Dear Friends, today youth brigade have to sit back, think, plan a strategy and implement for BUDELKHAND. Why Budelkhand, what is it. How come this issue is so important? Yes nice questions come to our mind. I am here today to put a small overview about this place which is also historical importance (will not go in detail) to our nation and to us. We have to raise the voice in every form (except the violence form) for our own people who are totally ignored and nothing has been done till now for them. Who is responsible? Why the reaction is so late ? Who is to be blamed?
I am not blaming anybody. The best solution is not to blame any political party or any tom, d. & harry. Lets take it the other way round, today we come know about budelkhand crisis, lets start from today isn’t. So, let’s do it now.
""Your attempt may fail, but , never fail to make an attempt"".
Just when urban India skips a beat over a plunge in Sensex, hundreds of families on verge of starvation are stepping out of their ancestral villages in Bundelkhand, leaving their homes and fields. And just when Urban India goes ga ga over the launch of Nano, families are eating ‘roti’ made of grass in villages of Jhansi and Jalaun and farmers are committing suicides. There are numerous villages where not a soul exists due to the mass exodus and only the elderly remain, waiting for their death.
Evidence of early man living in Bundelkhand is found in the form of rock paintings at many places in the Patha region of Chitrakoot district, and in Sagar, Chhatarpur, Panna and Datia districts. In the early 1950s, when the States Reorganisation Commission got to work, a demand for a Bundelkhand state was put forward, but the demand was not heeded.
Most of Bundelkhand's princely states eventually became part of Madhya Pradesh, while the parts that had been directly ruled by the British, became part of UP. Major political parties demand a separate state, but till date no real progress has been made on the issue.
Never so many political rallies were held in this region in the past. The politicians have smelt power. Cashing in on Bundelkhand’s misery, they hope to attract the disillusioned voter. Also, there is possibility of a new state being carved and the possibility of power in another state.
Political party charges the centre for not giving a special package for the drought-hit region. And centres claiming that the government misused funds.
The backward Bundelkhand region is reeling under the impact of successive droughts. For four years there has been no rain. The farmer with small land-holdings is the worst sufferer. Ironically when a tragedy of such magnitude is unfolding in this region, politicians are rushing to Bundelkhand.
A 72-year-old man lying on the cot is barely able to talk but too proud to say that he is hungry and that there is no grain left in his house. He dies a few days later and his son breaks down before TV journalist Anamika, ‘na aata hai, na athanni ghar mein’.
Jaswant later said that his father died because there was nothing to eat in the house. The neighbours said that the chulha hadn’t seen fire for fifteen days in their house. But there is an unwritten rule; no state accepts death due to starvation.
The official in this case also puts it in a slightly different manner. “This 71-year-old man died because he was ill and couldn’t afford treatment”. A channel reported six suicides in just 24 hrs. Hundreds of farmers have ended their lives in Bundelkhand and though ruling party and the opposition parties contest each other’s claims, the truth is that life is getting harder and darker in the countryside.
The unbridgeable disparity between urban and rural India is only getting worse. After Vidarbha, the country side of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, the Bundelkhand region of UP and MP is witnessing the same phenomenon. The reality is that stock markets fascinate us. And we turn a Nelson’s eye towards rural India that continues to bleed. How long will our economy survive if the villages keep getting vacated and the migrants’ inflow to urban centres continues?
Several hundred suicides of farmers and other villagers have been reported in recent years from Bundelkhand. It is a fact that farmers have suffered heavy damage in recent years. Indebtedness to banks and money lenders has increased rapidly to a level where there is no possibility of being able to pay back the loan. These farmers are unable to meet their family expenses which they perceive as most essential such as the expenses of marriages of daughters. In these villages families have been forced to postpone marriages of daughters. It is difficult for farmers to repeatedly find that not even expenses are recovered after working so hard in the field. It is in this context that many reports of suicides of families and other villagers as the well as reported cases of deaths caused by shock (sadma) should be understood.
Water shortage already exists in several villages and it is quite clear that a serious water crisis is most likely next summer. Farm animals, particularly cows, have been left to roam and fend for themselves as farmers just don’t have any fodder. Fodder and water needs of farm animals deserve a lot of attention. In Jigni village of Hamirpur district once prosperous farmers said that they have lost several cows and they are willing to give away cows free as they can’t see them dying before their eyes.
Recent Progress for BUDELKHAND–
AICC General Secretary Rahul Gandhi met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to press for the implementation of a Central government report for a package of Rs 8000 crore for development of the backward Bundelkhand region.
