Youth who returned from K'taka makes best of Jharkhand polls

You don’t have to be a Robert Vadra to post a 1,000 per cent increase in your earnings in a couple of years. At least this is what one concludes after meeting a simple guy from Giridih, who worked in Hubli-Dharwad region but left Karnataka for greener pastures in his hometown.

Today, he earns ten times more than what he had earned at Sattur near Hubli. Through his sheer grit, business acumen and foresightedness, the 27-year-old youth Sandeep Mehta from Maoist-infested Atka block in Giridih has become a role model for other unemployed in this region.

Faced with acute financial crisis and lack of jobs in the State, Sandeep left for Maharashtra in 2009 and then to Karnataka where he performed menial jobs to make a living. “I worked in Mumbai. But soon shifted to Hubli-Dharwad where I got a relatively better job at Sattur. I was a helper in a private company where I was attached with a JCB machine engaged in earth-work,” said Sandeep.

“I used to then earn Rs 2,000 per month. For a single person like me, it was okay. But I could not save enough to send some amount back home to my parents at Tuktuko village in Giridih.

It was then that I thought I should dream big,” he added.
The Jharkhand boy eventually packed his bags and took a train to his home state. “I decided to sell sugarcane juice on National Highway as our village as well as two other villages – Gandhitand and Lachchibaghi – were good producers of sugarcane.


Initially, I purchased a tricycle and few kgs of sugarcane and took to the highway where I sold juice on the NH leading to Dhanbad. That time in 2010, I was alone. When my business clicked, many fellows from Gandhitand and Lachchibaghi followed my business model and are today laughing all the way to the bank,” Sandeep told Deccan Herald.

The son of the soil, who has braved Maoists from nearby forest areas, elephants from adjoining hills and some corrupt policemen, who patrol the area, today feels that his business in the last four years has helped him save substantial sum, besides taking care of his parents.
DH News Service