Durgappa, a farm labourer at Anegundi in Koppal district, is eagerly awaiting for his daughter and her family from Bengaluru, where they work in the construction sector, for the car festival on April 26. She is expected to reach on Tuesday to cast her vote and stay on for the festivities. Many families in this small village abutting Hampi are seeing the return of their children for the two occasions.
“MNREGA [the Centre’s employment guarantee scheme] gives us employment, but it is not sufficient. Employment in big cities gives us more money,” says Mr. Durgappa.
The blistering summer heat has not deterred politicians from carrying out campaigns in remote rural areas of the dry unirrigated Hyderabad Karnataka region, but distress-related migrations — that stare in the face everywhere — have remained outside the electoral narrative.
Though people here say that MNREGA has partly addressed livelihood issues despite all drawbacks in implementation, it has not checked waves of rural migration. Even the thousands returning to vote on Tuesday are not keen to raise it as an electoral issue.
“We are only talking about issues that our State and Central leaders have asked us to talk about. There is no other issue,” Gangavati legislator Paranna E. Munavalli said. Interestingly, the State government has repeatedly raised the issue of huge dues from the Centre to the State — to the tune of close to ₹2,000 crore — forcing the latter to compensate for it to ensure the scheme is not stalled.
Over the last two decades, Yadgir, Raichur, Koppal, Vijayapura, and Kalaburagi districts have been witnessing large scale migrations to Bengaluru, Mangaluru, Goa, and parts of Maharashtra seeking employment opportunities. As drought has repeatedly hit the region, construction and hotel industries have been their refuge.
Migration is witnessed not only in dry belts of the region, but also in areas irrigated by the Tungabhadra and Krishna. In parts of Ballari, Koppal and Raichur districts, the arrival of harvesting machineries has also taken away employment avenues for the labourer.
In Gangavati region of Koppal district, landlords say they are finding it tough to find labour, while the landless complain about poor wages and arrival of machineries. “Either we cannot find labour or they demand very high wages. So all family members are now involved in the field and we use machinery for harvest,” said Sharanappa, an agriculturist in Kesarahalli village of Gangavati taluk.
Abhay, State coordinator of Grameena Koolikarmikara Sanghatane, said there is also no long-term plan in MNREGA implementation. We have been asking successive governments to rejuvenate tanks and create additional tanks in water-starved districts. This will provide livelihood avenues locally, he said. “We have also been asking the government to increase man-days from 100 to 200 to assure employment, which could prevent migrations,” he added.
The exception
Not all are willing to leave their roots for greener pastures. “I’m happy to stay back in my village,” says Imam Sab of Gunnal village in Yelaburga taluk of Koppal. He is involved in grease work for lorries that stop by at a dhaba on the national highway in Yelaburga.
But he is more an exception than a rule.
