After Punjab, now HaryanJind/Kurukshetra: There’s a giant US-style open, neon-green, modular kitchen in the Sharmas’ two-floor home in Haryana’s Dhatrath village. It has a parking garage and a 50-inch TVa youth fleeing to US–by any ‘donkey’ means possible

[kevinUsa]

Jind/Kurukshetra: There’s a giant US-style open, neon-green, modular kitchen in the Sharmas’ two-floor home in Haryana’s Dhatrath village. It has a parking garage and a 50-inch TV playing Instagram reels of American life all day. From the banal to the breathtaking, it throws up clips of cute toddlers bundled up in their woollens walking in the countryside snow, idyllic animal farms, and trucks rumbling on highways. 

The house is a loud declaration to villagers and outsiders that three of their sons have migrated to the United States. 

 

[kevinUsa]

 

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After Punjab, now Haryana youth fleeing to US–by any ‘donkey’ means possible

There is no guarantee of a college seat or a job. And so village after village, Haryana is watching its young men leave–and the rise of an industry of touts, agents, helpers and hustlers.

JYOTI YADAV

03 January, 2023 11:21 am IST

 

Visa applications and their date of arrival are posted next to the entrance of Cambridge Education and Immigration Point in Kurukshetra's Ladwa town | Photo: Jyoti Yadav/ThePrint

Visa applications and their date of arrival are posted next to the entrance of Cambridge Education and Immigration Point in Kurukshetra's Ladwa town | Photo: Jyoti Yadav/ThePrint

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Jind/Kurukshetra: There’s a giant US-style open, neon-green, modular kitchen in the Sharmas’ two-floor home in Haryana’s Dhatrath village. It has a parking garage and a 50-inch TV playing Instagram reels of American life all day. From the banal to the breathtaking, it throws up clips of cute toddlers bundled up in their woollens walking in the countryside snow, idyllic animal farms, and trucks rumbling on highways. 

 

The house is a loud declaration to villagers and outsiders that three of their sons have migrated to the United States. 

 

Rural Haryana is now the new Punjab in its race to send its youth to the US, UK, and Australia. Rows of IELTS coaching, visa centres, and agent offices line up small-town marketplaces. A new vocabulary has gripped Haryana villages, with words like PR for permanent residency, work permits, and dependents replacing popular acronyms for prestigious state universities like Maharshi Dayanand University and Kurukshetra University. 

 

Rural unemployed youth are selling their family land and gold, getting basic nursing and accountancy diplomas, enrolling in English courses, and mastering the American twang after watching YouTube videos as their first steps toward their NRI dream. The new exodus spans across castes. Jats, Sainis, Brahmins, Scheduled Castes – are all fleeing. Farming is not an aspirational option anymore. They say they are escaping the toxic cycle of joblessness, entrance exam paper leaks, and chronic delays in recruitment.

 

“Yeah, right, right,” says Nischay Sharma (20), speaking on his latest iPhone 14 Pro with an American drawl. He used to say ‘hambe’ earlier, the Haryanvi word for ‘yes’ or ‘okay’.

 

Sharma is visiting home for a month from California, where he works with a transport company. As he walks about wearing his red sneakers and a heavy gold chain, 12-year-old Harshit follows him around like a shadow. He too wants to go to the US. 

 

For the Class 7 student, who goes to Oxford Public School in a nearby village in Jind district, America is the land of big cars, even bigger dreams, and bright lights. He follows all the WhatsApp and Facebook posts and Instagram reels that his cousins who work abroad share. 

 

“His heart isn’t in studying at all. All day he is dreaming about going to the US,” says his grandmother. She laments the impressionable boy’s lack of focus.

 

Sharma’s home is easy to find. The double-storeyed structure is a landmark in itself. “Oh, the one whose sons are in the US? Oh, the one who built the kothi (bungalow)?” villagers say. The kitchen, with its gleaming tiles and shelves, puts even the modular units in Delhi flats to shame. It’s a world apart from the neighbouring house, where the bricks are blackened by smoke rising from the chulha ( stove). A son will soon be going to America, and their fortune may change. 

 

But behind this paisa (money), prestige, and pride is the illegal route to a foreign country, locally known as “donkey”. For all his flexing, Nischay Sharma is part of a thriving “donkey culture”.

 

Dhatrath, Morkhi, and Kalwa are some of the villages in Haryana’s Jind district that are known to be the hubs of “donkey” seekers. They fly to Dubai on a tourist visa, live in shady hotels without adequate food, and move from one country to another in secret containers, walk for days on snow, or jump border fences to reach their dreamland.

 

A “No visa, no loss” graffiti lures those who want to migrate illegally.  

 

“More than 100 young men have left Dhatrath in the last six to seven years. Some left when they were as young as 15 years. In fact, the moment they pass Class 10, they start preparing for the ‘number 2’ route now,” the newly elected village head, Birbal, claims.

