Two features refer to the geography of the Bundelkhand, the region in Central India has expanded over 13 districts of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh: steep hills of Vindhyas and gradually modest precipitation and increasingly drought.
Consider the Virgin District in Madhya Pradesh. According to data From the Indian meteorological ward, the virgin gradually receives fewer precipitation, although temperatures rise. According to one estimateThe average temperature in the Bundelkhand is expected to rise by 2-3.5 ° C 2100.
The region thus became the focus of drought. For example, the data in Madhya Pradesh faced nine droughts between 1998 and 2009. In the same period, the districts of Lalitpur and Mahoba in Uttar Pradesh suffered eight.
Farmers in the region were the worst. Since their crops failed more often, they tried to make the targets met and slip deeper into the debt. Agricultural workers took over other jobs such as working in diamond mines in the region. When it was not enough, the men left their families behind and migrated, Surendra Singh Jatav, a docent of the economy for Babasheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University (BBA), said Lucknow. Their destinations are “Surrat, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai”.
Jatav has studied the impact of climate change on farmers’ lives in the Bundelkhand since 2012. The most important change, he said, is in the social structure of the Bundelkhand villages.
Climatic migration
A little more than 1,500 km from the Bundelkhand is the village of Charpauli in Bangladesh. Charpauli is located along the banks of the Jamuna River and has a significantly different problem. Every year during the Jamuna monsoons, it enlarges and absorbs the country on its shores. Big pieces of the Earth tears and are washed away and take people with them.
According to some media reports in Bangladesh, in one week in May 2022, the erosion of the river in Jamuna destroyed around 500 houses in Charpaul and left thousands of homeless people. In a 2023 studyScientists from Dhaka University of Engineering and Technology used satellite images to find out that between 1990 and 2020 the left bank of the river was reduced by about 12 m and the right shore by about 52 m each year.
Scientists they suggested The fact that climate change leads to a larger volume of water flowing through a particular river channel at a certain time, which in turn increases the risk of flooding and erosion.
The arid land of the Bundelkhand and the flooded shores of Jamuna share one similarity. Since their houses are consumed by a constantly developing river, people first try to withdraw from the bank, sometimes build fresh houses on arable land. After that it is no longer possible to survive in the village, according to research worker ETH Zürich Jan Freihadt migrate whole households in nearby cities, such as Dhaka as the last option.
Freihadt, a postdo -championship researcher, studied climate migration in Charpauli and other villages.
Climatic migration concerns the movement of people resulting from disasters related to climate change, which can be sudden (floods, cyclones, etc.) or gradual (rising temperature, increase of sea levels, etc.). According to a 2022 Report According to a project of international assistance of refugees, the climate and incidents related to the weather are forcing about 20 million people to migrate to other areas in their own countries each year. This is called internal migration.
While migration outside the Jamuna bank is permanent, climate change can also worsen seasonal migration in many areas. One such case is the migration from Visarby and Marathwady, two infamous to the drought of Maharashtra.
Sugar cane and bitter ends
Farmers load the harvested crop of sugar cane on the tractor to be transported to the mill for a sugar mill, in the village of Karad, October 2022. Photo Credit: PTI
The regions of Vidarbha and Marathwad are in the rain shadow of Western Ghats.
A rain shadow is formed when the region is located on the side of the mountains from the sea. As the water evaporates from the sea, warm and humid air rises. When it reaches the upper part of the mountains, it condenses to form clouds that eventually rains on the side facing the sea. At a time when the air passes through the mountains to the other side, almost all humidity has been exhausted, so that the side from the sea receives only small or no precipitation, over time argues. It happened with Vidarbha and Marathwada.
Climate change deteriorates this situation. Both regions recorded irregular precipitation late.
“The number of rain days decreases and grows on a certain day. has also revealed These temperatures in two regions already exceeded the 50 ° C brand in May.
