In Indian state, thousands of villages sit nearly empty as people leave to become migrant workers
India farm crisis, compounded by drought, forces farmers to eke out living as migrant laborers
It shouldn’t be tough to run into a human being most anywhere in a country of 1.2 billion people. Yet in Bodkha village in western India, there is hardly anyone visible on a recent steamy afternoon.
The streets here are deserted not because families are taking siestas, but because nearly everyone has long ago left to find seasonal work several hours away.
"What are you looking for?" asks Nimbaji Tidke, 60, sitting under a tree outside his house, one of the few still inhabited in this parched village that normally claims about 2,000 residents. His two sons, Baburao, 32, and Hanumant, 27, are more than 300 miles to the south, toiling at a sugar cane factory along with their wives, leaving Tidke to look after his two young grandchildren.
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