15,000 agri workers in Uttarakhand set to return to UP, Bihar vilages

RUDRAPUR: “Ab hum apne gaon vapas jaa rahe hai,” says Ram Avtar as his eyes wander over swathes of barren land in front of him.
The 45-year-old who hails from Shahjahanpur in UP has spent the past eight years in Udham Singh Nagar working as an agricultural labourer. But now, with barely any work following the demonetisation declaration, he says he has had enough. His wife has already packed their clothes and a handful of their belongings into a small bundle.The few notes of Rs 100 he has managed to borrow from his employer in Jafarpur village will buy him the tickets home.
Avtar is one of the approximately 15,000 daily wage labourers in Udham Singh Nagar who have come to the region from UP and Bihar in search of better income opportunities but have now been hit hard by the government’s demonetisation of Rs500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes. With no bank accounts or identity proofs and their employers not having enough cash to pay them, the labourers stare at an uncertain future. Many are faced with the dilemma of either waiting for things to improve or return to their homes. Most have chosen the latter option.
It may well be a case of moving from the fire to the frying pan since the situation back home in their villages is no better. But the labourers say that at least, they will be saved the additional expenditure on their food and stay in the city while they await work. “ We will have to do odd jobs to survive. We are prepared to do that,” says Milan Haldar resignedly. Haldar hails from Pilibhit in UP and has been working in the fields at Dhaulpur village for the past seven years. He used to earn Rs 300 as daily wages during the rabi season, enough to make two ends meet and to put some money aside. “I was also able to buy a bicycle for himself. My friends were extremely jealous,” he says, a light smile flickering momentarily on his face as he remembers better days.
In the past fortnight though, Halder has earned only Rs 500. He still counts himself among the lucky ones. Uday Bhaan, another labourer, says that he hasn’t been able to find a single day’s employment since November 8. “I have been surviving on the kindness of friends. The government should have thought about poor people like us before bringing about such radical changes,” he says.
After the end of the paddy season in the district, which is renowned as the rice bowl of Uttarakhand, wheat is sown in the fields till early December. Over 95,000 hectares of land in the district is under wheat cultivation and around 7,000 farmers need to sow seeds in their fields, a process which is getting stretched because of the blockages in cash flow. As per estimates, the delay in the sowing process may affect the overall yield from the district by 35 per cent. The government’s decision on Monday to allow buying of seeds with old currencies from designated state and central government outlets seems to have brought little cheer to farmers.
“Many of my labourers have already left. This order has come too late,” says Manoj Bathla, a farmer from Jafarpur village sitting near his barren fields watching more of his labourers head home.