Patna, (Bihar Times): When chief minister Nitish Kumar had been laying the foundation stone of a tractor factory in Fatuha, 30 km east of Patna, a bizarre spectacle might have been greeting people on the western outskirts of the state capital.

Human being, yoked together like a pair of oxen, are engaged in ploughing land on both sides of river Ganga and in ‘diara’ (the riverine islands) in the vicinity of Patna. So close to centre of state’s political as well as business capital yet so far from the light of development. The irony is that this is not an old practice, but a very recent development. Is it that we are going back?

The two labours yoked together as oxen get Rs 100 each after eight hours of tireless cultivation of land. Apparently they found nothing wrong in doing this work as it gives them employment. Shyam Nandan, one of the many farmers whose land they are tilling, too justifies this method of using men in place of oxen. “After all we pay Rs 100 against the wage of Rs 84. Besides, we give food to them,” he said adding that an ox cost Rs 25,000 and maintaining them for whole year is a very costly affair. In one day these human-tillers plough 30-40 kathas (about one acre) of land.

One good thing about this region is that since it is riverine zone the soil in the region is slightly soft and thus not very difficult to cultivate. In many places farmers are tilling those land which has been left vacant by the northward shift of the river Ganga.

In this age of modernization this strange improvisation certainly makes a good story for television channels.

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