Every time I log into Facebook, I see someone has moved to Bangalore or Gurgaon from Kolkata. People living in West Bengal or people from West Bengal are aware of this internal migration. Some say this exodus has started in the late 80s. I don’t know when it has begun because I don’t have the data. But the reality is that the youth of Bengal loves to leave West Bengal. Few will argue that migration is a natural process. People migrate from one place to another. But I would disagree with them when it’s come to West Bengal. The youth of Bengal is more interested in getting a job in cities like Bangalore, Pune, or Gurgaon. Kolkata doesn’t fall as their first preference. I met two college graduates who were preparing to do masters in Delhi. When I started talking with them about their choice of subjects, they started talking to me in Hindi. I asked one of them the reason for choosing Hindi as the communication language. They said today’s Bengali youth prefers to speak in Hindi as good jobs are outside the West Bengal where they have to communicate in Hindi mostly. The youth of West Bengal leave for IT jobs in cities like Bangalore and Pune, and workers from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh come in large numbers to West Bengal to fill in the cheap jobs available in West Bengal.
I’m not going to rant about why so many people leave after graduation. The reason is simple- because good things are outside Bengal. The reason I am writing this is that I want to address the intelligentsia of Bengal. I like to tell them that give the youth a reason to stay in Bengal. The current intelligentsia is failing to do that. The youth from Bengal needs to find their reasons to leave their NOIDA or Bangalore apartment. The generation I belong to is restless and always seeking something new. So when they see a data scientist job in Gurgaon, they adjust and start speaking in Hindi. There are many Bengalis outside Bengal who are waiting for the right time to return to Kolkata. The intelligentsia of Bengal should give them a purpose to return to Kolkata.
(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons)
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