Jharkhand Forum hot discussion on Adivasi drink, Handia
1. Traditional drink ‘Handia’ sells like hotcakes in Orissa
http://news.webindia123.com/news/articles/India/20080620/979263.html
In the tribal areas of Orissa, the traditional drink ‘Handia’ is very much in demand in summer.
The drink made by fermenting rice through a special procedure, is intoxicating, keeps the stomachs cool and is a source of high energy. In the process, the tribals also make good money out of the sales.
Some call the country liqour the poor man’s whisky. It is popularly known as ‘Chipa Handia’ or ‘Badaej Handia’ among the tribals.
The drink is immensely popular among the tribals in the region as it is commonly used during marriages, birth anniversaries and festivals.
It is also considered as a sacred drink and is offered to deities and used in other rituals.
The word originates from ‘Handi’ a big earthen pot in which the rice is fermented.
The procedure involves soaking and boiling rice in water. After that a herbal root, locally known as ‘Bakhar’, is powdered and mixed with the rice. The mixture is kept untouched for two days for fermentation. The liquid then is allowed to trickle down a bamboo sieve and collected in earthen pots.
“Handia is not a harmful drink. It is rather beneficial. It’s consumption also has cultural relevance as it is being consumed for ages. Some people think that people can fall sick with it and it can also lead to death but that is not true. The energy we get from the drink is much more than what we obtain from our usual diet,” said Raghunath Soren, a villager.
It is essentially a summer drink as it protects people from extreme heat conditions.
“The drink keeps our stomach cool and is also intoxicating. Though we can make it at home, we enjoy having it outside. We drink around two to three glasses costing Rs four to five,” said Arun Patra, a villager.
The drink has also become a source of livelihood for unemployed people in the region.
“We make good money during summers and earning comes to around Rs 200-250. During winters, we earn approximately Rs 70-80,” said Lali Baske, a seller.
The tribals have inherited from their forefathers the procedure of making the traditional drink and the craft passes on from generation to generation. (ANI)
Ven
Member, Jharkhand Forum
http://www.jharkhand.org.in/members
2. It is true but certainly not healthy and in fact it has become a curse for the tribal people.They drink so much that it affects their health, productivity and lead to neglect of thier health and family welfare and eventual early death. Their drinking habit is one of the causes why they have not made much progress since independence of India in spite of all the beneficial provisions by the government.
Dhuni
Member, Jharkhand Forum
http://www.jharkhand.org.in/members
3. As much as the Tribals, the drinking habit of people in general has affected the development of human society. It is easy to blame the tribals for all their misfortunes but don’t non-tribals drink and do worse things? I know for a fact that in cities like Bangalore and Hyderabad well educated IT professionals consume phenomenal amounts of alcohol. Same goes for police and govt officers everywhere. One visit to the press club of delhi reveals that a lot more alcohol flows down there than expected. How about this – a certain club meant for officers and the elite of Orissa has the maximum alcohol consumption amongst all bars and shops in the whole state! All these people do end up doing wrong things that affect development more than the drinking habit of tribal people. I am not justifying the drinking habit of tribals though I would rather endorse unadulterated Handia, Tadi, Sulphi, Mahuli, etc over Rum, Whiskey, Vodka, Gin!
Surya Dash
Member, Jharkhand Forum
http://www.jharkhand.org.in/members
4. Logic can’t be put forward that every one is doing wrong that’s why I done. It is remarkable that lot’s losses are in front of tribal community causing these bad habits. We should have to advocate for avoiding it in maximum number of cases. Other wise the cause for their deprivation may be noting by this habits.
Rajeev Pandey
Member, Jharkhand Forum
http://www.jharkhand.org.in/members
5. Dear friends
It is good to know that Handia is not a life threatening drink. But this info is only from its users in Orissa. Similar drinks are made in villages in other states. For instance, in Vizag dist of AP, four types of liquor is made amd consumed with the belief that it is healthier. These are made of rice like handia, Jeelugu juice, panas (jack fruit) etc. There is a need for us to validate these drinks and look for the nutritional value in them. I believe firmly that there will be some constitutents,which are nutritious enough. Based on the results of their testing we may consider its value addition and commercialization. Such venture will bring to the villagers more income than what they are earning now.
