by Yugal Joshi
Uttarakhand has around 16,500 villages, of which 734 have become ghost villages and 1,048 villages are uninhabited
Winter nights are lonelier in the hills. When few left over people shut their doors after an early supper and darkness engulfs the hilltops and the valley, you may hear the silent cries of an old lady living alone by herself. God knows whose curse makes these mountain villages lonelier with each passing day! Streams of young and capable deserting them never to return back!
Hear, hear everyone there!
Villages after villages, houses after houses,
Become ruins!
Fields have become barren and people silent!
Lord, our last hope, you tell
Whose curse has befallen on us!
Whose curse has befallen on our fields and wells!
Whose curse has befallen on our villages!
(Translated from a popular Garhwali YouTube song)
According to a report more than five lakh people have migrated from Uttarakhand in the last 10 years and from 6,338 village panchayats, about 1.18 lakh have migrated out of Uttarakhand permanently, which means not to return ever, while 3.83 have migrated in search of work and better life, who keep visiting their native places in the hill state. As a result, one can see a number of locked and dilapidated houses and barren tracts of erstwhile cultivated land in several villages in hill districts of Uttarakhand.
According to the State Rural Development and Migration Commission report, the desire for better livelihood and employment opportunities are the dominant reasons for migration from the state. Other important reasons are lack of education facilities, medical facilities and depredations of wild animals. About 29 per cent move outside the state, 36 per cent to other districts in the state, 15 per cent to district headquarters and 19 per cent to nearby towns, leaving their elderly in the villages soon to be infested by the wild. Uttarakhand has around 16,500 villages, of which 734 have become ghost villages and 1,048 villages are uninhabited.
This migration is despite the state being one of the fastest-growing states in India. The GSDP of the state has grown almost ten times since Uttarakhand became a state. But, the growth has been lopsided. Per capita income in the hill region is about half that of the plains. In the hill districts, the proportion of households having at least one migrant was 34 per cent, while for the plain districts it was 5 per cent. Clearly, predominantly plain districts have a very less migration rate in comparison to hill districts.
(File) The village of Baluni in Uttarakhand lies abandoned after its last resident Shyam Prasad moves to a place with better facilities. Image courtesy Rahul Singh Shekhawat/101 Reporters
However, the migration in Uttarakhand has been a historic process. During British rule, with the creation of Garhwal and Kumaon Army regiments, local youth got regular employment in the army for the first time on a large scale. Thus began service tenure long out-migration from Uttarakhand. The armymen’s initial exposure to the outside world had a big influence on building acceptance of the livelihood based migration of educated ‘pahadis’. Even in the 1850s, Atkinson wrote that education was the only industry in Uttarakhand. Soon migration of educated people became a widespread phenomenon and Uttarakhand’s economy became a ‘money-order economy’. Despite this continuous outflow, the number of migrants was not as high as it has become in recent decades.
The out-migration in Uttarakhand is different than in other states. A distinguishing feature of migration from Uttarakhand is its predominantly longer durations and to big cities and towns only, in contrast to circular migration in other states. According to a study by the National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (NIRD), Hyderabad, about three-fourths of out-migrants in Uttarakhand are longer duration migrants. This is mainly due to the fact that about three-fourths of out-migrants of Uttarakhand have salaried jobs. Their relatively better educational attainments have facilitated them to seek employment in salaried jobs, though not necessarily fetching decent income to most of them. Nearly half of the migrants have higher secondary/ high school level education and 36 per cent are graduates and above. About 16 per cent of them are employed in government salaried employment. In contrast, only 8.5 per cent of non-migrants in Uttarakhand are graduates and only 30 per cent are high school/higher secondary educated. This huge exodus of graduated young persons is depleting the state's skilled human resources.
The secondary sector dominates the economy of the state and contributes to almost half of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP). However, the growth of the secondary and tertiary sectors in the state has been mainly focused in three plain districts, Haridwar, Udham Singh Nagar and Dehradun. Thus, leaving 10 hill districts lagging behind. NSSO Survey (2013) reported abysmally low agricultural productivity in Uttarakhand. Per household gross value of cultivation production in Uttarakhand is 3.4 times less compared to the national average. Therefore, even if a salaried job is available at an abysmally low rate, people prefer it to minimize uncertainties in incomes back in their villages.
