Eastern UP district has no avenues for employment, leading to high migration. But thanks to the economic slowdown, people are returning to a bleak future.
Jaunpur: The 60-odd-kilometre drive from Varanasi to Jaunpur is dotted with hundreds of advertisements for coaching institutes painted and scribbled on the walls along the highway. Computer training, English speaking, vocational skilling – you name it, and it’s being taught in Jaunpur district.
None of it gets utilised locally, though. Thanks to a dismal lack of employment opportunities, Jaunpur has among the highest outward migration levels in eastern Uttar Pradesh.
But now, thanks to the double whammy of demonetisation and GST, several who had migrated are back home, and are facing a crisis.
Poorvanchal is the least developed part of UP, and Jaunpur, situated in the heart of the region, is reflective of that lack of development. Nearly every rural family in the district has at least one male member working outside the state, be it in Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Surat, or other big cities.
But even that avenue seems to be closing – according to the BSE-CMIE survey, about 1.5 million jobs were lost in India during January-April 2017, with total employment coming down to 405 million compared to the four-month period at the end of last year as the growth rate in Asia’s third largest economy declined for six straight quarters.
Tales of despair
Kishan Kumar, in his mid-twenties, worked as a labourer at a factory in Mumbai until a month ago, when he was told there was no more work for him. He has now returned to his village Bharsath, but is planning to go back to Mumbai to look for another job.
“My employer just told me there is no more work here so find something else for yourself. I have come back to the village, but there is absolutely no work here for us, so I will go back and try to find something, which will not be easy. It is very difficult for us with no work here and jobs also disappearing in the city,” he says.
In Aruawahi village a little further down the road, Bansiraj Pal is shearing sheep with some members of his family. His 19-year-old son had gone to Mumbai in search of a job, much like others in this district do, but had to return on not finding anything.
“Here, except some manual labour and ad-hoc farming, there is no work. There are no industries, no jobs. My son, who has studied till Class 12, refuses to do the work we do, and now in cities also, it seems there are no jobs,” Pal says with an air of resignation.
This is precisely the irony of Jaunpur – for most rural youth who have studied till Class 12 and attended coaching classes, the opportunities in the district aren’t enough, sending them looking for more ‘respectable’ jobs elsewhere.
“Most people from my village who had migrated were working in cities like Nashik, Surat, Delhi and Mumbai. However, after demonetisation and GST, the smaller industries and looms are shutting down, or at least cutting costs, forcing several of these people to return,” says Surya Bhan Yadav, the pradhan of Jamalpur village.
“The hawks have survived but the pigeons have died because of this economic slowdown,” he adds.
Suresh Bind, a Jamalpur native who worked at an aluminium factory in Nashik, had to leave after his employers cut down on their workforce. He is now trying to set up something on his own here.
Phoolchand, who works as a salesman with a small toothpaste company in Mumbai, adds: “I am here on vacation, but some of my co-workers have lost their jobs. Of the 15 of us, four were asked to leave, and have had to come back to the village.”
Chintamani Yadav, a social activist in Kothari village, explains that some of those who migrate to bigger cities are self-employed – as autorickshaw drivers or tailors. These are the people who continue to find work. But those less well off, like daily labourers, have been worst hit. He estimates that 25 per cent of those who migrated from his village have returned.
However, there are those who remain hopeful. “Jobs in cities can never dry up. It’s temporary. There is enough work there. My son and nephew work in Nashik even now,” says Ashok Patel, who lives in Rampur Khaas.
Gloomy future
Concerns over employment are plaguing not just those trying to earn a livelihood, but also those whose future is at stake.
Sonu Yadav of Jamalpur, who is studying science in Class 12 at a private school, hopes to study engineering, after taking coaching classes from one of the institutes in the area.
“There are no jobs here. And now, from those coming back, we hear that jobs are fast disappearing in cities too. We really worry about our future,” he says.
But even as he says this, the elders around him mock him for sounding more serious about his future prospects than he ever does about his studies.