|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
WHEN THERE IS NO RAIN
Girija Sharan from Khaddi, Chippu Aherwar from Katora Kala, Ashok Kumar from Jhansi. What’s common between them? No rains. Crops fail. Delhi. And sadness. Distress migration is never a happy story. Probably no-one is more affected by their migration than their womenfolk left behind at home. Male migration is an important factor increasing the work burden of rural women. Migration of agricultural labour from Bihar and eastern UP to Punjab now takes place on an extensive scale. Where farmers from the drylands of India were growing coarse grains earlier, they are now all, almost to a man, shifting to water-intensive crops like rice and wheat. Rice farmers of the drylands today are no better off than the cotton farmers of Andhra Pradesh. Death by pesticide Vs Death by no water.
Raleggan Siddhi in Maharastra used to be one such parched village, with most men out in search of jobs, and the ones left at home alcoholic with all fields degraded and fallow. Once rainwater harvesting started, and water stayed back, along with the greening of fields, the men also returned. Today, Raleggan Siddhi is one of the richest villages in India. People in Palamau (Bihar) call drought relief 'teesri fasl' - the third crop. It reaps a rich harvest for some people. - Everybody Loves a Good Drought, P. Sainath Politicians, or at least most of them, love droughts. If it does not bring them money, it gives them a chance to get back at each other. The agriculture minister, for example, now gets an excuse. Wrong predictions by the meteorological department. Never mind that the government through its various departments and ministries and corporations have actually been encouraging water-intensive crops across India. With rains still failing, states have asked for a Rs 17,000 crore relief package from the National Calamity Contigency Fund (NCCF). In Rajasthan, for instance, if all the 21 lakh Below Poverty Line (BPL) families are to be provided jobs under the Food for Work programme for an year, Rs 4577 crores would be required in the form of cash. Wheat through the public distribution scheme would cost Rs 1198 crore. And if a BJP ruled state gets Rs x, can a Congress ruled state be happy with Rs y? Other issues exist too. Last year, when people of Lava-ka-baas village in Alwar District of Rajasthan finally got water in the village, it was all thanks to their own efforts. They had all pitched in money and labour to build a traditional water harvesting structure, johad, which not only revived the dead and dry river through their village but also their dry wells. The irrigation minister was not amused. "Every drop of water belongs to the government", she said. The villagers won this battle but there are plenty more going on.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
"If oral
tradition is any indication (folk songs, for instance), the emotional price the women pay
for their husbands' emigration is very high," says Andrea Menefee Singh of the
International Labour Organisation (ILO). Divorce rates are high among the migrating
families. Surveys in Bombay slums have shown that men who have migrated without their
families have a high incidence of sexually transmitted diseases, which probably means that
they are transmitting these diseases to their wives on home visits.