The drought situation across the country is forcing farmers and labourers to move out of their villages to cities in search of work. In the Bundelkhand region, the clear proof is at the Jhansi railway station where hundreds of farmers arrive everyday to leave for bigger cities.

In order to understand the ground reality, Union Minister of State for Rural Development Pradeep Jain and National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) monitoring committee members HC Jain and Brig Bhatnagar, arrived at Jhansi railway station and met migrating labourers.

"When we don't find work we have to find work outside. Our job cards were not made under the NREGA. I went to the collector and then it was made but again we had to submit it back and after that I haven't found work," said a labourer.

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act aims to give livelihood security to the households in rural areas of the country by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in every financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.

(With PTI inputs)