Impact of migration
Many theorists believe that migration improves the income and standard of living of native areas in many ways. The remittances received generate demand for goods and services in that region which further improves employment and income opportunities. Migrants also bring with them new knowledge and technology which they use in their native place. However, Uttarakhand’s experience has been a mixed one.
Foremost, long-duration migrants visit their native place at the most twice a year during Holi or winter Navratris or during marriages in the family. They stay there for a very brief period of time and therefore are unable to impact the native society in any manner, except inspiring them to migrate. Further, their kids hardly mingle with their relatives living in ancestral villages and when they become adults they hardly identify themselves with the custom, culture and environment of their parent’s village.
However, they influence local consumption patterns heavily. Invariably these changes are met from outside the hills. For example, ragi and finger millets have completely been replaced by wheat and rice, mostly brought from plains/ outside the state. NIRD’s study concludes that more than 60 per cent of the household remittance money is spent on education and health-related expenses. Only over one-tenth is used for paying labour charges in their agriculture. The study says that none of the households uses remittance in activities such as non-farm business development. Thus, instead of having a multiplier effect on the village economy, remittance helps in opening a few grocery shops in the neighbourhood. As a result, remittances used to procure consumables plough back the finances back to the plain areas.
Hardships of village life in hills, poor transport connectivity, lack of water, inadequate medical facilities, poor educational facilities and inaccessible markets lures youths to towns/ cities in large numbers and at an accelerated pace. No youth wants to do agriculture work, instead prefers to open a small vegetable/paan shop or work in some shop or hotel in a nearby town. As a result, save women no young hands remain in the village for menial work. Finding Nepali labour is difficult or very expensive, dissuading left over persons from agriculture. Fields developed over centuries get abandoned and lie barren.
As a result, farm productivity decreases considerably and villages become more dependent on outside consumables brought from the plains. Abandoned fields and orchards invite wild animals and their growing menace further shrinks the farm activities. With a reduced number of adults in the village, the voice of the village in the local gram panchayat weakens. Many times because of the reduced population they don’t qualify for various welfare schemes. Panchayats become unable to place their demand for development. Such villagers live in pathetic conditions as seldom do their kin visit them and thus they face social marginalisation. After living like that for a few years, in several villages, the remaining population too migrates out leaving the villages as ghost villages.
Those who could not migrate live with huge concerns for the education of their children, health facilities, old age care, shrinking agriculture, and accessibility to physical infrastructure. Migration has hugely impacted the women left in villages. In a normal village, a woman usually works for a minimum of 10 hours. Five to six hours are spent on farm and related work, fuel wood, fodder and water collection and animal tendering. Two to three hours are spent cooking and house cleaning; a couple of hours go into child-care. With men not being around these overburdened women have to work in agriculture or MNREGA works. The load becomes so much that the girls are forced to share their mother’s burden. As a consequence, either their studies suffer or they leave the school.
Government initiatives
Overall growth in Uttarakhand has been impressive since it became a state. The state’s GSDP increased at a CAGR of about 9.3 per cent between 2016-17 and 2020-21. In 2019, domestic tourist inflow in the state was 3.5 crore and the number of foreign tourists crossed over 1.5 lakh. The forest area covers about 71 per cent of the state. The state’s GSVA from forestry and logging grew at a CAGR of 4.6 per cent between 2011-12 and 2018-19 to reach $53.88 crore. Uttarakhand is being developed as an ‘energy state’ to tap the hydropower electric potential of over 25,000 MW. As of February 2021, hydropower generation installed capacity in the state stood at 1,975.89 MW. The per capita income of the state estimated for the year 2019-20 was Rs 2,02,895, which was substantially higher than the all-India average of Rs 1,35,050 for that year.
