Kalahandi. This area of Orissa has become synonymous with hunger, desparity and inhumanity, not only for the national media but also for the international media. It is commonly believed that if someone wants to experiment with the developmental journalsim, then he can visit Kalahandi. Can there be another Kalahandi in India. Pause for a moment. Yes there is. Just few kilometers from the state capital of Uttar Pradesh-the biggest state of the biggest democratic setup of the world. Welcome to Bundelkhand, a place known for valour and chivarlry. This can be gauged by the folklore of India where Bundelkhand was cited as an example for the bravery, courtsey to Rani of Jhansi.
My hunger of news and experimentation forced me to roam in Bundelkhand. For one week the ETV team was in Bundelkhand. The real motto behind the tour was to get the first hand information that how a part of the state has been neglected by the state and central government. To give voice to the voiceless farmers and villagers was the main motive behind the tour.
But it has been only scribbled and is far away from the reality. And it is said that reality bites. This proved when ETV team toured the entire area comprising of 1300 kilometer in a streatch. Reality was far away from imagination. The farmers here were seen in a hurry to sell off their land at a throw away price. And the farmers who could not sell their land or were not able to move commited suicide. Welcome to Bundelkhand where one can comfortably die but can never lead a confortable life. Data screams this to deaf ears- in the last month of this year of the twenty first century 120 including thirty farmers have ended their life.
This can not be a regional issue. This is a issue of national concern. ETV decided to explore this. Before this it was commonly believed that Vidharbha is the most tragic area of the state. But after touring Bundelkhand, this theory has been changed.
Now the question arises. What are the factors that places Bundelkhand on the top of the chart when we talk of death due to hunger and backwardness. Any society can only prosper when the social and economical aspect peospers. It seems that uncertanity has synchronised with the climate of Bundelkhand. For the past half decade, farmers of Bundelkhand has lost their job as drought has camped in this area.
Come to Padui village, mere forty kilometers from Banda. Here each and evert farmers have fallen to debt trap. It is the matter of fact that here in Bundelkhand debt resembles quicksand. Slowly and gradually, you go inside and after sometime you transform into memory. In the last half decade five farmers of this village have committed suicide. This has forced the villagers for the mass exodus as more than a lakh farmers have left the village, not in the search of greenar pasture but in search of livelihood so that they can live.
Alas, nor the government of Uttar Pradesh and nor the Delhi have ever cared to take the stock of Bundelkhand. Cost of land in Noida are touching sky but here in Bundelkhand cost of the land never appreciates but only depriciates. What an irony. Bundelkhand and Noida are part of Uttar Pradesh. This can be said as the best example of regional descrimination. Government says that this land has been armed with the best facility of irrigation. But eyes and bytes of farmers says that nothing has been done here so far.
It is not that the government has done nothing for them. An ambitious scheme of Kisan Credit Card was started for them. But that added to their vows as most of the farmers failed to clear the amount and finding no way out succumbed to debt and ended theie life.
And when effort of government failed to yeild result, villagers were left to the mercy of bandits. Since the villagers of Bundelkhand are not wealthy enough to be looted so the bandits here eye the developmental fund. They tax the developmental fund as this is the source where they can be financially sound to operate their gang. Not only this, but they also play a pivotal role in election process.
Apathy of Bundelkhand was aired on ETV. After it was aired, it was prominently taken by the national media. Be it IBN-7 or Star news, they all went on the same line of ours. Well, when the lanes were the same, the line was obvious to be same. So we can say that we have initiated a debate of the national media, and now there is a hope that some day Bundelkhand may also have the taste of development.
No comments:
Post a Comment