Giving up hope of getting a job after completion of degree and compulsion to earn to maintain his family, 21-year-old tribal youth Boyi Ramachander has preferred to become a drop-out after completing Intermediate.
With his mother Bimala unable to take up cultivation due to old age, and his father’s death when he was a child, Ramachandra gets up early in the morning to cultivate four acres of land at lush-green Soova Valley at Kornjiguda hamlet of Dumbriguda mandal, about 140 km from district headquarters of Visakhapatnam.
“I have to earn for the family as my mother is not in a position to cultivate. I am engaging two or three youngsters by paying ₹ 100 a day to plough the field and plant seeds,” he told The Hindu .
The farmers in these areas grow paddy, maize, coriander, cabbage, ginger, red and black gram and pulses depending on the season. They are dependent mostly on rain-fed and waterfall for irrigation.
“Given an opportunity, I would have preferred a job, may be as a teacher or in government service. But despite reservation for Scheduled Tribes, many are sitting idle in the agency areas despite completing graduation and postgraduation,” he points out.
Availability of labour for farming has become difficult, as many prefer to take up work under NREGA, where they are offered more money.
“The income from farming is not much. After toiling a lot, we earn ₹ 9,000 per acre annually. Whatever we grow is being picked up by agents of sahukars (merchants). In the process, they offer less to us,” he says.
Rough terrain and lack of public transport is another dampener for farmers here, though most of their produce is transported to market at Araku Valley, about 15 km from Konjiguda, or to MVP Rythu Bazaar in Visakhapatnam.
The drop-out rate in Visakhapatnam district is estimated at 30%, a majority of them girls in the tribal areas. Insistence by family elders to assist in domestic chores and go to fields to supplement their income is one of the major reasons despite launching of several schemes to improve education among tribal people.
