‘What we want is work on all 30 days’

“We don’t know about this,” says Babasaheb Pawar, bluntly dismissing my repeated questions on the budget.

“When did the government ask us what we want?” his wife Manda demands to know. Without that how can they decide for us? What we want is work on all 30 days.”

Their one-room tin house on the outskirts of Kuruli village in Pune district’s Shirur taluka is unusually busy this morning. “We migrated here from Jalna in 2004. We never had a village of our own. Our people always lived outside the villages because we keep migrating,” says Babasaheb.

What he does not spell out is that Bhil Pardhis, once branded a ‘criminal’ tribe by the British Raj, continue to lead a life of social stigma and deprivation 70 years after they were denotified. And even after being listed as a scheduled tribe in Maharashtra. Their migrations are often driven by oppression.

Obviously, they’ve not heard Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on migrations in her budget speech. It would not impress them even if they had. “The goal is to generate ample opportunities in rural areas so that migration is an option, but not a necessity,” she said in her 2025-26 budget speech.

About 1,400 kilometres away from policy-making, Babasaheb and family, belonging to the Bhil Pardhi community, lead lives of little choice and less opportunity. They are among India’s 144 million landless people for whom finding work is a major challenge.

“We get work just 15 days a month. Remaining days we are unemployed,” says Babasaheb’s son Aakash. But today is a rare day, all four of them – Aakash, 23, his wife Swati, 22, Manda, 55, and Babasaheb, 57 – have found work in the onion fields of a nearby village.

The 50 Adivasi families in this settlement are without drinking water, electricity or toilets. “We go into the woods for toilet. No aaram [comfort], no security. Bagayatdaar [horticulture farmers] in nearby villages are our only source of income,” says Swati packing tiffin for everyone.

“We get 300 rupees a day harvesting onions. Each day counts when we have to earn,” says Babasaheb. The family’s combined income would barely reach Rs. 1.6 lakh annually, depending on how often they find work. Which makes the Rs. 12 lakh exemption on income tax meaningless to them. “Sometimes we walk six kilometers, sometimes more. We go wherever work is available,” says Aakash.