New Delhi – “Our children have had to leave our homes to look for work in the cities. We are old. Our villages are full of only old people and young children who are unable to fend for themselves,” says Matabin, 55, of Tikamgarh District, Madhya Pradesh, whose sons have gone to Delhi to look for work.
A population of 21 million which ranks among the least developed regions in India and in their respective states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh are witnessing disappearance of a relief package that could have pumped fresh life into a region reeling under drought.
On December 8, an eminent panel comprising Mihir Shah, Member, Planning commission, Shabana Azmi, Actor and Activist, Seema Mustafa, Journalist and Development Analyst, Devki Jain, Feminist Writer and Economist, Rajendra Singh, Activist, and K. Ramachandran, Technical Advisor for the Bundelkhand relief package, heard the testimonies of community members who had travelled all the way from their districts in the Bundelkhand region to the capital.
State Minister of Rural Development, Shri Pradeep Jain, was also present at the day-long public hearing.
“I vouch to stand by the people of Bundelkhand and take their issues forward. We should not let this issue die out after this public hearing,” said member of the Jury, Mihir Shah, who is himself a Member of the Planning Commission and in-charge of Rural Development. “I will put forward these reports you have shared and I will look into the loop-holes myself,” he added.
In the last eight years of drought, starvation and debt have claimed 2,945 farmers’ lives in the last 8 years and there have been 519 farmer suicides in the last five months alone. Over 75 percent of the rural households are indebted and the average debt burden on indebted families is assessed to be over Rs. 45,000.
“India has been seeing tremendous growth and development,” said Shabana Azmi. “But the question to be asked today is whose growth and what form of development are we adopting? Why is it that the people of Bundelkhand region are not being able to see similar progress in their lives?” she asked.
“Recurring drought, crop losses, increasing indebtedness and non-availability of other gainful employment opportunities are resulting in significantly higher migration of the rural poor in search of means of survival and also in many cases farmer suicides,” said Sandeep Chachra, Executive Director, ActionAid India.“These are symptoms of poorly planned relief packages. Such packages need to take into account ground realities possible only through community consultations,” he added.
In a recent visit to Jhansi district in Uttar Pradesh, also part of the Bundelkhand region, Chairman, Planning Commission, Shri Montek Singh Ahluwalia also noted, “Out of three years of time limit (November 2009 – March 2012) given to implement the [relief] package, 18 months have already passed in which only 23% of work has been completed in U.P. and 34% in M.P., which is quite a slow pace.”
Compounded by an extreme form of feudalism in the region evident in the instances of atrocities on Dalits and women, the region has not been able to benefit from the relief package of over INR 7000 crore from the centre. Blatant corruption in the implementation of social security schemes like MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) is further exacerbating the situation for the people.
Source: ActionAid India.
