The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Drought forces villagers to migrate

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Mar 31, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Drought forces villagers to migrate

By Our Staff Reporter

NARAYANKHED, MARCH 30. With migration becoming an annual feature, the border villages of Medak district in Manoor, Narayankhed, Kalher and Kangti mandals resemble ghost towns, particularly during summer.

The preferred destinations of villagers are Bidar in Karnataka and Nanded and Ahmadnagar in Maharashtra. They work in dhabas, rice and flour mills, hotels and in the construction sector. After earning a some money, they return in June. In the absence of agricultural or allied activity many of these migrant labourers remain idle for the remaining six months.

Dry land

A majority of agriculture labourers are from Hangargakke, Hangargabbe, Chaptake, Ujalampad and Nagapur of Narayanked mandal, Erakapally thanda of Manoor, Turkodgaon, Nagoor-B, Irakpally of Kangti, with huge tracts of land unfit for cultivation.

Sayavva, whose two sons are away in Karnataka, told The Hindu that a few years ago her family was able to find work in maize and Jowar fields. "With years of drought the fields have become barren. Now there is no work here."

The Mandal Revenue Officer of Kalher, Ramashankar Sharma, says, in the absence of irrigation, these lands have never been fit for cultivation and migration is the only way out to earn livelihood.

The main casualty of migration is the education of children. A majority of the labourers take their families along, leaving the elderly to take care of the property.

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