Why more than 90,000 villagers have left Chhattisgarh in last 3 years

By Newsgram Staff Writer

Chhattisgarh is facing yet another crisis of exodus. Entire families have left for greener pastures for want of work, in spite of the central government's rural job scheme in place and availability of rice at Re.1 a kilo.

"We (55 labourers and 15 children) are leaving for Faizabad (in Uttar Pradesh) where we will make bricks. The payment is Rs.400 for 1,000 bricks. Two labourers can make 1,000 bricks in a day. We will come back after working for six months there," Kans Nishad of Baloda Bazar said at the Raipur railway station.

According to government statistics, 95,324 people have left their homes in the last three years. A substantial part of the migration – 29,190 – took place from Janjgir-Champa district.

"People living below the poverty line are not getting jobs in spite of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Scheme (MNREGS) being operational in the state," quoted news agency IANS.

The migrants have taken up odd jobs as construction workers of roads, houses in states like moved to Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir and Madhya Pradesh.

Workers have not received any employment under MNREGS for last nine months and some have not been paid for the past 6 to 10 months.