We all may try and bring out few nutritious drinks to the market from handia like herbal based drinks of villages.
Ganesham
Member, Jharkhand Forum
http://www.jharkhand.org.in/members
6. Friends, while abuse of the drink can be criticized, but wholsale condemnation is not warranted as Handia is an important cultural/religious drink. Would we criticiae the wine drinking habit of christians since it is related to Christianity?
A Case Study on Munda Women in Keonjhar District, Orissa
Nirupama Satpathy and Rashmi Ranjan Satpathy
Paper presented at the conference Livelihoods and Poverty Reduction: Lessons From Eastern India, 25-27 September 2001, by Nirupama Satpathy, Research Associate (Gender) in Livelihood research project in Keonjhar district of Orissa, and Rashmi Ranjan Satpathy, Research Associate in Livelihood research project in Keonjhar district of Orissa.
Impact of Handia on tribal people
The term “Handia” is used in the Chotanagpur plateau for local consumption. It is a country liquor made from fragmented rice with toxic herbs. It is a liquid substance, which is essential among the tribal community, especially in the Munda and Santhal tribes. Handia is regarded as a popular drink among the tribals of Keonjhar, Mayurbhanja, Sundargarh, Deogarh, Sambalpur, Balangir, Dhenkanal and Angul Districts of Orissa and also in other states like Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. It is also found among the tribals in Bangladesh and Nepal. It is very difficult to know which tribes initiated the use of Handia. Both Munda and Santhal claim to be the inventor of it. Handia is now a very popular drink in the whole Chotanagpur region. Initially Munda and Santhal used it but nowadays it is getting popular in other castes and other tribes, like Kissan, Ho, Oram and Bhumija. It is also called “Diang” in Munda, “Handi” in Santahaly and “Kusuna” in Kissan.
Handia occupies a pivotal role in the tribal community, socially, culturally and economically. Handia is accepted as a most sacred drink in the Munda and Santhal tribes. It has religious uses and values. Handia is offered to local deities and in dead ancestors’ rituals.
The use of Handia is very common in the occasion of marriages, birth anniversaries and festivals. The festivals are: Baa Parba and Nuakhai (Phulabaguni), Akhitrutiya, Raja Parba, Ratha Yatra and Rakhi Parba. Handia is the best treat for guests and friends, and it has been used in this way from time immemorial.
From a social and cultural point of view, Handia binds the tribals together like a string of thread.
Firstly, during social meetings and social functions (i.e. marriage, birth and death rituals), the tribals greet each other with Handia.
Secondly, while going to friends’ or relatives’ houses, they take Handia with them as a present. It indicates the status, love and affection of the guests. Similarly, the host also welcomes them with Handia.
Thirdly, at the time of common rituals and cultural functions, the tribal people drink Handia, dance and enjoy themeselves together. During funeral ceremonies, the deceased’s household offers Handia to villagers and relatives. But in these days Handia is not made in the deceased’s house. So the relatives bring Handia with them to help the household. In this study, it is observed that Handia occupies a most important place in day-to-day life of the tribal community.
In the preparation and business of Handia, the tribal women play the key role, as its production is regarded as kitchen work. It also generates significant income for the household. By promoting Handia preparation and sales, the tribal women have been able to make economic gains.
Methodology
The present study has been undertaken in five villages of Keonjhar district as part of a livelihood research project. The study is based entirely on primary information collected from the households, information which is both quantitative and qualitative. Qualitative data were collected about production processes, methods of sale, reciprocal trading relations and seasonal household consumption. The quantitative data were also collected on the seasonal production of Handia and Ranu, income within and outside the village, investment of labour time, total expenditure on production, consumption and sale of Ranu (in kg) and Handia (in litres), differentiated by season. Focus group discussions in villages were also used to collect information regarding the social, cultural, and religious importance of Handia in their society. This study is basically designed with a holistic in-depth approach. Some case studies of Munda women and non-tribal business households were also conducted to obtained detailed qualitative and quantitative information. We also visited the Handia Hat and Handia Godown to clarify the marketing procedure of Handia and Ranu. Group discussions with non-tribal persons involved in the Handia business were also conducted, the perception of Handia by other people was investigated, and a case study of non-tribal people was made.
