Isi gali mein wo bhuka kisan rehta hai
Ye wo zameen hai jahan aasman rehta hai
- Munavvar Rana
(This is the lane where the hungry farmer resides; this is the ground where the sky belongs)
Can anybody forget July 27th, the day when it poured heavily in Delhi for 6 hours? Arrival of the monsoon was a blessing in disguise and a happy respite from the sultry weather. I was glad that the refreshing showers had finally greeted Delhi, but all my spirits vanished in thin air when a friend showed me the acute reality in so many parts of our country, with or without the rains.
It was my friend’s birthday, so I thought that I would probably be getting a delicious treat somewhere. But to my shock, he took me to a village on the outskirts of Ghaziabad in UP.
It’s called Milak Duhaipur and the village basically comprises Gujjar population. Initially, the greenery and the beautiful surroundings impressed me. I was quite sure that the farmers residing there must be rich and prosperous, but reality struck me soon enough. I learnt about their constant struggle for survival in the difficult circumstances.
Water, water, everywhere, not a drop to drink- the scenario fit Coleridge’s legendary lines. Just a day ago we were celebrating the onset of monsoons in Delhi, but in this village, the vast spread of water was dirty, unhygienic and germ-infested.
The farmers there face grave troubles. Sugarcane cultivation has been nearly clogged due to untimely rainfall. Half of their crops have dried up and termite has finished the remaining harvest. Due to the continuous use of pesticides, the quality of their lands has declined which further adds to their misery. Allotment of nine hours of electricity every week to a farmer is of no use either. Imagine these conditions prevail when this village falls next to the highway!
Farming is their ancestral occupation, but, in the current situation, the land is becoming increasingly uncultivable. Because of these reasons agriculturists are so poor that they have only rags to wear. Their children are perfect examples of malnourishment. Their wives work with them in the field. Very few have basic amenities, forget about any other modern equipment. Most don’t even own a tractor and still depend on the traditional system of using animals for cultivation.
To describe in the words of
Dushyant Kumar:
‘Kahan to tai tha charagan harek ghar ke liye, kahan charag mayassar nahi sheher ke liye’ ( Once basic amenities where promised to every household, but fulfillment of those promises has just become a dream even for the urbanites)
Villagers have thus taken to doing temporary labour in brick kilns, rice mills and embroidery factories, which have gained an easy access into their farming lands. Wages are so meager for most that they resort to extreme measures of sometimes even selling their children to others.
`Kya Karen, kai baar aisa karna padta hai, warna kya khayenge, apna aur bachchon ka pet kaise palenge`, (What to do, we have to sometimes do this, otherwise what will we eat and how will we feed the children), they say grimly.
For them, raising children is no different from raising a crop. Children can be sold for a profit as wheat, isn`t it? That’s what many say.
Indebtedness, crop failure and the inability to pay back loans due to high rates of interest lead them to commit suicide. Due to the decline in lending by government banks, farmers have no option but to turn to private money lenders whose interest rates are much higher.
More and more farmers have failed to earn enough to pay back their loans and so have fallen deeper into debts. The phrase ‘peasant lives and dies in debt’ fits completely.
Already 58 out of 71 districts in UP have been formally declared as drought hit. Normally being declared drought hit means farmers will get a lot of doles from government. However the point is as to how much actually reaches them. It would be worth watching as to how Mayawati and Rahul Gandhi`s turf war will play out for those who constitute the biggest vote bank for any party - farmers.
It goes without saying that the life for these poor farmers is harsh and severe. Once the owners of land, they are no more than slaves today. Parting with their ancestral freedom for submission has a price, which is hard to bargain. With their deteriorating condition, the age old way of livelihood country is also fading away- that’s what I realized in that small village.
Visiting Milak Duhaipur was an eye opener for me. Here is a little tribute for the food providers of our country…
Mehnat ki dastaan hai,
Har pal ek imtihan hai,
Mitti ki khushboo me girta pasina,
Kabhi lahlahati kabhi sookhi faslein,
Haan ye kissa-ae-Kisan hai
(This is the saga of hard work, each moment is a test, the scent of land in enriched with their sweat, sometimes a flourishing harvest sometimes a drought and this is the story of a farmer)
(The views expressed by the author in the blog are his/her own)