Gangabai Gaikwad (65) has been trying to keep her family alive on a monthly income of Rs500. The drought-hit Marathwada resident owns 2.5 acres of land, which is, of course, of no use any more.
"I had planted soy bean and bajra but the crop dried up," says Gangabai, who lives in a small tin-shed house in Hokara village of Mukhed tehsil in Nanded. Nearly 2,000 people live in Hokara, of whom 1,300 are eligible voters. The district is the hometown of former congress chief minister Ashok Chavan, and is nearly 587 km away from Mumbai. Most residents of the region depend on farming for their livelihood, and the last three years of drought have spelled doom for them. Most families, even those that were quite prosperous earlier, have gone bankrupt.
Gangabai lost her husband 10 years ago. Then a few years ago, she met with an accident that rendered her almost invalid. "My ribs broke and they never healed properly. I struggle a lot while walking. Because of my poor health, no one offers me any work. Now my youngest daughter Surekha is in Class IX and I am worried about her marriage. Where I will get the money from?" she laments.
"I approached a local bank for some loan. They told me they will give me Rs 12,000 but I will have to mortgage my entire land. If I fail to repay the amount, the bank will sell my land in an auction to recover their loan. I have a very small piece of land. I do not want to lose it. I am in a fix – whether to save the land or feed my family," says Gangabai.
She says some people in the village tried to sell off their land to repay the private moneylenders. "It turned out, they had already mortgaged their land with the banks, so they could not even sell it. Both private money lenders and the bank authorities are breathing down their necks now," she adds.
Gangabai has four sons and six daughters. She says no one wants to stay back in the village anymore, and families are leaving as soon as the children are a little grown. "Most people have migrated to Hyderabad in Andra Pradesh in search of work. They get some work in brick kilns and construction sites as daily-wage labourers. In the last three years, people have been staying in the village from June to November for cultivation and harvesting, and then they leave for Hyderabad, Pune or Mumbai," she says. Hyderabad is nearly 250 km from Nanded.
"My two sons – Vittal and Sambhaji – are working in Mumbai, while another son Hanumant is in Pune. They all work at construction sites. They send me a money order of Rs500 per month. But if they themselves are in trouble, I don't get any money. It is so difficult to feed my daughters and grand-children," says Gangabai.
Earlier, the family did not need to spend any money in the market, except for oil and spices, as everything else came from their own farm. "The failure of crops in the last three years has forced us to buy everything from the market," she rues.
"When will the government step in? If this situation continues for a few more months, most people would migrate to the cities, and the rest will commit suicide," warns Gangabai.
