A village of empty homes in Hanur constituency 

HANUR (CHAMARAJANAGAR): As you enter the interior villages of Hanur assembly constituency which borders Tamil Nadu, all you can see is groups of elderly men sitting on Aralikatte (platform built around peepal tree) and school going boys and girls playing on the streets. Most of the streets in these villages wear a deserted look and surprisingly the sight of young men is rare.

Ask Kalashetty, an 80-year-old in Kuratti Hosur village, and pat comes the reply. “Why will the young men be here? What will they feed their kids when they have no jobs?” As per the gram panchayat figures, Kuratti Hosur village has a population of 3,380. But the village elders say it is less than half of that. Pointing towards shops in the heart of the village, Kalashetty says: “You can see people only here. Go inside the village and all you can see is deserted streets and locked houses.” That happens to be true. The ghost villages are dotted with locked and broken houses, indicating that it has been years since anybody lived here. There are rows of houses but people reside in only one or two of these.

Youngsters of the villages of Kuratto Hosur, Cowdalli, Chengdi, Dantalli, Dinnalli, Ramapura, Gajanuru, Koppa, Minnya, K S Doddi and Nakkundi among others have migrated to cities such as Bengaluru, Coimbatore, Sathyamangala and Tirupur in search of jobs. Migration is nothing new here, but what is surprising is that it is on the rise despite government schemes designed to check migration. Agriculture is the main occupation in Hanur and people are dependent on rain for it. The region was one of the worst hit

during droughts for two consecutive years. Farmers not just lost their crops, but also saw their livestock die as there was no water to quench their thirst. The situation is somewhat better this year with some rain.

Many villages are also devoid basic amenities such as proper roads, drinking water, health care and education facilities. Chengdi, a village with a population of 450, is the worst hit. Surrounded by forest on three sides, the village does not have a motorable road. While a few families have two-wheelers, a majority of them have to trek at least 15km to Cowdalli for medical emergency. If no help comes their way, people carry the patients and pregnant women to the hospital. Chengdi villagers boycotted the last Lok Sabha and panchayat elections hoping to draw some attention, but nothing happened. They have threatened to boycott the this time too.

Venkataraju, a villager, says the elected representatives do not care about their problems. “A building for a health centre was constructed in Kuratti Hosur two years ago, but it is still not functional. The PHC in the neighbouring Shettalli has been locked since the last one year as no doctor wants to work there. As a result, people of five to six villages have to go to Cowdalli or Ramapura, which is 10-20km away from the hospital,” another villager added.

Krishi Bhagya,what’s that?

The much hyped Krishi Bhagya, which aims at efficient management of rainwater to improve farm productivity, has not been of any help here. Strangely, not just farmers, even the staff at Kuratti Hosur gram panchayat have not heard about any scheme called Krishi Bhagya. Even under MGNREGA, only four farm ponds have been built in the gram panchayat, which covers four villages. While the villagers complain about lack of jobs under MGNREGA, Panchayat Development Officer Rajesh denies it. “They do not find MGNREGA wages attractive as it is not even half of what earn in a day in Bengaluru working as construction labourers. Ask those who say there are no jobs if they have even availed job cards. If
they are really interested, they would have regis-tered with us.”