The agriculture sector is faced with imminent danger in the wake of an increase in migration of people from villages, journalist P Sainath said.
He was speaking during a seminar on 'Migration', held as part of Bahuroopi, the national theatre festival here on Saturday. "The migration of rural people, especially farmers, has increased in the period from 1991 to 2011. In these two decades, over nine crore people have migrated to urban areas in India. In Odisha, for example, most of the houses in the villages have been abandoned. Only children have stayed back in villages. Girl children have dropped out of schools. Over 3.10 lakh farmers have committed suicide," he said.
He said that due to demonetisation of higher denomination currency notes in 2016, migrant workers were facing hardships. "One should travel with them to understand their sufferings. Most of the elections are held in their absence. Thus, they have no say in the democratic set up. Rather than economists, people with creativity, such as artists, writers and theatrepersons can understand their problems better because economists lack sentiments and emotions," he said.
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