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Deepkamal Kaur in hHoshiarpur/Kapurthala
Deepkamal Kaur in hHoshiarpur/Kapurthala
In the recent panchayat elections, when there was a movement in villages to project educated youth for the post of sarpanches, the residents of Gilzian village could not think of one suitable candidate. Reason: There is no youth left in the village as all of them are settled abroad. The youngest candidate that they could think of was 62-year-old Gurmeet Singh. Gurmeet had himself migrated to Germany in 1979 but returned after some years. His two sons are though settled in the US.
Walk through the lanes of this village and you will see at least seven out of 10 houses padlocked with huge locks. The remaining three houses either have an elderly couple living there or a young mother of school-going kids, who, too, is awaiting for her US visa to be cleared. The village has a population of almost 1,200 persons. At least 80 per cent of these are US visa holders.
A village where majority of population is from the Lubana community, the residents say the trend of going abroad started in the early 1970s. When those who went returned with signs of prosperity on visits home, others too followed. As the community is known to support its flock, the successful migrants showed others back home various legal and even illegal ways they could move abroad.
Barring two or three families which have migrated to Germany or Italy, all others are settled in New York city. “That’s because they followed one another. Many of them used the ‘illegal’ channel via Mexico and somehow reached New York, where other residents of this village were already living and helped them settle. While the recent migrants are still struggling with some working as labourers, the second generation is mostly in construction business,” shares former sarpanch Ranjit Kaur. Her husband is settled in the US for past 20 years and now her son has migrated there as well. Interestingly, almost all residents of Gilzian village assemble in various New York gurdwaras every Sunday, and share notes on life there and back home. Almost all families make it a point to visit the village at least once a year, take care of their house, farm lands and meet their elderly.
Non-issue in poll time
While unemployment remains an election issue elsewhere in Punjab, it is not so here. No one wants a job under the state’s Ghar Ghar Rozgar Yojana as they all want to ultimately settle abroad. The youth who remain in the village are either those who are visiting home from the US or those still in school and are awaiting a chance to join their fathers abroad. A youngster, Sahil Ghotra, says, “I am preparing for my Class X board examination. I am not sure if I will take admission in the next class here or in the US. I have already gone to New York once with my dad to see future prospects.”
Sukhmeet Singh, another youth from the village, informs in an American accent, “I am currently on a vacation in the village. I am a second-generation migrant to US from my family. I trained myself in jewellery design and I am doing my own business there.”
Unlike other villages, the roads of Gilzian village are well-paved. There is even a speck of garbage lying anywhere. Sewage channels are not covered but clear water flows through them. Cleanliness in Gilzian does not come from the lone fact that it is the native village of Tanda Congress MLA Sangat Singh Gilzian but also because its NRI inhabitants ensure the surroundings are well-kept.
Jaswant Kaur, the local MLA’s wife, says her two sons and a daughter too are settled in New York. “People like us, in their sixties, are active and can take care of ourselves, but some have left their aged elders to fend for themselves. As a routine, we take a round of such houses and inquire about their day-to-day needs. Realising that the problem of the elderly living alone is not just in our village but also in surrounding Ibrahimwal and other villages, my husband and his brothers have opened a trust to offer them the required support. In a few weeks, the trust will offer a mobile clinic for the elderly. It will be a fully-furnished bus with doctors, equipment and medicines on board. They will be providing good, free treatment at the doorstep.”
Nothing holds them back
Jasvir Singh, former president of NRI Sabha, Punjab, says several youth from villages in Bholath and Tanda are leaving Punjab and the government is making no effort to make them stay back.
Another former president NRI Sabha, Pritam S Narangpuri adds, “Many children have been going to Canada lately. The Middle East has been the choice of the less-educated or skilled labour; even young women are taking up jobs as nannies or domestic helps. In Doaba, Begowal and Bholath in Kapurthala, Nakodar and Nurmahal in Jalandhar, Tanda and Dasuya in Hoshiarpur and Banga in Nawanshahr have been the main pockets where villages are going vacant”.
ADC (D) Kapurthala Avtar Singh Bhullar, who has served as District Development and Panchayat Officer, says, “There is no scheme so far to take care of the elders abandoned in the villages. Most NRIs have either started taking them along or are leaving behind a caretaker.”
OTHER MAIN NRI POCKETS
Like Gilzian, there are many villages in the NRI heartland of Doaba where palatial houses have either been abandoned or have just the elderly left behind. In Begowal, dominated by the Lubana community, huge locks can be seen outside the houses, especially in Fatehgarh Sikri, Seintpur, Feroze Sanghowal and Awaan villages. Here, most families are settled in Europe, especially in Italy and France, and all family members have moved along, said Yuvraj Bhupinder Singh, SAD leader from the area. Balwant Singh Khaira, resident of Khaira village in Phillaur, shared, “In our village, about 20 houses remain locked for most part of the year as families have moved abroad. They return, but only for a purpose of organising a kabaddi tournament or mobilising voters during panchayat elections. During those days, these houses are abuzz with activity”.
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