IT migration

To categorize today’s population on the basis of the community is a lot tougher than on the basis of profession. It looks to be a positive sign for the future, making us believe that our future generations will not be subject to the caste communalism that we may have gone through. But is it really the merit which is deciding our professions? Is it our interests and aspirations which are driving us to earn a respectable income? Are we not compelled to fit into the yarn of the society’s demand-supply chain? Are we resettling to distant lands because we are keen on moving on with life to chase our ambitions? Or there is a dark compulsion laden with greed, coercing us to leave our comfort zones just in order to earn a better piece of bread.

The scale of migration in India is enormously large as much in volume as in frequency, a large chunk of this pie is borne by IT industry. This all has led to new tribes, tribes of educated but still ruthless people, roaming wilderly in towns they are sent to, making callous extravagances.   These tribes are the people who lead to localized inflation, owing to their so called lifestyle and selected cost of living. The question is why do they do so? And the answer “No one will be able to digest more than they can”. High than average salaries at the start of the career and the out-of-college attitude never realize what price should they pay for the comforts they need and the ease of access to them.

It goes ok as long as it does not affect any outsiders adversely. But that is not the case. People who are affected more than these IT migrants are the native people, most of whom are earning for a decade and their salaries are the same as IT starters. To make matters worse they have their families to support. Take an example, four friends working in an IT company can pay rent of a house-on-rent @10000/- sharing between themselves 2500/- from each one’s salary. But can a married person with house wife and 2 kids take that house? I don’t think so. This high scope of earning has led to price rise amounting to excess of more than 100% in IT cities for some sectors annually. This frustration can be felt in the locals who are helpless, who don’t know whether to praise IT for the jobs it creates or to thwart it for the disparity it wreaks.

The other day we went to a confectioner in Mysore (my current location) for having some jalebi. I asked the vendor for the price of a Kg of it, 150 he replied. I told him that I get it at 70 a Kg in Punjab (my homestate), why are they selling so costly here. He said that it takes a lot to bring it from there. Intrigued, I replied that “you don’t bring it from north, you make it here only and get the material from here”. “If you are getting it in 70 in Punjab then why have you come to Mysore, you should have stayed back at your house then?” came the reply. And he couldn’t have been truer. It is the inflation created by us only and if we are complaining about it then what should that local person do whose children also want to eat jalebis whose housewife also wants to cook themselves different vegetable everyday, who himself desires to earn his family a good house after decades of hard work.