Poll campaigns mum on migration in Marathwada

AURANGABAD

: Amol Dongare, a 25-year old who hails from the Kotarban village in Wadwani taluka of Beed district, left his village and 10-acre farm land to settle in Pune a few years back.


Amol, who now stays in a two-room rented house in Sangavi with his wife and daughter, works as a cab driver to earn his livelihood.

"Agriculture could have been the best means of livelihood, but I bowed out as the vagaries of the monsoon made cultivation so very difficult. My village has become so gloomy with long spells of drought and repeated water crises," he said.

The distress people face, however, has gone missing from the

campaign for polls

this time.

A group of hamlets in Mukhed taluka of Nanded district in the Marathwada region of the state, about 200 km from the Beed district headquarters, also wears a deserted look. Nearly half the villagers have left their homes in hope of finding work elsewhere.

Vikas Pawar, who runs a grocery shop at Aabadi Nagar Tanda, says drought has forced many people to migrate. "Villagers have shifted to Mumbai or Pune or other towns in the southern districts. The well supplying drinking water to our hamlet has gone dry and we have to wait for tankers to get potable water. There is no work here either, so what is one to do but move elsewhere?"

Over the last decade, Marathwada has witnessed large-scale migration. Only a fifth of the total cultivable land in the region is irrigated, making farmers heavily dependent on the rains.

And the monsoon has been below par. The region receives 683 mm average rain, 30 per cent less than the national average.

Many young people seeking to earn a livelihood have thus moved to cities or towns. While Beed district and a few neighbouring talukas have already earned the dubious distinction of supplying labour to cut sugar cane to supply mills in western Maharashtra, the region, as a whole, has been producing a workforce for unskilled and semi-skilled jobs in construction sector.

Social activist Ashok Tangade from Beed said migration from Marathwada is caused by a mix of distress situations that force movement and voluntary shifting in hope of a better livelihood and living conditions in the urban centres.

"Marathwada alone could have around 8 lakh sugar cane harvesters, which I believe is a primitive kind of bonded labour," said Tangade. (A recent news report disclosed how many women undergo hysterectomy because contractors engaging them do not want to give them time off during their periods; also, women in such a workforce are prone to exploitation sexually). "These labourers are not protected by any social security net. Even if they live in pathetic conditions in the metros and cities, they realise that it is better than returning to their parched land," Tangade added.

Better access to water and employment opportunities, besides the lure of the metropolitan culture have caused many young people to adopt Aurangabad or Pune city as home.

"The families of these youngsters also move to the metros sooner or later as nobody is left to take care of the elderly back home," said Ramesh Chille, a writer and agriculture expert from Latur.

State Congress delegate Jitendra Dehade said Marathwada has to explore tourism for better employment generation in the region.

"It is home to World Heritage Sites of Ajanta and Ellora. Aurangabad and the region have three Jyotirlingas and and famous pilgrim towns such as Mahur (Nanded) and Tuljapur (Osmanabad). Like Malaysia and Singapore, we should tap into the tourism potential of these sites." he said.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Shirish Boralkar said the proposed water grid project for Marathwada and industrial development through DMIC, Samrudhdhi Expressway and Dry-Port would contain migration from Marathwada in days to come. "Banking on these ambitious projects, the region can even witness reverse migration," Boralkar said.