 

Two months ago, 18-year-old Mohit, Nishchay’s youngest brother, embarked on the same journey. And five years ago, his eldest brother Lakshya left his village via the “donkey” route. “This family’s rise has driven people to either jealousy or inspiration,” Birbal adds. 

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34 minutes ago, kevinUsa said:

 

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Support Our Journalism

HomeFeaturesAfter Punjab, now Haryana youth fleeing to US–by any ‘donkey’ means possible

FeaturesGround ReportsThe FinePrint

After Punjab, now Haryana youth fleeing to US–by any ‘donkey’ means possible

There is no guarantee of a college seat or a job. And so village after village, Haryana is watching its young men leave–and the rise of an industry of touts, agents, helpers and hustlers.

JYOTI YADAV

03 January, 2023 11:21 am IST

 

Visa applications and their date of arrival are posted next to the entrance of Cambridge Education and Immigration Point in Kurukshetra's Ladwa town | Photo: Jyoti Yadav/ThePrint

Visa applications and their date of arrival are posted next to the entrance of Cambridge Education and Immigration Point in Kurukshetra's Ladwa town | Photo: Jyoti Yadav/ThePrint

Text Size: A- A+

Jind/Kurukshetra: There’s a giant US-style open, neon-green, modular kitchen in the Sharmas’ two-floor home in Haryana’s Dhatrath village. It has a parking garage and a 50-inch TV playing Instagram reels of American life all day. From the banal to the breathtaking, it throws up clips of cute toddlers bundled up in their woollens walking in the countryside snow, idyllic animal farms, and trucks rumbling on highways. 

 

The house is a loud declaration to villagers and outsiders that three of their sons have migrated to the United States. 

 

Rural Haryana is now the new Punjab in its race to send its youth to the US, UK, and Australia. Rows of IELTS coaching, visa centres, and agent offices line up small-town marketplaces. A new vocabulary has gripped Haryana villages, with words like PR for permanent residency, work permits, and dependents replacing popular acronyms for prestigious state universities like Maharshi Dayanand University and Kurukshetra University. 

 

Rural unemployed youth are selling their family land and gold, getting basic nursing and accountancy diplomas, enrolling in English courses, and mastering the American twang after watching YouTube videos as their first steps toward their NRI dream. The new exodus spans across castes. Jats, Sainis, Brahmins, Scheduled Castes – are all fleeing. Farming is not an aspirational option anymore. They say they are escaping the toxic cycle of joblessness, entrance exam paper leaks, and chronic delays in recruitment.

 

“Yeah, right, right,” says Nischay Sharma (20), speaking on his latest iPhone 14 Pro with an American drawl. He used to say ‘hambe’ earlier, the Haryanvi word for ‘yes’ or ‘okay’.

 

Sharma is visiting home for a month from California, where he works with a transport company. As he walks about wearing his red sneakers and a heavy gold chain, 12-year-old Harshit follows him around like a shadow. He too wants to go to the US. 

 

For the Class 7 student, who goes to Oxford Public School in a nearby village in Jind district, America is the land of big cars, even bigger dreams, and bright lights. He follows all the WhatsApp and Facebook posts and Instagram reels that his cousins who work abroad share. 

 

“His heart isn’t in studying at all. All day he is dreaming about going to the US,” says his grandmother. She laments the impressionable boy’s lack of focus.

 

Sharma’s home is easy to find. The double-storeyed structure is a landmark in itself. “Oh, the one whose sons are in the US? Oh, the one who built the kothi (bungalow)?” villagers say. The kitchen, with its gleaming tiles and shelves, puts even the modular units in Delhi flats to shame. It’s a world apart from the neighbouring house, where the bricks are blackened by smoke rising from the chulha ( stove). A son will soon be going to America, and their fortune may change. 

 

But behind this paisa (money), prestige, and pride is the illegal route to a foreign country, locally known as “donkey”. For all his flexing, Nischay Sharma is part of a thriving “donkey culture”.

 

Dhatrath, Morkhi, and Kalwa are some of the villages in Haryana’s Jind district that are known to be the hubs of “donkey” seekers. They fly to Dubai on a tourist visa, live in shady hotels without adequate food, and move from one country to another in secret containers, walk for days on snow, or jump border fences to reach their dreamland.

 

A “No visa, no loss” graffiti lures those who want to migrate illegally.  

 

“More than 100 young men have left Dhatrath in the last six to seven years. Some left when they were as young as 15 years. In fact, the moment they pass Class 10, they start preparing for the ‘number 2’ route now,” the newly elected village head, Birbal, claims.

 

Two months ago, 18-year-old Mohit, Nishchay’s youngest brother, embarked on the same journey. And five years ago, his eldest brother Lakshya left his village via the “donkey” route. “This family’s rise has driven people to either jealousy or inspiration,” Birbal adds. 

Farming with major in Agriculture will help these people.........honestly governments failure idi....many public universities establish cheyyali with online access. Education ni subsidise chesi affordable cheyyali....andaru America povadiniki manmemainaa mexico lo unnama...unnadi India lo...Bangladesh, Pakistan povaali illegal gaa!