The woman sobs, tears running down her cheeks, hugging her three-year-old son and not letting go. The young tribal woman is about to board the Mumbai-bound bus from this remote hamlet in Kulkacharla mandal in Ranga Reddy district of Telangana for a 14-hour journey.
Lugging rations and a few belongings, she is migrating to Mumbai with her husband and two daughters, leaving behind the boy in the care of her in-laws. Everyone is in tears as she and her husband don’t want to leave the toddler behind, but have no choice if they want to make ends meet.
The emotional parting is not limited to this family. This nondescript bus station, just 120 km away from Hyderabad, the capital of Telangana, is witness to a steady exodus. The severe drought and lack of work are forcing many villagers from the region to migrate in search of work. The parting scenes are heart-wrenching, but the locals are inured to it. “You come here tomorrow at the same time and you can see more such scenes, only the persons change,” says Santosh, a student, who has come to see off his relative Venkataiah, who migrated to Mumbai about three decades ago. A sexagenarian from Anvada of neighbouring Mahabubnagar district, Venkataiah was forced to move by an earlier drought. The scorching heat is uprooting many families.
Ravi Naik from Gondyal of Anvada mandal in Mahabubnagar is another example. He tried to raise a crop on the 1.5-acre agricultural land. “Forget about raising a crop, I am not able to feed my cattle,” the youngster says. He drilled seven bore wells in the 1.5 acres of land to a depth of about 300 feet. None of them struck water. “Drilling each bore well cost me Rs. 30,000 and seven of them pushed me to bankruptcy.”