The 'ghost village' of Baluni in Uttarakhand. Image courtesy Rahul Singh Shekhawat/101 Reporters
The Uttarakhand government has prepared a draft of an eco-tourism policy to promote conservation and ensure livelihood for local people who migrate to cities for work. Uttarakhand has almost all agro-geo climatic zones, which provide commercial opportunities for floriculture and horticulture. The state has 175 rare species of medicinal and aromatic plants and 403 horticulture-based units under the Vision 2030, the processing capacity of horticulture produce will be enhanced from 7.5 per cent to 15 per cent of the total horticulture production by 2030.
Over the last few years, there has been substantial growth in the infrastructure. Physical infrastructure like roads, power, telecom, water, and sanitation improved like never before. Education has been given very high priority and the state’s education budget has been above the average of other states’ education budget. The health sector has been made a priority sector with a network of around 2,000 sub-centres, 305 Primary health centres, 73 Community Health Centres, 47 Sub District Hospitals and 21 District Hospitals.
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has received special attention from the state government, and it has been accorded the status of an industry. Several initiatives have been taken to promote the ICT industry in Uttarakhand. The state also has well-developed Integrated Industrial Estates (IIEs), IT Parks and growth centres at various well approachable locations in Uttarakhand such as Haridwar, Pant Nagar and Dehradun. The Government of Uttarakhand is also harnessing the full power of Information and Communication Technology and Electronics (ICT&E) for improving the quality of life of its citizens, bringing in accelerated social and economic development, and ensuring transparency in government decisions and accelerating IT adoption among various user segments.
The policy framework for the all-around development of the hill region of Uttarakhand is comprehensive and appreciable. Efforts are being made to fill the gap between the productive employment needs of rural households and the efforts that are being made by the government towards this end. The huge potential of horticulture and tourism is being developed on a wider scale in the hill region. This will create a large number of employment opportunities for local youth and arrest their distress driven migration. The skill training measures are being made generic as well as area-specific depending on the choices and opportunities for such skills.
With strong political will, the government is committed to percolating fruits of developmental initiatives to poor and marginalised sections of the society.
Reverse Migration: Is it possible?
COVID-19 pandemic saw a temporary phase of reverse migration in the state. The outcome of this can serve to understand the issue of reverse migration in the state.
Some surveys/ studies conducted on COVID-19 reverse migrants suggest that the majority of those who returned were those who migrated within the last few years. More than 80 per cent of COVID-19 reverse migrants had migrated less than five years ago. Those who had permanently settled outside and had lost connection with native villages were hardly among the reverse migrants.
Further, the reverse migrants were mainly self-employed such as small shopkeepers, street vendors and petty businessmen or salaried workers and daily wage earners. Casual labourers in construction work and in informal transport systems returned. So did the salaried waiters, cooks, and clerks at small hotels, restaurants and dhabas. People working in private companies/ factories, working as housekeepers and security guards were among the returnees. Therefore, mostly those who returned to their native villages were those prone to any shock like COVID-19 pandemic.
The majority of the reverse migrants reported job loss as a prominent reason followed by the fear of the pandemic and pressure from the family. Some followed friends and relatives, showing emotional and psychological reasons.
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The majority of those who returned got some form of assistance from the government. Assistance from voluntary organizations in comparison was less. Subsidies, free help from government welfare schemes provided some support to the reverse migrants. One of the reasons for insignificant assistance from NGOs/ CSOs was the lack of such organisations working in hill areas and the low endowment base of the operating organisations.
After staying for a few months in their native villages, the majority of the reverse migrants desired to go back to their workplaces for earning a livelihood, as there were very few such opportunities in their native places. The reasons cited for re-migration remained the same as they were migration, employment opportunities, better living standards, poor health facilities, and children's education.
However, the good news was that about one-third of the reverse migrants wished to stay back in their native places. They were desirous of being engaged in horticulture, trade/ business/ tourism and salaried jobs, if available.
