No water for their fields, Dahod tribals on the move
A predominantly tribal district, Dahod is now busy celebrating marriages. For, the wedding season has already started and it will go on till the third week of April.
But as polls will closely follow marriages this time, local leaders are worried. Just after the marriage season, a considerable chunk of the population will migrate either to south Saurashtra or Kutch as they do every year. “They are our traditional voters,” said Ishwar Bhai D Parmar, Dahod district Congress spokesperson.
Of the 212-million Dahod population, 1.2 million are voters. Of them, 72% are tribals and 90.99% live in rural areas. Gover nment figures show 25-30% of Dahod’s population has to migrate, belying the BJP PM candidate, Narendra Modi’s claims of development.
“They have land, but no water for irrigation. Most of the tribals going out of Dahod are either working in road construction companies or going to Saurashtra to work in farms,” said a senior government official, preferring anonymity.
Also, Lalit Bhai Patel, a twotime Congress MLA from Dahod and a former minister said, “Migration has gone up during the last 10 years mainly due to the lack of irrigation facilities in the area.”
But those associated with the RSS and the BJP are trying to downplay the migration. “Outward migration is in
MOST OF THE TRIBALS GOING OUT OF DAHOD ARE EITHER WORKING IN ROAD CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES OR GOING TO SAURASHTRA TO WORK IN FARMS. A SENIOR GOVT OFFICIAL
their mindset. They don’t want to labour back home,” said Bhagwan Bhai Panchal, an old associate of the Gujarat CM since his RSS pracharak days.
District administration sources said the government was developing Halol and Savli as a Special Investment Feature (SIF) to check migration. “Already General Motors and CEAT have started operating from there and very soon the Hero group will build a factory at Halol,” said a senior official.
But Parmar said the district had been getting a yearly budget of ` 900 crore, but the tribals still have no water to till their land. “Getting 24-hour electricity and building roads are not enough.”
A senior government official admitted: “Dahod is not a representative of the development elsewhere in Gujarat.” A study by a Dahod-based NGO showed the average landholding of a tribal is less than one hectare. Of that, only 50-70% land is under irrigation.
The study says roughly 70% of the households have at least one person migrating every year. And of them, 37% are women.
The neighbouring Godhara district of the Panchmahal parliamentary constituency, which witnessed the 2002 train burning incident, also faces a similar problem.
“Nearly 25% of the population from these area is going to Saurashtra and the Kutch region causing a low voter turnout,” informed a district official.