Indians flock to makeshift Mumbai camp amid worst drought in decades

Hundreds of farmers and their families have fled the drought-hit region of Marathwada in Maharashtra state, travelling hundreds of kilometres in search of water and work.

Anusha Jadhav cooks her evening meal of rice and dal in the camp at Ghatkopar on the outskirts of north Mumbai. Subhash Sharma for The National
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MUMBAI // As dusk descends on an area of dusty land on the outskirts of north Mumbai, Anusha Jadhav sits on the ground preparing a meal of dal, rice, and chapattis.

The 43-year-old is one of hundreds of people who have flocked to a makeshift migrant camp in Ghatkopar, travelling hundreds of kilometres from the drought-hit region of Marathwada in Maharashtra state.

These farmers and their families have come in search of work and water as India’s worst drought in decades continues amid a heatwave that has killed more than 300 people.

In January, Mrs Jadhav and her husband, Dadarao, along with their 22-year-old son, left their farm in Latur, one of the districts most affected by the drought. Mr Jadhav, 45, says that without water he had no hope of growing crops on his 1.75 acres of land.

Since arriving in Ghatkopar, the couple have obtained casual work as construction labourers, with Mrs Jadhav paid 300 rupees (Dh16.55) per day and Mr Jadhav 450 rupees per day. They only receive work about twice a week, but after two years of weak monsoon rains and failed crops back in Latur, even this is welcome income.

“We want to stay in Mumbai,” Mrs Jadhav says. “Even if it rains, we don’t want to go back.”

Mr Jadhav says “there’s no money in farming” and believes he can make a better living in Mumbai. His parents, who remained in Latur, can tend their farm, he adds.

In Ghatkopar, pigs roam about the camp looking for food, while rubbish is strewn across the floor. The boundaries of each family’s “home” is marked by a few wooden poles stuck in the ground. In some cases families have stretched bedsheets between the poles to provide some semblance of privacy and protection from the searing heat of the sun.

A security guard is on watch by the camp’s water tank to prevent fights from breaking out over supplies.

Almost 1,000 people are living in the camp, according to Kavita Deshmukh, the camp’s volunteer coordinator and vice president of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Mumbai’s north-east district.

She says that all of the camp’s residents must return to their villages once the monsoon rains arrive in June.

“They can’t stay here,” she adds. “They have their own farms and their own place in their village.”

The camp will turn into a mud bath when the rains come. They are predicted to be heavier than the previous two years but there is no guarantee.

NGOs and concerned individuals regularly bring supplies to Ghatkopar, including food, soap, toys and notebooks for the children. The BJP, meanwhile, fills up the water tank twice a day, but Ms Deshmukh insists the camp is not run by the government.

At that moment, a woman arrives with a carload of supplies. Spotting it, residents rush to grab what they can and begin to fight over clothes and food. The donor is forced to lock the car before the situation escalates.

Dayanad Rathore, 40, a soya bean and lentil farmer from the district of Nandar, has been living at the camp for 15 days. He has been able to get work on a construction site for four days so far, at a rate of 450 rupees a day. But he complains that he has not received a share of the food supplies at the camp because he has not been issued with an identification card for camp residents and is unsure how to get one.

Ms Deshmukh created these cards to identify those living in the camp and help to ration donations.

Another camp resident, Madhav Hiraman Aade, 45, has been living in Ghatkopar for a month with his wife and the three youngest of his seven children.

“I’ve been earning money working as a labourer and I send the money home to the rest of my family,” he says.

Another camp inhabited by about 500 drought-affected migrants is located in Thane, a city north of Mumbai that is facing its own struggle with shortages of water.

And Mumbai, which has a population of more than 20 million, is already hugely overcrowded and a large influx of migrants place a huge strain on infrastructure, resources and work.

Ram Babu Bhagat, head of the department of migration and urban studies at the International Institute for Population Studies in Mumbai, says there are not enough employment opportunities in Indian cities to support such influxes, leaving many migrants dependent on aid.

He says that migration to cities has not become a “massive phenomena” among those affected by the continuing drought, however.

“It’s not that entire villages have been deserted” because it is challenging for them to relocate and set up lives for themselves elsewhere.

And for those drought-affected migrants who have travelled to Mumbai, Mr Bhagat says it will be difficult for many of them to remain in the city permanently.

“The city is not so hospitable that it can welcome migrants en masse,” he says.

foreign.desk@thenational.ae