We also collected secondary information regarding the impact of Handia on health and legal status from the Medical and Excise department of Keonjhar District.
Uses of Handia
Handia is used for two purposes – consumption and business. Previously, tribal people used Handia only for consumption, but during the last 30 years it has also been used for business purposes.
Consumption purpose
The tribal people (from children to old people) take Handia as an important drink at breakfast, lunch and dinner. One can manage for 10 to 15 days without any other food. During the summer season, Handia saves the body from sunstroke. By drinking Handia, the tribals become more energetic during work. Similarly, in the time of cold, it heats the body.
It also compensates for the deficiency of food for as much as 10 to 15 days for tribal people who cannot get even one meal a day. So Handia is regarded as a supplementary food for tribals. Nowadays other caste people also consume Handia for intoxication. As a result, Handia has become commercialized gradually. But these consumers do not allow their children to consume Handia.
Business purpose
During the last 30 years the tribal people have used Handia for business purposes. When the Munda tribes from Bihar migrated to Orissa and settled in different parts of Keonjhar and other districts, they initiated the Handia business and gradually it spread to the tribes in Orissa, who were attracted by the Handia practices (Munda and Santhal tribes). It is a secondary source of livelihood for most of the tribals. Some tribals accept the business as a primary source of income. Most Munda and some Mahanta and Majhi tribal women prepare and sell Handia among the neighbours and at the market. There are four categories of households engaged in the Handia business:
Households engaged in “Ranu” preparation and sale at the market. (Ranu is a tablet composed of rice and roots, which is necessary for preparing Handia). Households engaged in the Handia business who purchase “Ranu” from others. Households engaged in both “Ranu” and Handia preparation and business. Households engaged in collecting roots from the forest and selling them at the market.
Composition of Handia
Uncleansed rice (of a slightly reddish colour) and the tablet “Ranu” are used to prepare Handia. Ranu has various local names, e.g. Mullica / Mulikia and Bakhar. Some of the tribals told us that they did not previously use this tablet, but nowadays they use it for business purpose to make the Handia more intoxicating. Some of the tribals also informed us that the tablet has always been used in Handia production because without it the prepared Handia will decompose.
Complete paper available @ http://handiya.blogspot.com/2008/06/handia-source-of-livelihood-of-adivasi.html
Ven
Member, Jharkhand Forum
http://www.jharkhand.org.in/members
7. Well researched and written but the real life experience and effect of its use or misuse is quite different.I am saying this from my personal knowledge.It is true that hadia is used for all social and cutural and religious purposes and no social occasion is complete without the use of Handia. But the use of this toxic drink beyond these occasions make it harmful, dangerous and addictive. Some of the symptoms stated in the article when they do not drink are nothing but symptoms of addiction of alcohol. This leads to more drink and deterioration of their physical and mental health specially with poor tourishment,neglect of thier family, debt and destruction. They have to understand this and the outside observers should appreciate and discourage the tribal people to do something about this rather than just say that it is part of their culture. The Christian missonaries understood this and tried to forbid the use of alcohol in the converted tribals.But unfortunately, now it is spreading amongst them and all other non tribal educated people as a fashion.But they can afford the luxury and the cost and protect their health and family.So let us all appreciate that this is a bad habit and we should discourage them from using Handia.
Dhuni
Member, Jharkhand Forum
http://www.jharkhand.org.in/members
8. Dear friend,
Very sorry to say that let us not get intoxicated to research on handia. leave the handia with tribals. 40% lands not cultivated in Jharkhand if it is done let them drink more Handia as much as they want because it will kill their body pain. Is it possible for all of us who loves Jharkhand to think about it so that it really responds to the need of tribals.
