Karnataka - Gulbarga   

Migrants worry political parties

Livelihood: Adivappa Sikhre and his family outside the railway station in Gulbarga on Monday.

Gulbarga: The large-scale migration of landless agricultural labourers during summer every year in search of employment to bigger cities including Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and other cities has become a source of worry tp political parties on how to get them back on the day of polling.

The Hyderabad Karnataka region which has a large concentration of landless agricultural labourers, is known for migration of landless agricultural labourers to other cities in search of employment, particularly during summer, a lean season with the end of the Rabi season.

Incidentally, the Lok Sabha will be held during summer. According to an official estimate, over 20,000 voters have migrated to other cities in search of employment from Gulbarga constituency. Majority of these migrant labourers belong to the Banjara community and a number of them are Dalits from Chitapur, Gulbarga, Sedam, Afsalpur Assembly segments. However, migration from urban pockets and Assembly segments like Jewargi, which has irrigation network, is negligibly low.

Adivappa Sikhre, an agriculture labourer from Hogadambali village in Deodurga taluk in Raichur district, along with his wife Huligamma and two children were waiting for their train to Mumbai. He said every year during summer their family migrates to Mumbai for employment.

“We get good wages in Mumbai and regular employment,” he said.

District Congress Committee president Allamprabhu Patil admitted that migration of labourers was a major problem and “we are in touch with their relatives to send messages to those who had gone to Mumbai, Bangalore and other big cities in search of employment to return on the polling day”.

In the last Assembly elections held in 2008, political parties had sent their agents to Mumbai, Bangalore and other cities to bring back these voters at the time of voting.

District secretary of BJP and president of the District Banjara Association Namdev Rathod admitted that this was a major worry for the party since a large number of migrant labourers belong to the Banjara community. BJP expected that this community will support its candidate Revu Naik Belamagi who belongs to the Banjara community.

“Nearly 30,000 voters from the Gulbarga Lok Sabha constituency have migrated to other cities and efforts are on to bring them back,” he said.

Migrating families are a common sight in railway station and bus depots. They are seen with their luggage and gunny bags containing foodgrains.

In bigger cities, these agriculture labourers end up as construction workers or hamalis.

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