BHAWANIPATNA: More than 60 per cent of cultivable land lies infertile in Kalahandi district. Rain has been playing hide and seek year after year pushing small and marginal farmers to the brink. On the irrigation front too, Indravati project has failed to provide succour. Nearly 63 per cent of the district’s population lives below the poverty line.
A rough estimate reveals that 30,000 people from 10,000 families migrate from nine blocks of the district for earning their livelihood.
This is the scenario in Kalahandi, one of the poorest districts in the country, infamous for its crippling drought, hunger and related deaths besides child sale. Starvation and child sale had been the bane of the district in the 80’s.
Out of 13 blocks, five blocks under Dharamgarh sub-division __ Dharamgarh, Junagarh, Koksara, Jaipatna and Golamunda __ and four blocks under Bhawanipatna sub-division, Bhawanipatna, Kesinga, Karlamunda and Narla are migration-prone. Labour sardars have been setting up tents at these places over the years without fail under the very nose of the administration.
The families have never returned with happy tales. More than 150 migrants have died and several others are untraceable over the past one decade.
The State Government and Labour Department have miserably failed in providing them solace and support. Development has taken a back seat with no public representative bothering to give a thought to the migrants.
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