writer is a senior Congress leader. For details Visit to niranjanpatnaik.blogspot.com)