Danger -- drought ahead

Danger -- drought ahead

The century’s worst drought last year left a trail of devastation that continues till date in some of the poorest areas of India. Amidst this scenario of continuing shortages of drinking water and livelihood opportunities, arises the fear of yet another year of drought.

Humanitarian agencies warn of a catastrophe if the drought-hit villages in tribal belts of western Orissa, western Madhya Pradesh (MP), Chattisgarh, the Thar desert in Rajasthan and some arid areas of Gujarat are left to the nature’s mercy yet again.

It’s the backward and tribal belts of the states that are invariably the worst hit. It underscores Amartya Sen’s theory that food shortage is not an environmental phenomenon but the culmination of a socio-economic process. Of course, Sen said this specifically in the context of famines, which have never surfaced in independent India.

Right now, thousands of people are facing continuing shortages of water and fodder, sometimes even food, worsening labour migration from Orissa and starting off new migration trends from parts of western MP. “It may be misleading to believe that if it rains for once, the drought gets over,” says G. Sriramappa, director of Oxfam-India, the indigenously funded offshoot of the renowned Oxford-based famine and disaster relief agency.

This viewpoint cuts through statistics. The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) claimed that in 2000, the country as a whole had received “normal” rains for the 12th consecutive year. Even in 1999, when India received 96 per cent of the normal rainfall, only seven out of 35 meteorological divisions recorded deficient rain but its impact had been devastating.

By the end of 2000, there has been a phenomenal increase in the number of women who joined the flow of seasonal labour migration, notes a report complied by Paschim Orissa Krishijeevi Sangh (POKS - Agricultural Labourer’s Organisation) based in Nuapada (Orissa).

Even in non-drought years, thousands of landless or marginal peasants migrate from here in search of casual or contract labour Raipur in Chattisgarh and Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh. The drought has made it worse.

The starkest manifestation of the drought is visible in Padampur sub-division of Bargarh district, the POKS report notes. This area falls outside the irrigation command area of the Hirakud dam in Sambalpur. Villagers in Bargarh have resorted to eating roots for survival.

Unlike in the case of the Kalahandi-Bolangir-Koraput hunger belt, Bargarh received a delayed response from the administration and welfare agencies.Parts of the Rajasthan desert outside the command area of the Indira Gandhi canal are also facing water shortage, Oxfam-India claims.

Ironically, the delayed rains of 2000 and the subsequent floods haven’t made a dent in water and fodder scarcity here. Several villages in the Lunkaransar block in Bikaner have suffered floods as a year’s rains showered out on them over a single night.

“The topography of the desert area is such that in some areas the water drains out or trickles down within 24 hours without a trace, still in others sudden rains cause flash floods,” notes Ramappa, who has done field visits to these regions.Oxfam-India claims that there is water shortage in Churu and parts of Udaipur. The villagers term the drought a trikaal denoting a severe shortage of all three life-sustaining needs: food, water and fodder.

Reports suggest that thousands of heads of cattle had perished last year in Barmer, Jodhpur, in the desert region of Rajasthan and in parts of Udaipur, Pali and Churu. New field reports suggest a livelihood crisis in the predominantly pastoral villages of the state.

Environmentalists also point out that the deterioration of traditional water harvesting structures in Rajasthan have exacerbated the water shortage.Gujarat, even before its latest reversal, was on the edge of a major disaster, with reports suggesting that hundreds of villages in large parts of Kutch, Panchmahal and Rajkot and Jamnagar are reeling under drought conditions .

Despite government-sponsored innovative watershed protection measures, western MP’s villages also suffer water shortage.

Fields lie barren in Dhar and are triggering off mass migration. The newly-formed state of Chattisgarh finds its infrastructure stretched to the limit in its attempt to respond to the drought.

Women are severely affected by drought and labour migration. They face increased health risks and threats of physical violation.

Sometimes, they are being forced to stay back at the labour sites, even when their men return home, an Oxfam update on the drought scenario notes.This is done to ensure that men do not abandon the work after receiving and advances.

Life in these work sites is extremely grim, and they are forced to live on a shoestring budget, consuming substandard food to save up to enough money to return home with. Most migrant families take huge advances before they leave.Being largely illegal, labour migration remains an unaccounted activity. So it becomes next to impossible to ensure minimum wages or labour rights for a migrant.

In case of accident, sickness or death of a migrant, there is virtually no way to ensure compensation.

The drought scenario calls for a twin strategy of food security provision and capacity building in select drought-hit areas, charity workers suggest.

Significantly, the regions like western Orissa attract crores of rupees from the government and international donor agencies. Still, the abject poverty and marginalisation there continue, due to a lack of overall growth and the access of the poorest to natural resources.