Mystery of a 20-room house in Kandhamal
₹27 lakh already. Switchboards, plywood, windows, glass, and other materials needed to complete the construction have been purchased. “I always wanted a big house.
I want my children, as well as my nieces and nephews, to experience living in a large house. Even if we stop migrating, we will have this until the end of time," Pradhan says. “There’s no point in having money if it’s useless to you.
What’s the point of keeping money in the bank?" Pradhan asks. Well, the house will also give him bragging rights—he can tell villagers his story, his transformation from a humble dhoti-clad farmer living in a hut to the owner of a spacious property. This transformation underlines the impact of domestic remittances—every rupee used in the purchase of materials and construction in Pradhan’s case has come from remittances.
India’s labour market has ‘supplier’ states, or states with abundant supply of labour. For instance, Odisha, Bihar, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh. Labour from these states often migrate to states where there is demand for jobs, like in south India.
The supplier states can’t absorb their labour because there aren’t enough businesses. Industrial activity in Kandhamal, for instance, is modest and generates very few jobs. Farm employment is increasingly considered as unsustainable because it is seasonal and pays very little.
Non-farm labour is scarce, unless it is obtained through public job-generating programmes. Many skilled and unskilled people make their way to Kerala. The state’s plantation workers are now primarily tribal couples from Jharkhand and Chattisgarh.
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