Marathwada's Farm Workers Now Migrate Even In The Summer
Also this week: The fight against neglected tropical diseases, poor documentation of stillbirths, and man-animal conflict in UP's Bahraich
Hello
THE latest available data indicate that over 600 million Indians migrate internally in search of work. If migrants were a country, they would be the third most populous in the world behind India and China, and by far outnumbering the entire population of the United States.
The numbers point to the multiple stressors facing India today—notably the decline of the agricultural sector and accelerating environmental distress making previously habitable regions unlivable. Alarmingly, the rate of migration is increasing exponentially every successive year.
To understand the very real problems behind abstract numbers, take the case of Marathwada, a notoriously drought-prone region in Maharashtra where, according to official figures, as many as 1,088 farmers committed suicide in 2023, up by 65 from the corresponding figures for the previous year. (Ironically, as we write this, unprecedented flooding has claimed 12 lives and displaced over 5,000 people in the region.)
“Normally,” says local farmer Savitra Thadke, “we would get work as daily wage labourers in the farms in our village.” Nowadays, Thadke says, farmers don’t cultivate the usual crops in summer as there is no water. And so Thadke, and many other marginal farmers in the region, have begun migrating to other states in search of work even in the summer months where, earlier, they would have found work preparing area farms for the kharif season.
Varsha Torgalkar reports from Marathwada on why over one million area farmers out-migrate during the summer months—a story that underlines the enormous stresses faced by agricultural workers in a country where over 50% of the population depend on agriculture for a livelihood.
The fight against neglected tropical diseases
INDIA’s healthcare sector suffers from multiple problems—not least the habit of policymakers to take their eye off the ball.
Take the case of chikungunya, a viral disease spread by mosquitoes that causes fever and intense pain in the joints. The name of the disease itself is derived from Makonde, a language spoken by an ethnic group in southeast Tanzania, and it means “to become contorted”—an accurate description of sufferers from crippling joint pain.
The disease, which appeared in India in 2005 and was since thought to have been eradicated, has made a reappearance over the last year or so. And it is not the only one—instances of various neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are on the increase, with experts pointing to climate change, urbanisation and drug-resistant parasites as primary causes.
To understand the causes and consequences of the resurgence of NTDs, Nushaiba Iqbal spoke to microbiologist and immunologist Nirmal Kumar Ganguly, a Padma Bhushan awardee and former director of the Indian Council of Medical Research. The wide-ranging interview is an alarm bell ringing in our collective ears.
India does not document stillbirths well
OF ALL the tragedies to befall a pregnant woman, stillbirth is arguably the worst—not only does she have to deal with the grief of a lost child, she also has to endure the stigma of a society conditioned to believe that it is her fault, that she is somehow accursed.
The underlying cause is poor documentation of stillbirths, which in turn leads to a lack of understanding of the root causes and results in poor quality of care during pregnancy.
It is a vicious cycle. The healthcare infrastructure is not geared to understand and document the causes of stillbirths, and society is largely apathetic to the issue—with the result that India records an estimated 286,482 stillbirths on average each year, the highest for any country. Menaka Rao explores this little-known issue, and delves into causes, consequences, and what can be done to remedy an eminently preventable tragedy.
Man-animal conflict in UP’s Bahraich
‘ATTENTION! You are hereby warned that dangerous wild animals are on the loose, targeting children and even adults. Do not venture out of your homes after dark!’
The ominous warning greets natives and visitors to Mahsi tehsil in Uttar Pradesh’s Bahraich district. The reason: feral wolves that pose a clear and present danger to the lives of the people spread across 30 villages in the area.
For IndiaSpend Hindi, Mithilesh Dubey and Azeem Mirza explore what is a new front in the ongoing man-animal conflict that plays out in various parts of the country.
Thanks for reading; we will be back next week with more stories that merit your attention. Take care, stay safe.