Pradyu.
Member, Jharkhand Forum
http://www.jharkhand.org.in/members
9. Storm in a tea (sorry, hadia) cup?
No, there’s a real issue. And the issue is adulterated, commercialized liquor in the adivasi areas. I have come across adulterated paurau in the plains of Mayurbhanj, Midnapore, adulterated ippa sara in the Chenchu lands of Nallamala, Andhra. Paurau or ippa sara are really the same drink, distilled from flowers of Bassia latifolia in a millenia-old technique by various Austric and Dravidian speaking peoples in India. A wonderful drink, I have had it in its purest form, home-brewed from matkom flowers collected from the forest by the women of the family, in the home of a Santhal friend of mine. But I also know how a businessman in a large village near Baripada makes and sells spurious brew to local adivasi villagers and has made a fortune out of tricking unsuspecting villagers at the cost of their health and wellbeing, ironically coopting (subverting?) their culture to do so. And sorry to say, while I am all for harmony, and I am not an adivasi myself, this businessman is a diku.
The hadia business was not into such dangerous territory when I was last around in those parts. It was mostly entrepreneurship by adivasi women. It does have potentiasl danger areas though.
Yes, and while hadia is still clean and safe, it’s a great pick me up while working one’s back off. Nothing like a hadia on a hot summer day of hard labour. Cheers to that!
And a warm Johar to all who agree.
Arnab Sen
Member, Jharkhand Forum
http://www.jharkhand.org.in/members
10. Or venkat, would we criticize the ganja, bhang and charas consuming habits of Hindus because it is related to Hindusim? No will we not, would we?
It is interesting how you define Hadia as a religious drink. Lord forgive venkat cos he does not know the limits of his ignorance.
Isaac
Member, Jharkhand Forum
http://www.jharkhand.org.in/members
11. Dear All,
It is a fact that Handia is cheaper than other alcoholic beverages. So its wide use.
Question comes, if all distilled modern alcohol becomes cheaper and cost at par with Handia, what will happen? I think this will be taken by many civilised and so called urbanites as frequent as tea. In this situation, should it be encouraged ?.
In my view any alcoholic drink/narcotics has some effects on society. Only its limitations are to be ensured by the social engineers/reformers .
Balaram Sahu
Member, Jharkhand Forum
http://www.jharkhand.org.in/members
12. Tribals throughout India have their own method of brewing liquor from various raw materials, grains, fruits, sugar ofious forms..etc.nd each brew has its own speciality local ingredients. This has been going on since times immemorial and nobody interferes with their traditional practices, a part of their culture and part of religious rites, if Isaac is unaware of.
They do not booze to such levels as civilised Societies as we find daily boozed youngsters involved in car accidents in the metropolitan cities in particular. In Gandhiji’s India, Kerala has the highest percapita consumption o alcohol and Govt. Corporation (State Beeverages Corpn.) promotes drinking by retailing liquor at every location in the State!! Isaac perhaps comes from Kerala on evangelical mission to tribal Jharkand.
Ganja,Charas..etc. are mainly traded by the cultured Scoiety to enslave the innocent tribals, as British did to Chinese in the previous Century and traded HongKong on a 100 year lease. These were the Catholic missionaries in action at HongKong and Macao in trading Ganja and Charas to the addicted Chinese.
Most of the carriers of drugs and bootleggers in the Country are non-Hindu-s though they form an insignificant minority in the Country.
S Kumar
Member, Jharkhand Forum
http://www.jharkhand.org.in/members
13. Eastablishment of change process is needful than debat. We should try to upgrade ourself from cast and religion politics.
I hope you may understand the one of the barrier behind Jharkhand development.
Rajeev Pandey
Member, Jharkhand Forum
http://www.jharkhand.org.in/members
14. Hi,
It was a pleasure to go through the views expressed by the members.. infact it is a good learning experience for me. Though i hail from Jharkhand itself, however, my knowledge about the cultures here is quite poor.