Those who live here pack their belongings on the Bullock and travel hundreds of kilometers to the plantations of sugar cane in western mahara and Karnataka. They stay there for four to six months and work as “cane cutters” in these areas, Bhatkhande, the head of communication in social impact advice on behalf of Asar.
Bhatkhande has been involved in research projects that study the extent and impact of drought in the mahara.
India is the largest producer in the world and a consumer of sugar cane. Ministry for Consumer Affairs, Food Distribution and Public reported that in 2021The country produced 50 crore tons of sugar cane and generated revenues of more than 20,000 CRS.
This flattering number does not reflect the reality of migrating workers reaping the field of sugar cane of the Earth.
According to Bhatkhande, the cane of cane is usually hired as a couple: the husband cuts them with sugar cane and the wife accumulates them. Together, the couple is called Koita – Marathi the word for a sickle used for cutting sugar cane. These workers are hired by a supplier known as Mukaddam, who will pay the couple a deposit: the amount that can move anywhere between 50,000 and 5 lakh depending on the financial requirements of the couple, the size of the sugar cane and the amount of sugar cane expects to be this year.
“The non -perception and conditions of this migration and wages that deteriorate them have deteriorated year -on -year,” Bhatkhande added.
Because advances are paid, the workers are obliged to work until they have enough sugar cane to match the payment. For example, if the steam has been paid 50,000 RS of 367 RS per ton of harvested sugar cane, 136 tonnes of sugar cane have to reduce during the harvest period. Uneven rainfall and dry spells, however, reduced the production of sugar cane, which is a water -intensive crop. This means that the workers have to return the next season without further payment to replace the deficit and create a cycle of debt slavery.
The deteriorating precitarity also reflects who migrates: “Previously, people at the age of 30 and 20 were those who migrated. Now people who are approaching their 70s and 80 are also migrating to work,” Bhatkhande said. Younger people cut sugar cane and load its piles on tractors, while the older ones are hired to remove weeds from the farm, sorted and stacked the stick before its loading.
When migrants reach fields of sugar cane, they get “extremely dirty and shabby land where they can build their homes,” she added. According to her, they usually have the shape of plastic sheets without electricity, toilets or water.
Adaptation v. Shift
Conditions are not better for migrants from Bundelkhand. Jatav, economist BBAu, said that in the metropolitan cities they migrate, they work as workers with daily wages, safety guards and in Dhabas (Roadside Restaurants). Only those who are highly qualified will get jobs that pay enough money to rent a room. Others adapt to slums where poor hygiene leads to deterioration of their health, added Jatav.
Back home is different. As the migrants’ family waits for its remittance to arrive – which may take about six months after the person migrated and established a shop in the city, according to the estimate of Jatava – trying to meet the goals. The worst hit is women and children. When the women left to manage “everything in themselves”, according to Jatava, they cannot effectively see if their children go to school. He added that women are also more and more vulnerable to sexual assault.
For migrants from Charpauli and other villages on the shores of Jamun, what they do after migration. Some villagers migrate to other villages, Freihadt said. There they are put into jobs that resemble their lives in their previous homes, which now lie underwater: “Agricultural work for other people’s countries”. Those who migrate to cities occupy more informal jobs such as Rickshaw, construction work and daily wages in bricks.
In a Comment 2011 In nature, scientists at the University of Sussex and the United Kingdom government claimed that migration “can be the most effective way to allow people to diversify income and build resistance, where environmental change threatens livelihoods”. This means that they suggested that migration could be an adaptation against loss of livelihood caused by climate change.
However, Jatav disagreed: at least in connection with the Bundelkhand, he explained that migration was a form of “forced displacement” that reduces “social security of migrants and their family”.
“Migration is not an adaptation. It’s a crisis.”
Sayantan Datta is an independent journalist and a member of the Faculty at Krea University. Tweet @quersprings. The author would like to thank Annuu Jaalas, Chirag Lies and Jaideep Hardikar for their inputs.
