Mr VK Duggal,
I never thought in my life time that I would write to former home secretary of our country. Anyway, I got the opportunity, so writing this e-mail to you on Saga of Telangana.
I will be writing series of e-mails to you based on my personal experience and observations and this is first one in series. So I would spend time explaining my background so you better appreciate my comments.
I hail from a remote village in Karim Nagar district, from Telangana region.I got opportunity to made several friends and meet several people during my childhood to college days from different parts of the state and different quarters of the society.
The topic is migration.
My village has 300+ households and in which at least every other household head or son in the family went to one of the Gulf countries in the search of job. Most of them went there to work as construction labor. Initially, It was OK as few people went and earned some money. It was OK because they made good money(based on then Indian economy) even though they are away from their families. So when I was child I used to write/read letter on behalf of illiterate families, I used to feel very bad after reading some of the bad experiences my village people are facing in gulf countries. They went through lot of pain to earn money and support the families.
This trend continued and migration to gulf increased exponentially since mid-90's. Some people are deceived by agents in Mumbai and returned to home, few committed suicide because of debts. I know few families saga where husbands are away from their families which created way for illicit relationships, created social imbalances. Some fathers did not see their families for years, their sons/daughters have grown but never seen their children.
You may be thinking it as whole India issue and wondering why it is specific to Telangana - But several things played its part
1) Drought during later 90s and early 2000s - If we would have got water resources then we would at least have one crop in a year. You know River Godavari goes through my district and we still have severe droughts almost every year. The political leadership claim that it is difficult to lay canals and provide water to our area because we are on highest spot of the state and it require lift irrigation to pump the water.
When I was kid, I used to see green fields behind my home, now its all dry/arid land with no water. Some amount of water facility would have stopped migration.
2) No Industrial development - I often wonder why Telangana(exclude Hyderabad and its outskirts) doesn't have any major industries like Andhra region had - like Visakha Steel Plant. It would atleast have provided some employment and stopped migration.
On Mumbai migration, When I was young, I was in my taluq headquarter bus stand for 1 hour, waiting for a bus. I saw 10 buses from different bus depots going through my place Sircilla to places like Mumbai, Sholapur, Bhiwandi in Maharastra.
I thought for a while realized, it is because of lack opputunities in this area which forced them people to migrate to other states. Sircilla hand loom workers suicides are known to entire country, which attracts attention when a politician visits our place and would be in cold storage afterwards.
that's all on migration of my people.
I would write my next letter on Naxal's issue. Meantime, If you get chance to read, please reply with any questions/comments.
I never thought in my life time that I would write to former home secretary of our country. Anyway, I got the opportunity, so writing this e-mail to you on Saga of Telangana.
I will be writing series of e-mails to you based on my personal experience and observations and this is first one in series. So I would spend time explaining my background so you better appreciate my comments.
I hail from a remote village in Karim Nagar district, from Telangana region.I got opportunity to made several friends and meet several people during my childhood to college days from different parts of the state and different quarters of the society.
The topic is migration.
My village has 300+ households and in which at least every other household head or son in the family went to one of the Gulf countries in the search of job. Most of them went there to work as construction labor. Initially, It was OK as few people went and earned some money. It was OK because they made good money(based on then Indian economy) even though they are away from their families. So when I was child I used to write/read letter on behalf of illiterate families, I used to feel very bad after reading some of the bad experiences my village people are facing in gulf countries. They went through lot of pain to earn money and support the families.
This trend continued and migration to gulf increased exponentially since mid-90's. Some people are deceived by agents in Mumbai and returned to home, few committed suicide because of debts. I know few families saga where husbands are away from their families which created way for illicit relationships, created social imbalances. Some fathers did not see their families for years, their sons/daughters have grown but never seen their children.
You may be thinking it as whole India issue and wondering why it is specific to Telangana - But several things played its part
1) Drought during later 90s and early 2000s - If we would have got water resources then we would at least have one crop in a year. You know River Godavari goes through my district and we still have severe droughts almost every year. The political leadership claim that it is difficult to lay canals and provide water to our area because we are on highest spot of the state and it require lift irrigation to pump the water.
When I was kid, I used to see green fields behind my home, now its all dry/arid land with no water. Some amount of water facility would have stopped migration.
2) No Industrial development - I often wonder why Telangana(exclude Hyderabad and its outskirts) doesn't have any major industries like Andhra region had - like Visakha Steel Plant. It would atleast have provided some employment and stopped migration.
On Mumbai migration, When I was young, I was in my taluq headquarter bus stand for 1 hour, waiting for a bus. I saw 10 buses from different bus depots going through my place Sircilla to places like Mumbai, Sholapur, Bhiwandi in Maharastra.
I thought for a while realized, it is because of lack opputunities in this area which forced them people to migrate to other states. Sircilla hand loom workers suicides are known to entire country, which attracts attention when a politician visits our place and would be in cold storage afterwards.
that's all on migration of my people.
I would write my next letter on Naxal's issue. Meantime, If you get chance to read, please reply with any questions/comments.
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