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What is the future of work and livelihoods for the people of Jangalmahal? What is the government’s plan to bring back the large number of youth from the region who, unable to find jobs in their villages and towns, driven by economic desperation, are migrating to different parts of the country in search of work?

Instead of announcing concrete initiatives on these pressing issues, Suvendu Adhikari, Chief Minister of West Bengal, put the spotlight on preventing religious conversions in Jangalmahal.

Speaking to journalists on August 11 at a review meeting on the work of the Paschimanchal Unnayan Parshad held at the Bankura Zilla Parishad Auditorium, the chief minister said that steps would be taken to prevent religious conversions in the Paschimanchal region.

The chief minister did not say how many people in the area had actually changed their religion in recent times.

“UCC will be introduced within a few days,” he said. One state, one chief minister, one law – Uniform Civil Code,” he said. “We are all equal”, Adhikari added.

According to him, once the Uniform Civil Code is implemented, only two tasks will be left for the government to complete.

What are those tasks? First, after the proposed code, the government will pass a stringent law to prevent religious conversions. Alongside it, he said, a new law will be introduced to regulate the buying and selling of land.

At a time when unemployment and migration continue to push young people from Jangalmahal out of their homes in search of work and a living, why has preventing religious conversation emerged as a priority? Is not creating jobs and ensuring sustainable employment in the region important for the government?

On August 12, the chief minister said in Bankura that the previous government had allocated Rs 20 crore from the Paschimanchal Unnayan Parshad, of which only Rs 6 crore had been spent. “After we came to power, in the eight-month budget, we have allocated Rs 1,600 crore for the development of Paschimanchal,” he said.

West Bengal Chief Minister Subhendu Adikari gives a new spin to development at a meeting held in the the Bankura Zilla Parishad Auditorium on August 11. Photo: Madhu Sudan Chatterjee

Paschimanchal Unnayan Parsad at a glance

The Paschimanchal Parshad was officially established on May 18, 2000, by a resolution of the Development and Planning Department of the West Bengal government. It later came under the administrative control of a new Department of Paschimanchal Unnayan Affairs, created in July 2006 when the seventh Left Front government was in power in the state.

It was established to ensure overall social and economic development of people living in the forested and relatively backward areas of southern West Bengal, which include Bankura, Purulia, Jhargram, Paschim Medinipur, Paschim Bardhaman and Birbhum.

“The region is home to several tribal communities, along with the Kurmis and people belonging to Scheduled Caste communities. The development of these historically disadvantaged communities was accorded special attention under the initiative,” said Susanta Ghose, former Minister of Paschimanchal Unnayan Parshad during the Left Front government.

“The........

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