Uttarakhand became the 27th state of India on 9 November 2000 after years of activism against poor development in hill districts of the region. Rapid urbanization in the plain regions of North India has caused a large-scale economic migration from these districts. According to the 2011 census, 1053 of Uttarakhand’s 16,793 villages have been labelled as ghost villages. Politically ignored over these years, these districts are still short of basic facilities like higher education and healthcare. There is no job generation in these districts and farming, which used to be the principal occupation in the hills, is crippled by small landholdings and a lack of government agriculture initiatives.

This phenomenon is creating a void and is affecting the village culture while most of the younger generations continue to look downwards towards plain regions. PALAYAN, or escape, looks into this desolateness and reasons behind this large-scale phenomenon by exploring these villages and life of the remaining inhabitants of these villages.