Floods in Assam have swept away opportunities and young folks like Ashadul Ali are wrecked by growing unemployment
It바카라s the season of reverse migration바카라streams of workers on India바카라s highways, walking from cities towards destinations thousands of miles away under a brazen sun, each passing day bringing diminished hope. Or crowds hitching rides in trucks, clambering on to buses, praying for a seat in a 바카라shramik special바카라 train. Victims of the nationwide lockdown, many migrant workers vowed never to return to heartless metros that made destitutes of them in a trice.
But, as with every endeavour, there are those who run against the tide. Ashadul Ali, 19, from Assam바카라s Barpeta, worked in Bangalore and is desperate to get back. 바카라I came home as everyone else was rushing back in a panicked state. Now, what will I do to survive?바카라 Ashadul tells Outlook sitting on an embankment near Beki, a major tributary of the Brahmaputra.
Ashadul, who has worked in a tent house in Bangalore for almost a year now, is not the only one from his neighbourhood to earn his livelihood in Bangalore. Fifteen other youths, he says, shifted to Bangalore to take up various jobs. Ashadul earns Rs 10,000 a month there바카라an enormous, unattainable sum back home.
바카라I must get back to work as soon as possible. We can get rid of the disease (COVID-19) but here we will starve,바카라 he says. Witnessing devastation by the annual floods and river erosion has hardened Ashadul. 바카라We have seen lot of hardship from a young age. Our house has been washed away twice. We had a narrow escape once, while the next time we were just helpless witnesses to the devastation,바카라 he recalls. This last incident was in 2013; he was too little to remember the earlier calamity.
바카라Father is getting old and doesn바카라t earn much by selling milk. It becomes difficult to feed our two cows,바카라 adds Ashadul. Ever since the 2013 floods led to their ruination, Ashadul바카라s family has been living in their uncle바카라s land; in return, his father helps out in the relatives바카라 agricultural fields. 바카라We too had lands around five bighas, but these are now under water,바카라 Ashadul says wistfully.
The alternative to the humiliation of working for relations for a pittance is the job card issued by the panchayat. Yet work is not regular. 바카라When we get to work, we get around Rs 250 a day. But mostly we sit idle. It바카라s better to move out. When I바카라m in Bangalore, I can at least send Rs 7,000 home, which means a lot,바카라 says Ashadul, elaborating on the circumstances that forced him out of Assam. Then there are the two younger brothers, the youngest one a nine-year-old. 바카라I couldn바카라t study much but I want my brother to study. Another reason I have to work extra hard,바카라 he adds.
Not just Ashadul, hundreds like him from this area are waiting to return. Most are from habitations by rivers and sand bars (locally known as 바카라chars바카라); all have run the fearsome gauntlet of annual floods, erosion of land and endless misery. Their agricultural fields broken away, bit by bit, by the cruel waters, they were forced to move out of their villages in search of work.
바카라This is a reality here. If they are scared by COVID-19, their families will starve. Obviously, they would like to go back. Here scope for livelihood is limited and many face racist slurs even within the state,바카라 says Ashraful Hussain, a local social worker. 바카라바카라Bangladeshi바카라 here is an insulting slur hurled at these poor Muslim migrant workers. All this, apart from more job opportunities elsewhere, have driven them out,바카라 adds Hussain. Ashadul seems to have made an astute, obvious decision. But then, life has hardly given him more than one choice.
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