Almost every migrant story in India begins with a money order. It travels from the city with a little, scribbled message, to the distant village in search of a waiting family. Perhaps nothing maps the migrant worker’s story better than the money order.

Every day, on an average, 1,000 money orders leave Noida, near Delhi — around 50 per cent of them for addresses in Bihar.

West Bengal is a distant second with 15 per cent followed by Chhattisgarh and eastern Uttar Pradesh with 10 per cent each.

Noida’s post offices send out over Rs 36 crore a year through nearly 3.65 lakh money orders.

Officials say the numbers and the amount have shot up four times in as many years, though specific data is not readily available. “The amount sent out every year was not even one-fourth of this till a few years back. It has grown rapidly in the past four years,” says postal official R K Dubey.

The rise in money orders shows the growth of Noida and its migrant population. Officials say migrant workers send 95 per cent of these.

Santosh Pradhan, who runs a paan shop in Sector 33, has been sending Rs 5,000 home every month. Noida has been good to Pradhan who has to look after a family of eight.

“For a saada-paan I would get just a rupee in Bihar, whereas I sell it for Rs 4 here. The profit is more and that’s the reason my whole family is doing well now,” he says. Pradhan claims he has been able to repay all debts in his village and is now planning to buy some land there.

... contd.