Hubballi: Sixty-three year old Draupadi Pawar, a Lambani woman from the tiny Nagavi Tanda, around 6 kms from Gadag, is desperately waiting for her two sons working in Goa to return as she has to repay a loan she took to cultivate her fields.
With her crop failing she has no other means to repay it and now she is afraid the Goa government’s action against Kannadigas will take away the family’s only means of livelihood.
"Our children are not involved in robbery or any other crime. They are hardworking people, who have contributed to the development of tourism in Goa by working in its construction industry for over a decade. Their eviction will be a severe blow to our family as they will not get proper wages anywhere in Gadag district due to the drought," the woman laments as she sits on the doorstep of her small house doing embroidery.
Her plight is shared by many in Nagavi Tanda as nearly 80 percent of its people are working in other towns and cities, especially in Goa, owing to the drought that has left them unemployed and hungry. Visit the village and all you see are locked doors and deserted streets. The situation is no different in the adjacent Kalasapur, Mahalingapur, Dindur and Doni tandas.
While Draupadi’s older son works as a construction labourer in Margao for Rs 600 a day, her other son runs a taxi in Goa and makes around Rs 11,000 a month. They are among the many Lambanis, who have migrated to Panjim, Vasco, Margao and other parts of Goa for work, selling their land and cattle or leasing out their farms over the last few years.
Gadag Zilla Panchayat chief executive officer, Manjunath Chahwan, however, claims the administration has provided enough jobs under MGNREGS to stop migration from the rural areas to places like Goa. “I will inspect all the Lambani tandas and arrange to provide them jobs," he assured, when contacted.
