Click to play videoAzamgarh (Uttar Pradesh): The Union Government announced a Rs 60,000 crore loan waiver to help small farmers struggling too pay back their loans.
However, farmers of Poorvanchal in Uttar Pradesh are facing another problem as migration of young men from the villages means that there are not enough people to work in the fields.
Ambika Rai's village in Azamgarh is like hundreds of others in the fertile belt of Poorvanchal. He is from an upper caste zamindar (land owners) family of the village but says it doesn't pay to be a zamindar anymore.
"Traditionally the landowner never worked in his own farms, while the under-privileged, I don't want to say Dalits but the under-privileged lower -caste villagers tilled the land. The zamindar now have to do as much work as anyone else," Rai says.
One reason why caste barriers have broken is because the younger generation of the area prefers to go and live in the cities.
Working in cities means freedom from all the traditional bondages of the village.
Rai's brother who is also the pradhan (headman) of the village says that it is impossible to find low cost lower-caste labourers to work the bullocks
"They are ashamed of working in our fields. They will go and work in Delhi and Bombay for Rs 1500, but if we offer them as much here, they will not work. And for us its not possible to pay more than that," he says.
Traditionally the upper caste land -lord employed the lower caste labour to work in his fields using the bullock-pulled plough. Exploitation and untouchability were rampant in villages but now all that has changed.
Earlier the halwaha (those who use the plough) labourer was exploited. Today everyone uses tractors. Earlier the zamindar would shout at them and make them work as long as he wanted
In the Dalit quarters of the village most men have left for the cities while it's the women who manage the affairs.
The men work as painter, cleaner, technicians and other odd jobs in the big cities.
The migration story is not just about the changing face of Indian cities, It has also about the changing face of Indian villages.
In Poorvanchal, as the traditional labourers left for the cities, the sight of a farmer working with a pair of bullocks is now a story of the past.
(With inputs from Sathish Kumar)
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