An abandoned house in Bidung

May 21: The effects of rural urban drift are beginning to show. While urban centers are becoming crowded, rural areas are becoming deserted. While urban centers suffer from acute housing shortage and spiraling house rent, ancestral homes in remote villages are being abandoned.

In Bidung under Tashigang Dzongkhag, around 90 houses lie empty, their occupants having left for urban centers to try their fortune.

Bidung is one of the 15 geogs under Trashigang. The land is fertile and the climate is favorable. Farmers here grow a wide variety of crops. However the geog is not connected by road.

Our reporter Dorji Dema says except for a few households located near the road, almost 90% of the households in the geog do not have access to road. The villagers use horses to transport goods. Villagers cited road accessibility as one of the main reasons for people leaving the village for urban centers.

In every village, there are at least two or three empty houses. They remain surrounded by thick, tall bush, a silent witness to the problem caused by rural urban migration. The wooden beams are broken, the locks are rusty, and nooks and corners are covered in cobwebs. Most of their land lies fallow though some have been leased to the villagers still residing there.

The Mangmi of Bidung geog said, fewer people would abandon their ancestral land if the village is connected with road.

Most of the people have left looking for jobs. Among them are not only youth who have completed their schooling but also farmers.

Mangmi Ugyen Tshering said it is also affecting the geog administration. He said it is impossible to collect taxes from people who have left their village.

Ap Karma, a farmer from Kakanay village in Bidung says unemployed youth should be encouraged to come back to the villages and work on the farm.

Meanwhile, the villagers who still reside in the geog hope for a road. Bidung geog is bordered by Bartsham, Phongmey, Shongphu and Radhi geogs.