In Gujarat’s Gambhirpura, Desolation a Grim Outcome of Joblessness

The family of Bhanubhai Desai at his house in Gambhirpur in Sabarkantha district.

(Photo: The Quint/ Chandan Nandy)

For the past nine years, 32-year-old Jignesh Desai of Gambhirpura village in Sabarkantha district of Gujarat has been seething in anger. A Master’s degree-holder in Psychology, Jignesh sought to extricate himself from the “farming trap” that his family has been stuck in for years and elevate himself in some “respectable” government job that would ensure a steady income and a stable future.

Today, after umpteen aborted attempts to secure a government job, Jignesh is back to square one: he has returned to the fields and animal husbandry, helping his elder brother milk cows and buffaloes and irrigate a small patch of cultivable land that has been the family’s mainstay for years. Somewhere between his hunt for a job and his present state of frustration, he got married.

“What vikas is this when, barring three youth in Gambhipura, most men in my age group remain unemployed?” Jignesh asks as he sheds his initial suspicion over our inquiry into the “Gujarat model” and how it has touched the Gujaratis of Sabarkantha – or not – in the state’s northernmost district bordering Rajasthan.

The family of Bhanubhai Desai at his house in Gambhirpur in Sabarkantha district.(Photo: The Quint/Chandan Nandy)

Where’s the Vikas?

Standing beside Jignesh, his younger sister Jayashree, who holds an MA in Gujarati and a BEd degree, hangs her head wrapped in a purple scarf, fighting back tears that turn her thick eyeglasses misty. Her search for a job, in the government or private sector, has ended in “utter failure”. Her perseverance in looking for a job has come in the way of her getting married.

Jignesh and Jayashree’s father, Bhanubhai Desai, who retired two years ago as a Gujarat State Road Transportation Corporation bus driver, conceals his advancing years by dying his hair black. “No, no, you must reveal whatever complaints are lodged in your minds,” he cajoles his children in a conciliatory tone, but adds that “yahan to vikas ke naam ki baatein hain, lekin kuchh nahin hai. Bachchon ko naukri nahin milti (here, there is only talk of development, but there is nothing. The young generation gets no jobs)”.

I was a die-hard BJP supporter for several years. I joined the party’s rallies, took to the streets in protest, even shouted their kind of slogans. But what I have got today? A pension that I will start getting next year and two of my three children unemployed.

Bhanubhai Desai

Bhanubhai makes no secret of his displeasure and where his vote might go when Sabarkantha votes on 14 December.

Across from Bhanubhai’s house hulk rolling hillocks which are being gnawed away for their granite stones, leaving the local Congress workers such as Anilbhai Pandya, a ticket aspirant, enviously questioning why “four or five contractors with close links to the district BJP leadership should get quarrying rights”.

In this dry belt – the Tropic of Cancer runs close by – Sabarkantha, one of whose main crops is cotton, is dependent on waters from the Dharoyi dam, which is 30 kms away. But the western part of Idar constituency, one of the main talukas, is deprived of the water vital for irrigation.

The Haunting Issue of Unemployment

“While Idar (east) has flourished because of sufficient supply of water, the taluka’s western half does not enjoy the waters from the Dabakantha canal that flows from the Dharoyi dam. It’s been a 30-year-old problem which the BJP government has not been able to redress,” says Jitubhai Desai, the president of the local Chaudhary Samaj, an umbrella organisation constituted by Patels, Desais and Chaudharies.

With little or no industrial units, the problem of joblessness has compounded over the years, forcing young men and women to either migrate out of the district or remain wedded to agriculture which, according to Desai, has become increasingly unviable for the lack of sufficient irrigation water.

Naileshbhai Prajapati, an RSS functionary from Idar, Sabarkantha district.(Photo: The Quint/Chandan Nandy)

Desai’s friend, Naileshbhai Prajapati, a local RSS functionary, doesn’t contest the charge that Sabarkantha is a developmentally laggard district, though he is quick to say that “the BJP will not allow Gujarat to become a Bihar or a UP”.

Rhetoric aside, the usual “vikas” – road-building and the mushrooming of welters of unplanned shops and buildings, especially in small towns of Sabarkantha – has been the result of “channel chalna” which Ashok Kumar Revabhai Patel, who heads the Idar Patidar Samaj and is the deputy sarpanch of Lalpur gram panchayat, describes as “contract-favouring”. While e-tendering is the new norm, Patel claims that “channels are formed between corrupt politicians, bureaucrats and contractors who beat the regulation to skim the system”.

Lalpur gram panchayat deputy sarpanch Ashok Kumar Revabhai Patel.(Photo: The Quint/Chandan Nandy)

For Some, Staunch Support For BJP Continues

We catch up with Patel at a marquee-draped ceremony involving the inauguration of a Shiva temple. He is the chief patron at the function. Patel, who owns two restaurants on the outskirts of Idar, says living up to the promise of development, leave alone getting work done, has been a challenge.

“There are seven villages under Lalpur gram panchayat and my annual operating fund is only Rs 11 lakh. How do you expect me to execute development work with such a meagre amount that comes to us in the form of a grant? It is impossible,” Patel says, as he throws up his arms in exasperation before returning to join the invitees in the choral incantation of mantras in praise of Shiva.

Waiting for development till the cows come home.(Photo: The Quint/Chandan Nandy)

However, amidst the aridity and general gloom and hopelessness, Tinbakampa (a kampa is a hamlet) in adjoining Himmatnagar district is an oasis of prosperity and contentment. Raised 86 years ago, by an enterprising group of Kutchee Patels, Tinbakampa is a Patidar redoubt of 50 homes. Like most villages of north Gujarat, Tinbakampa has the ubiquitous milk collection centre.

A milk collection centre at Tinbakampa village in Himmatnagar district.(Photo: The Quint/Chandan Nandy)

“Bha-jap (BJP),” is the one-word response from 65-year-old Ratibhai Patel who taps the cemented road with his toes before adding: “This came up after 60 years. There was no road here earlier. Obviously, we will vote for the BJP.” Ratibhai and his friend Chaturbhai Patel agree that the cotton plantations nearby need plenty of water, but “a Rs 214-crore water pipeline project has been approved and we should be reaping the benefits soon”.

The cemented road that runs through the main part of Tinbakampa village, which residents attribute to the BJP government’s drive for development.(Photo: The Quint/Chandan Nandy)

Tinbakampa has an overhead as well as an underground water tank with a storage capacity of 20,000 litres. “It is sufficient for the 50 houeholds. We do not face any power shortage, though only eight hours of electricity supply for the farmlands could ideally go up,” Ratibhai says.

“What we badly need is water for the cotton and groundnut fields. For that, I guess, we have to wait because we are at the mercy of politicians’ promises,” Chaturbhai says grimly.

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