Every year, approximately 12 to 15 lakh residents from the Marathwada region, comprising Beed, Jalna, Parbhani, Latur, Nanded, Hingoli, Dharashiv (formerly Osmanabad), and Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar (formerly Aurangabad) districts, migrate to the sugar belt of Sangli, Kolhapur, Pune, Satara, Solapur, and Ahmednagar due to limited employment opportunities in their hometowns. Driven by necessity, they form groups known as tolis and reside either on sugar factory premises or in the fields during the harvest season, which typically extends from October to March-April. A migrant couple, referred to as a koyta (sickle), earns between ₹300 and ₹500 per day. Upon returning home, the men often work as masons or cleaners, while the women engage in domestic help. Despite their arduous labor, migrant workers like Ganpa Dagdu Rathod, 50, from Vasanthnagar Tanda in Beed’s Majalgaon taluka, are accustomed to the repetitive cycle of seasonal migration and temporary financial relief, unaffected by political seasons. “Nothing ever changes,” he remarks. “My father worked at the karkhana (sugar factory). I started working in my teens. Now my son, Vinod, 25, has joined me.” Reflecting on the lack of progress, Mr. Rathod observes, “There is no ilaj (solution). We are poor and will continue to remain so. We toil with little break to earn enough to survive, not to live. Politicians come and go, but our lives remain the same.”
Of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, eight fall within the Marathwada region—Aurangabad, Jalna, Parbhani, Nanded, Hingoli, Beed, Osmanabad, and Latur. Hingoli, Nanded, and Parbhani voted in the second phase on April 26, while Osmanabad and Latur cast their ballots in the third phase on May 7. The remaining three seats of Aurangabad, Jalna, and Beed are scheduled for polling in the fourth phase on May 13. Notably, Beed and Jalna were focal points of the recent Maratha agitation demanding reservations in government jobs and education.
In Beed, the BJP has replaced two-time sitting MP Pritam Munde with her sister Pankaja Munde. Both are daughters of the late Gopinath Munde, a former Union Minister from the Vanjara (OBC) community. Ms. Pankaja faces Bajrang Sonwane of the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP). In Jalna, Union Minister and five-term MP Raosaheb Danve contests against Kalyan Kale of the Congress, while in Aurangabad, sitting MP Imtiyaz Jaleel of the AIMIM faces challenges from Shiv Sena (UBT)’s four-time MP Chandrakant Khaire and the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena’s five-time Paithan MLA Sandipanrao Bhumre.
Despite electoral promises, migrant workers have grown accustomed to being overlooked after the elections. “Every election, candidates discuss development, water schemes, and better agriculture policies, but after the elections, we are forgotten,” says Namdev Rathod, 75, a resident of Vasanthnagar Tanda. “I once went to Satara in 1975. It was my first and last migration. I can’t express the struggle in words. Now, my son and grandson, along with their spouses, go to work in some fields near Pune,” he adds.
A distance away at Godavari Tanda in Parbhani district, Balsaheb Pawar, a second-generation migrant worker, believes that if there were sufficient water resources and jobs in the region, villagers would not have to leave for half the year. “We’re used to this now. Half the year, our villages are half-empty, with only the elderly and kids at home. Nothing has changed in the past 10 years, and we don’t have any hope for the future,” he says.
