Bundelkhand: the curse of migration

Migration is a peculiar problem in the backward Bundelkhand region. People in large number go to metro cities for livelihood through the year.Thousands of unemployed workers returned to their homeland after the outbreak of the Corona Pandemic.  To make them self-sufficient by giving them employment, the  state government expanded the scope of programmes like MNREGS to include the migrants, and also started other employment generating schemes, but it could not stop the migration of Bundelis. And now a days again they are rushing towards big cities. Great rush could be seen at railway and bus stations. 

No large industrial units in Bundelkhand.

In Bundelkhand, most of the labourers are running daily bread in farming and sporadic business. In such a situation youth prefer to go to the metropolitan cities. But during lockdown, which was imposed because of the pandemic, they lost their livelihood and were forced to return to their home because they had no money left with them. Though the state government started some employment generating schemes, due to reported negligence of the local administration, these could not become profitable for the migrants due to the negligence of the authorities. Most of the labourers have migrated again as the lockdown was eased.

Bundelkhand, which was once famous in the country due to it's abundant water structures, has now being recognised as a drought stricken area. This is because the water sources here slowly shrinked, get buried and took the form of settlement. Bundelkhand is the area where thousands of water bodies were built during the reign of the Bundela and Chandela dynasties which resulted in abundance of water so that the area will never have to go through a period of water crisis. But as the time passed, the situation changed to where the water structures kept shrinking. As a result, this area started getting engulfed in drought and water crisis.

Governments and social organizations have spent crores of rupees to solve the water crisis in this area, but the situation has not changed. There was a time where improvement of water structures to make new water creations was stressed upon, but it did not benefit anyone else but the contractors who were alloted these lands for reviving or constructing water structures. Bundelkhand is the area which consists of seven districts of Uttar Pradesh and equal number of  districts of Madhya Pradesh.For the past several years, all political parties have been agitating from time to time to highlight this issue and to lead the Bundelkhand on the path of progress. But it ends with every election, which is very distasteful to the locals. 

According to the reports of Indian Agriculture Research Institute (the Analysis of Factors Triggering Distress Migration in Bundelkhand Region of Central India): "The region contributes to the highest rural to urban migration in central India (Census, 2011). The socio-economic characteristics of migrants belong to small, marginal farming households and agricultural households. The study has also attempted categorisation of prominent factors influencing their migration decision. "The analysis of socio-economic profiles of migrants showed that majority of the migrants were between the age group of 20-39 (70.1%) and the education level was secondary (54.8%). The population of female migrants was comparatively low, as many of them followed their family to the migrating place after marriage. Majority of the migrants (81.73%) were engaged in unskilled manual labour activities like construction works in destination cities. The various factors identified triggering migration decision were associated to livelihood, like security, climatic, agricultural, institutional and socio-cultural factors."

Bundelkhand records highest migration

As a result of unemployment and scarce livelihood opportunities, people of Bundelkhand started migrating towards states like Delhi, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Haryana.  The people migrating from Bundelkhand are of two types. Some of these are seasonal, which go out only for a few months and there are some people who have shifted to other cities including family.There are a large number of people who migrated from Bundelkhand, who had left home for wages, but did not return till today. The 2001 figures of the Planning Department show that about 20 per cent of the population of seven districts of Bundelkhand including Banda, Chitrakoot, Mahoba, Hamirpur, Jalaun, Jhansi and Lalitpur have migrated in the past. According to the 2011 census, Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest migration of 26.9 lakh people.  It has a large number of Bundelkhand.

The demand for a separate state has also been raised from time to time by merging some districts of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh.  Chhattarpur, Panna, Tikamgarh, Damoh, Sagar, Datia and Niwari in Madhya Pradesh and Hamirpur, Mahoba, Banda, Chitrakoot, Jhansi Lalitpur, Jalaun districts in Uttar Pradesh. Because being divided into such big states, Bundelkhand has always felt being unanswered or left aside. So, many people think that when they become an individual state, authorities will actually take interest in making policies for the betterment of the region. 

Government of both states have made many schemes for the revival of the region before but nothing really worked. The states should try and give it its much deserved attention and make efforts on uplifting Bundelkhand and help it towards progress. Though the Bundelkhand package, which was introduced about a decade ago to develop the region and ensure employement, also failed to achieve its goal. That is one of the reasons why migration is still continuing.