Bihar polls: Meet the migrant Makhana workers who can't vote in the last phase

As the last phase of polling in the all-important Bihar elections begins today November 5, Dhaneshwar Sahni would enviously remember his village-mates from Darbhanga while indulging in drudgery at Purnea, around 250 kilometers from his district.

Dhaneshwar is one of the thousands of laborers who seasonally migrate to various districts of Seemanchal, notably Purnea, Kishanganj, Araria and Saharsa, to work as labourer processing the makhana, a Unique Selling Product of Bihar. Some have landed here at a processing centre in Purnea town

“It is an important election,” says the bear-bodied Dhaneshwar as he segregates the good seed from the contaminated one. “I wish I could make my vote count.”

Dhaneshwar says if he visits Darbhanga on the voting day, he would miss out on the daily wage plus lag behind others. His wife, Buchhidevi, says they cannot afford it. “It needs five people to process a quintal of Makhana,” she says while roasting it in her small makeshift hut made of bamboo. “We get Rs 2000 after our family of five processes a quintal. Plus, we have to pay rent of Rs 9000 for the season and the electricity bill for this hut. In the five-six months we are here, we make around Rs 60,000.”

Makhana, or fox nut, though found in Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast, is primarily cultivated in Bihar, especially Seemanchal. The plant, normally farmed in ponds and water bodies, produces starchy, white seeds, which are edible. The seeds can be eaten raw or fried. Makhana kheer is a specialty in Bihar. A seasonal plant, rich in phosphorus, potassium, iron, calcium, magnesium and amino acids, is cultivated from July to January, thereby, triggering a mass migration from several parts of Bihar to the state’s most backward region of Seemanchal every year. Water in Seemanchal has a high concentration of iron, which is conducive to makhana farming.

Around 1200 families toil day in day out at this centre in Purnea. There are close to 10000 such centres across Seemanchal. Of the lakhs of labourers, more than half are migrants while others are locals. “We start our day at 4 am,” says Dhaneshwar. “And not before midnight do we call it a day.”

Makhana is promoted by the government because of the flood-prone nature of the region. With miles of crops remaining submerged under water after floods, farmers turned to makhana to cover some of the vastly lost ground. The production of makhana, as of 2014, had been estimated at 25,000 tonnes per annum of which around 10,000 tonnes is processed. Much of it is lost because of the lack infrastructural availabilities during processing. The market size of its trade is around Rs 300 crore a year. India exports makhana to West Asia, the United States and some European countries.

A glimpse of what makes this industry possible, which directly or indirectly contributes 40% of the state’s GDP, can be witnessed here in Purnea.

Immediately upon entering the hub, one sees the Makhana seeds stockpiled in a substantial water body. Two workers fill up sacks with some of the seeds that need to be cleaned. A few meters ahead, a man is indulged in cleaning the stock of seeds with his feet, much like how grapes are crushed before wine-making. “The cover is peeled off when one tries to crush it with feet,” he says. “Once the peel comes off, it is washed off again, then assorted by size before being roasted.”

It is a labour intensive and intricate process. Though highly cumbersome, it has enabled farmers to sustain poverty. However, it is not everyone’s cup of tea. Only the Sahni’s belonging to the Nishad, or Mallah, community can do it. Thereby, all the workers who migrate to Seemanchal are Sahnis. “The Mallahs are traditionally fishermen,” says Sanjay Kumar, a local journalist who has covered the migration for years. “And since makhana is farmed in water bodies, they are well versed with the techniques. Therefore, only they can carry out the intricate process with precision.”

The Mallahs belong to the EBCs, who have traditionally been BJP voters. However, it is not clear if the NDA would suffer because recently Nitish Kumar elevated the community from the EBC to SC/ST category. Some called it opportunism while others called it a masterstroke. Nishad and Nonia, the two castes promoted to the SC/ST category form a majority of the EBC vote share, which constitutes 30% of Bihar’s population.

Dhaneshwar, though, says he would have voted BJP in spite of Nitish Kumar’s last-minute promotion of the Sahnis. “It is a clear-cut election bait,” he says. “We have had 15 years of Lalu-led RJD and 10 of Nitish. We have gone nowhere in the last 25 years.”

Dhanehwar’s friend Pradeep Sahni says he is not so sure. “Nitish has done well in the last 10 years,” he opines. “I think he probably deserves a chance to continue the good work.”

In between work, the discussions on politics and the political game-changers keep the workers busy. A closer look and one realises that Modi enjoys greater popularity than Nitish and Lalu among the Mallahs.

Sanjay Kumar says the voting of Mallahs depends on the local candidate more than the political party. “If the candidate belongs to their caste, they vote him,” he says. “If there are multiple candidates of their caste, then the party comes in. It has most likely been BJP until now. But Nitish’s move to elevate them to the SC/ST category must have influenced them a bit.”

The centre at Purnea is bustling with makhana activities with makeshift huts of 10x10 sitting on both sides of the gaze. The road in between is occupied by makhana seeds laid out to dry on a sheet, leaving very little space to walk. As the exhausted Buchhidevi, severely tanned, wearing a worn-out sari, roasts the makhana in a wooden pot, her five-year-old grandson, who has not been able to attend school since July and would not be doing so until January, endures the scorching heat. He is sweating heavily and looks tanned because of the work atmosphere. Kids in other huts too unwittingly meander around the gas while playing games. “There is nobody to look after him back in Darbhanga,” says Buchhidevi. “And we cannot afford to admit him here for half the year. His studies suffer, but we had to take him along.”       

The workers have migrated with their families. Dhaneshwar’s son and his wife work on the crushing process while he sorts the seeds and Buchhidevi roasts them. As Dhaneshwar and his colleagues wake up on the polling day, a routinely saturating day at the makhana hub in Purnea would be looming ahead. But the work that day would rankle a little more.