Headlines
Chhattisgarh exodus:100,000 villagers migrate in three years
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By Ajit Kumar SharmaRaipur, April 5
There's a deathly silence in
many villages across Chhattisgarh these days. The houses are locked as
entire families have left for greener pastures for want of work, in
spite of the central government's rural job scheme in place and
availability of rice at Re.1 a kilo.
"We (55 labourers and 15
children) are leaving for Faizabad (in Uttar Pradesh) where we will make
bricks. The payment is Rs.400 for 1,000 bricks. Two labourers can make
1,000 bricks in a day. We will come back after working for six months
there," Kans Nishad of Baloda Bazar said at the Raipur railway station.
According
to government statistics, 95,324 people have left their homes in the
last three years. A substantial part of the migration - 29,190 - took
place from Janjgir-Champa district. Inquiries by the IANS correspondent
revealed that people living below the poverty line are not getting jobs
in spite of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Scheme (MNREGS)
being operational in the state.
Chhattisgarh Revenue Minister Prem
Prakash Pandey, in a written reply to Leader of Opposition T.S.
Singhdeo's question in the state assembly, accepted the migration issue -
but didn't have any solutions.
Apart from Janjgir-Champa, there
are also reports of migration from Bemetara, Balod, Kawardha, Gariaband,
Durg and Dhamtari districts, among others.
The migrants have
moved to Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir and Madhya Pradesh
where they are engaged in the construction of houses, road and canals or
they work in brick kilns.
Official records in Maoist-hit Sukma
district show that no villager has been given employment under MNREGS in
the last nine months. This apart, government officials working on the
scheme say they have not been paid for the past 6 to 10 months.
(Despite repeated attempts by IANS, officials declined to comment on the state of affairs.)
Ironically,
neighbouring Dantewada district, which is also Maoist-affected, was
given a national award earlier this year for its good performance under
the scheme.
The statistics of the Baloda district are even more stark with some 500 labourers migrating every month.
Besides,
the statistics show that 20,000 labourers have moved out of the Lavan
area, leaving hundreds of houses in around 15 villages locked.
"The
labourers have not derived any benefit in spite of the state's small
size. That's why a large number of labourers are migrating to other
states," Rajesh Mishra, general-secretary of NGO Gram Vikas Samiti, told
IANS.
"The statistics of economic development are lying in cold
storage, far away from the ground reality. That's why the people of
Chhattisgarh are moving to far-off places. A major question that arises
here is till when would this continue," Mishra said.
(Ajit Kumar Sharma can be contacted at [email protected])