Crossover Saga

It was only recently that chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee acknowledged that ‘‘infiltration’’ across the border had become a drain on the state’s resources.

But moving away from politics and into pure statistics, one can see that the growth rate for several border districts continues to be high (see chart). While the state’s population growth rate during 1991-2001 was about 17.77 per cent, in some of the border districts it stood at 22 per cent.

The latest population data for the state on the basis of religion shows the rate of growth for Muslims in the state during 1991-2001 as 25.92 per cent against 14.22 per cent for Hindus.

Much of what the Census’s implications for West Bengal’s border districts are can only be conjecture since it does not record the extent of migration from Bangladesh. It merely records the possibility of ‘‘considerable immigration’’ during the past 30 years.

‘‘Infiltration in the border districts is one factor that is always kept under wraps in West Bengal,’’ says Amalendu De, a former professor of modern history at Jadavpur University who has done extensive studies on the state’s population pattern. ‘‘According to published data in Bangladesh, at least 500 families head for West Bengal every day,’’ says De.

Subhendu Dasgupta, professor at the Center for South East Asian Studies at Calcutta University, agrees but refuses to attribute the growth rate to migration alone. Lack of education and health care facilities also contribute to it.

He also points out that Bangladesh has actually been successful in controlling its population, registering a growth rate that is as low as 1.8 per cent per annum.

The next Census will, perhaps, make the picture clearer.