Rupee dreams: Tribal youth opting for jobs over studies
Telangana | Written by : Suryaa Desk
Many are dropping out of school to work at function halls in Hyderabad
You are likely to miss the innocuous looking handbills which announce job openings in private sector in Hyderabad but if you do pay attention you would only be chancing upon a great change taking place in the Adivasi ethos in Adilabad and Kumram Bheem Asifabad districts. Pasted at strategic places in the Agency mandals, these posters are attracting hundreds of poor youths from the aboriginal tribes of Gond and Kolam to the capital city where they work in marriage halls and in hotels.
Nothing wrong in landing a job but if the youngsters migrate at the cost of their education, it certainly becomes a worrisome factor. It is estimated that every Adivasi village in the two districts has at least 10 youngsters dropping out of school or junior college to work in Hyderabad.
Work in hotels
Take the case of the 15 youths from Kondapathar village, a habitation of the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group of Kolams in Jainoor mandal of KB Asifabad district. All of them are dropouts and work in marriage halls and hotels in Dilsukhnagar and Kothapet earning about ? 7,000 per month.
“We are poor and need to work so we went to Hyderabad,” summed up Athram Ayyu who dropped out of Intermediate. He and Athram Tulsiram are working in the capital city since 2013 and like others stay at their work place itself.
“The financial condition of our families has improved only after our boys started working in Hyderabad,” asserted Sidam Dharmu, the Patel or village headman, as he justifies the migration of the youth. “Each one of them contributes ?3,000 to ?5,000 per month to their families,” he added.
Attractive package
The youths do not have to worry about food either as their employment package includes food twice daily. They however, are allowed a home visit only during important events like Pola and Diwali festivals in July and November months or if there is a marriage in the family.
A conservative estimate puts the number of youths from the Agency villages working in Hyderabad at around 5,000 at the rate of five youths from the 100 larger Adivasi villages in the Agency areas, some of them scattered in Mancherial and Nirmal districts as well. This is a higher number when compared with the ethnic tribe population in undivided Adilabad, point out experts.
The Integrated Tribal Development Agency at Utnoor, which looks after all developmental aspects of tribal people, does not have any data with regard to such migrations. It has however, helped check the migration to a certain extent by way of offering self employment opportunities to PVTG youths under the Conservation cum Development Plan.