I strongly disagree with what Mr. S. Kumar said and would go with the views of Mr. Dhuni.
Any form of intoxication, as per my thinking is bad… be it consuming the same during cultural activities or under the grab of tradition. Traditions are meant to be changed for the betterment.
I request Mr. Kumar to traverse the place he resides in, if it is a tribal area, esp. during evenings and night.. he will definitely find small huts created by the local persons for the purposes of sale and consumption of toxic substances… be it the traditional form of Hadia or the complex form of Ganja.. and people do it just for the sake of releiving their pain, sufferings, etc.. and thereafter develop into a habit..
Its just like the case that consumed once, you get addict to it… though innocently… and it not only affects the financial position but also the family as well…
We all know about the after effects of consumption esp. in teh weeker sectors.. of the community..
Hope we could develop a means to uplift them to ensure that they do not fall into these methods.
Ashutosh
Member, Jharkhand Forum
http://www.jharkhand.org.in/members
15. I also fully agree. It is our responsibility to educate the poor about the harms from addiction and hand-hold them to learn the benefits from quality life style. Unfortunately the Government and educated population are least taking necessary initiatives in Jharkhand to overcome such unhealthy traditions and culture. We must all agree to fight against all such addictive products which cause financial and health damages, especially to the poor and disadvantaged consumers.
Bejon Misra
Member, Jharkhand Forum
http://www.jharkhand.org.in/members
16. Dear All,
Sometimes we tribals are much insulted in public domain by the so-called cultured and civilized people. I don’t know whether you discuss on tribal issues in public domain to help us or destroy our culture, identity and ethos. I know there are many so-called cultured communities who can not sleep without a drink and much more but those matters don’t become the matter of discussion in public domain.
I don’t see anyone discussing on the basic culture, tradition and ethos of the tribals which are community livings, gender equality, community ownership, common property, democratic decision (traditional self governance), autonomy, honesty and non-profit.
••
Many people, civil society organizations and NGOs who are engaged in promoting tribal culture and traditions just romanticise, define it as per their interest and confined it to songs, dances and paintings. This clearly shows that how much people are really concerned about it? I know we tribal will always suffer till we would be able to defeat the ruling ideologies and we are on the way to challenge…!
Gladson Dungdung
Member, Jharkhand Forum
http://www.jharkhand.org.in/members
17. Dear Gladson Dungdung
Really, we feel pain to read you, how could we leave any one to destroy the community whom we are talking.
Could we think and plan to stop romanticise activity by such type of people, please suggest possible way to stop it.
Rajeev Pandey
Member, Jharkhand Forum
http://www.jharkhand.org.in/members
18. Dear Friends,
No one wants to lose their business and especially in the era of globalization where the market determines everything including your thought, expression and action. These days I really laugh to see the activities of NGOs headed by non-tribals (except a few good people). They organize some tribal dance, singing activities like Duran, Paika, group dance. They provide some instruments to the villagers, publish the news in media and send the paper clippings to their donors. The donors also feel so happy. I also surprise to see the activities of media because they never carry out the stories when tribals do their cultural activities in normal way.
For example there is a tradition of our village that we used to gather in akhra (place of cultural activities), sing and dance together on every saturday. But I have never seen any media carrying out the story. These days many NGOs are working in my village they come to village on Saturday, sit nearby Akhra and take some photographs. Sometimes they also bring some white people to show the event. They tell them in english that they are reviving our culture and get huge donation from the donor agencies. Really good business…! There are hundreds of examples like this and many would be shocked if I write everything like this…!
How to over come these…? One way is to expose those people and NGOs in public domain who are doing the business like this and ask them that how much money they get from whom in the name of protection and conversation of the tribal culture and tradition. Ask they how many tribals work in their NGOs and in what positions? Ask them to live in the village with tribals may be for 3 to 5 years (not more because they will grab the land) for real experience then only they would come to know the real tribal culture, tradition which would become guiding force for them in their real work.