The takeaway from this Covid forced experiment is the same, which we have discussed earlier. The primary reasons for out-migration are low economic base, inadequate employment, low earning opportunities, poor health facilities and concerns for children’s education. As the majority of the reverse migrants were engaged in the hospitality and service sector, the State government is focusing on creating self-employment in fields like tourism, adventure sports and homestay tourism. The government is also giving a lot of attention to horticulture, micro-food processing, animal husbandry, poultry, dairying, organic farming etc. It has also formulated customised schemes for MSMEs. However, there is a need to make people aware of these very good initiatives.
During the Covid-19 reverse migration, one of the key lessons was that the benefits could not reach those who were unaware of the welfare schemes, and who did not have bank accounts to receive benefits under DBT schemes, or who were not registered with the government under the different migrant centred schemes.
Therefore from the point of view of those short-term migrants, enhancing the economic base and livelihood opportunities by focusing on niche activities and micro enterprises, and providing improved educational and health infrastructure and services remain the keys to reducing the migration.
This story will remain incomplete without mentioning the possible roles for those who have migrated on a long-term basis or permanently. Out-migration is an inevitable process for better education and better employment opportunities. Uttarakhand is not an exception. In fact, studies suggest that about 15 per cent of the world’s total migrants come from the eight countries of Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region. India, China, Bangladesh and Pakistan are among the largest migrant-sending countries in the world. This out-migration is more in mountains where people depend on subsistence farming, livestock and income generation from small-scale trade activities. Therefore, often people consider migration as an effective strategy to alleviate poverty and to enhance their living standards.
Migrants from Uttarakhand have earned an honourable place in the collective mind of the nation as an intelligent, hard-working, sincere and dependable lot. These non-resident Uttarakhandis (NRUs) have made the nation proud by their contributions in politics, arts and culture, armed forces, science and technology, social service, corporate, academics and bureaucracy etc. But even after retirement and financial security, very few among them want to return back to roots. However, their attachment to their native place remains undiminished. They wear this sentiment and nostalgia on their sleeves.
The NRUs can play a major role in promoting the overall development of the state. They can be role models for resident Uttrakhandis in their specialised fields. The government is promoting region-wise melas relating to development issues concerning people in various fields such as education, skill training, career counselling, health care, governance, right to information, development debate, networking, promoting cultural heritage, technology knowledge, etc. In fact, NRUs can act as advisors to their local communities on government policies and programmes. NRUs can help in developing and strengthening several voluntary organizations, in the State, related to their respective fields of knowledge and expertise. In fact, they can adopt certain villages and initiate a development process therein. NRUs can also support the poor children of Uttarakhand in their studies by establishing some fellowships.
In Odisha, a very successful programme Mo School has been running for the last four years. It gives opportunities to people to connect with their alma maters, inspire community action, facilitate stakeholder participation, and collaborate with various non-profits working in the area of education and child development. The results have been impressive. Well-to-do alumni have contributed significantly to not only improving the infrastructure and facilities in school but also helped qualitative enhancement in the holistic education of school children. Along similar lines, thousands of NRUs can adopt, help or guide academic and health institutions in Uttarakhand.
In an age when IT has virtually removed physical distances and COVID-19 has shown the way for effective and impactful online communication, these NRUs have innumerable ways to connect with the locals. By doing so they will not only re-energise their connection with their native place more meaningfully but also contribute to the growth of the local community. For example, thousands of Uttarakhandi doctors who are employed outside the state can have online sessions with patients; teachers and academicians can reach out to students and the teacher fraternity; and agriculturists may interact with farmers.
This twin approach of preventing migration through improved infrastructure and incentives, and encouraging NRUs to reconnect with the locals will help the State to use its talent for the welfare of its people in a better way.
The writer is an author and essayist. Views expressed here are personal.
Originally published in First Post at https://www.firstpost.com/opinion/calling-children-back-is-it-possible-to-initiate-reverse-migration-in-uttarakhand-10760411.html?fbclid=IwAR00aZCy9Ta_3ltT_jTMt7QX3gKEpZ8NSA2HDstvIlp9IGajcJW4gekmOOU