Friends, it is true that Budelkhand is passing through adverse weather conditions, but the extreme distress that exists today can still be avoided. The paper work is taking too much of time and time is running out of the hands. The road from despair to hope exists, we have to start traversing it slowly yet steadily.
Thanks & regards
Sumit Dubey
New Delhi, India
I am not blaming anybody. The best solution is not to blame any political party or any tom, d. & harry. Lets take it the other way round, today we come know about budelkhand crisis, lets start from today isn’t. So, let’s do it now.
""Your attempt may fail, but , never fail to make an attempt"".
Just when urban India skips a beat over a plunge in Sensex, hundreds of families on verge of starvation are stepping out of their ancestral villages in Bundelkhand, leaving their homes and fields. And just when Urban India goes ga ga over the launch of Nano, families are eating ‘roti’ made of grass in villages of Jhansi and Jalaun and farmers are committing suicides. There are numerous villages where not a soul exists due to the mass exodus and only the elderly remain, waiting for their death.
Evidence of early man living in Bundelkhand is found in the form of rock paintings at many places in the Patha region of Chitrakoot district, and in Sagar, Chhatarpur, Panna and Datia districts. In the early 1950s, when the States Reorganisation Commission got to work, a demand for a Bundelkhand state was put forward, but the demand was not heeded.
Most of Bundelkhand's princely states eventually became part of Madhya Pradesh, while the parts that had been directly ruled by the British, became part of UP. Major political parties demand a separate state, but till date no real progress has been made on the issue.
Never so many political rallies were held in this region in the past. The politicians have smelt power. Cashing in on Bundelkhand’s misery, they hope to attract the disillusioned voter. Also, there is possibility of a new state being carved and the possibility of power in another state.
Political party charges the centre for not giving a special package for the drought-hit region. And centres claiming that the government misused funds.
The backward Bundelkhand region is reeling under the impact of successive droughts. For four years there has been no rain. The farmer with small land-holdings is the worst sufferer. Ironically when a tragedy of such magnitude is unfolding in this region, politicians are rushing to Bundelkhand.
A 72-year-old man lying on the cot is barely able to talk but too proud to say that he is hungry and that there is no grain left in his house. He dies a few days later and his son breaks down before TV journalist Anamika, ‘na aata hai, na athanni ghar mein’.
Jaswant later said that his father died because there was nothing to eat in the house. The neighbours said that the chulha hadn’t seen fire for fifteen days in their house. But there is an unwritten rule; no state accepts death due to starvation.
The official in this case also puts it in a slightly different manner. “This 71-year-old man died because he was ill and couldn’t afford treatment”. A channel reported six suicides in just 24 hrs. Hundreds of farmers have ended their lives in Bundelkhand and though ruling party and the opposition parties contest each other’s claims, the truth is that life is getting harder and darker in the countryside.
The unbridgeable disparity between urban and rural India is only getting worse. After Vidarbha, the country side of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, the Bundelkhand region of UP and MP is witnessing the same phenomenon. The reality is that stock markets fascinate us. And we turn a Nelson’s eye towards rural India that continues to bleed. How long will our economy survive if the villages keep getting vacated and the migrants’ inflow to urban centres continues?
Several hundred suicides of farmers and other villagers have been reported in recent years from Bundelkhand. It is a fact that farmers have suffered heavy damage in recent years. Indebtedness to banks and money lenders has increased rapidly to a level where there is no possibility of being able to pay back the loan. These farmers are unable to meet their family expenses which they perceive as most essential such as the expenses of marriages of daughters. In these villages families have been forced to postpone marriages of daughters. It is difficult for farmers to repeatedly find that not even expenses are recovered after working so hard in the field. It is in this context that many reports of suicides of families and other villagers as the well as reported cases of deaths caused by shock (sadma) should be understood.
Water shortage already exists in several villages and it is quite clear that a serious water crisis is most likely next summer. Farm animals, particularly cows, have been left to roam and fend for themselves as farmers just don’t have any fodder. Fodder and water needs of farm animals deserve a lot of attention. In Jigni village of Hamirpur district once prosperous farmers said that they have lost several cows and they are willing to give away cows free as they can’t see them dying before their eyes.
Recent Progress for BUDELKHAND–
AICC General Secretary Rahul Gandhi met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to press for the implementation of a Central government report for a package of Rs 8000 crore for development of the backward Bundelkhand region.
Friends, it is true that Budelkhand is passing through adverse weather conditions, but the extreme distress that exists today can still be avoided. The paper work is taking too much of time and time is running out of the hands. The road from despair to hope exists, we have to start traversing it slowly yet steadily.
Thanks & regards
Sumit Dubey
New Delhi, India
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