Dr. S S Verma
Prime Minister of India Mr. Modi reminds a well known proverb about the state of people in hills to Nepali Parliament that “Pani aur Jawani” (Water and Youth) do not stay with hills. It is true and Mr Prime Minister should be therefore serious not towards Nepal only but also towards the state of hill people back in India. Hilly states like Himachal Pradesh, Uttrakhand, North-East in particular and many others like Bihar and some parts of UP are facing the drainage of youth towards cities and also water to plains.
The story goes like that a king thought to stop water from flowing to plains (by constructing a dam). The king of plains realizing the seriousness of situation made fool of the hill king by making his advisers to pretend that morning has arrived without Sun by making the people of his empire knowingly to wake up and start working early. The king of hills was made to understand that on the course of his stopping the water, the king of plains has stopped the Sun to come to hills. Then the king of hills released the water and people of plains enjoyed their victory for ever.
First of all, it is very clear that making of hill states has definitely proved to be of great benefit to these states in terms of good governance, generation and utilization of local resources and development activities. If there is any lagging in all these parameters, it is only due to planners, leaders and people of hill states. Life in hills is really tough and without many advantages of modern life. People have to put a great labour to make both their ends meet. No doubt, with all these difficulties, hill states of the country have progressed well but much more is expected to make them self reliant.
It is true that water will always come to plains along with all nutrients from hills to enrich water level and make plain land fertile. But things are changing with the local utilization of water for electricity generation, irrigation, fish farming and domestic use. Setting up of a number of hand pumps, construction of check-dams, harvesting of rain water by making water tanks at house hold level are changing the use of water in hills. However, hills are still lacking proper irrigation system for utilization of excess water levels.
In case of youth, it is true that youth are still running towards plains because neither good & enough employment opportunities are there in the hills nor planners are working hard to generate such avenues. Even in case of coming up industrial units, hydroelectric power plants and other such employment generating units, local people are getting less representation due to hobnobbing between executives of industries and local politicians so local people are not being getting benefitted to the level they are expected to be. Instead of fixed labour ratios in employment for local people, hill people are not getting their quota of employment. It is to mention here that hill people are more nationalistic than their counterparts in the country and they adjust to other means of livelihood than taking a path of separatism.
Planners and people of hill states thus should work hard to make the water and youth stay in hills and contribute for the growth of hills. Water should be let in to plains with judicious use at pre-discharge level with the use of new technological developments in this regard and after-discharge the beneficiary should be made to pay for its use. Similarly, youth should also be provided avenues and opportunities of livelihood in hills only so that they not only can contribute towards the growth of hill states but also look after their ancestral property and family members. Youth of hills should also not get attracted towards plains at the cost of hard life in hills as life in plains/cities is also not that easy. They should make themselves tough and remember the difficult times their fore fathers and parents have faced in villages to make next generation prosperous. Prosperity is good with all near and dears all around and living with all ancestral linkages. Thus, days will come when “pani aur jawani” of hills will benefit hills first and then other parts of the country.
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