I don’t see any NGO promoting the basic tribal culture except dance, singing and painting these are a few manifestations therefore I would suggest they must lear it first but they will not do it I know. Because unless they break the basic culture of tribals they won’t be able to take away the resources of tribals.
Gladson Dungdung
Member, Jharkhand Forum
http://www.jharkhand.org.in/members
19. Dear Gladson,
I have seen some of your comments. Interesting a valid.
Especially regarding the speciality of tribal culture and identity.(in another mail)
I am a non-tribal today, but all of us have had tribal ancestors long back. This is how humanity developed over aperiod of several millennia, especially before ten thousand BC.
There are two kinds of problematic attitutdes I encounter: One of the non tribal intellectuals trying to ‘develop’ the tribals; and another, of tribal intellectuals trying to romanticise the tribal identity and culture.
A better course is to define human development, and understand the processes of human evolution, and then think in what direction the tribal communities may gry to evolve; or maintain their presnet culture for ever.
P. K. Siddharth
Member, Jharkhand Forum
http://www.jharkhand.org.in/members
20. Dear friends,
whatever we are writing in the net are our thoughts which are are manifesting as reactions.there are few inherrent questins like , Howmany tribal or tribal leaders are aware of their real culture ? The development workers culture is completely different from tribal culture.ARE, We the internet insects really interested to go to village & educate the people and change our own culture ?I have seen in jharkhand NGOs running between pillar to post for money. The issue is not the tribal or non tribal the issue is NEED.
Anyway iff i have hurt any one or anyones thought it is un intentional.
Pradyut.
Member, Jharkhand Forum
http://www.jharkhand.org.in/members
21. During my official tours to the various locations all over the Country, towards the developmental programmes under Special Component Plan and Tribal Development Plan for Rural and Tribal Developments under the Centre, I have visited several such far off locations in the interiors of even forests and observed the life of these people, deprived of the modern facilities.
What I have noted is my personal observation of almost all these locations, where the brewing and drinking of alcohol in different forms are in vogue since hundreds of years without any toxicity and deaths due to poisoning. Liquor poisoning is of recent origin when Methanol, a cheap substitute is added to the drinks.
Indeed drinking alcohol is bad for the health of the Society. But these tribals and rural artisans/ workers who do the physical work throughout the day, often in the open exposed to the extremes of weather, try to get some solace by a few drinks at night to forget the pain.
Nevertheless, I do not justify this practice but this is my observation. Drinking is a Social evil, but it is ubiquitous from the top to the bottom of every Society irrespective of their stature or economic levels.
To develop the tribals to be self sufficient and active, we should encourage their traditional skills in bamboo works or collecting honey and forest produce like several Ayurvedic raw materials from the trees and plants, or agriculture and horticulture..etc., providing them inputs and providing a marketing channel by a Govt. organisation like Forest Development Corporation. The conditions and modus operandi varies from location to location.
Once the tribals are assured of good return for their activities through such market support from a Govt. run body, their standard of life would improve and schools up to the middle levels could be stablished in the tribal clusters to study up to say Std.V or VIII to begin with.
What I have noticed in most of these areas is the attempts by evangelical groups to convert these tribals to Christianity in the guise of helping them- which they do by finances, clothing..etc. until they are converted.
Service to Tribals should be without any strings attached and they should be allowed to continue their faiths unhindered or incidents like Staines and India Vision may recur when situations go out of control
S Kumar
Member, Jharkhand Forum
http://www.jharkhand.org.in/members
Dalits, Adivasis and Naxalites
Government of India: Guilty as charged
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Here is a report from none other than a panel of the Planning Commission of the Govt of India on the Naxalite violence in the country. Its verdict for the Government of India is: GUILTY AS CHARGED. |
There is no end to the studies of popular discontent in India, and the Indian nation state is always eager to find ways to control such uprisings of discontent. That it fails strongly is a moot point, for it the main point is that it wins. It has the army, the police, the required ability to brutalise its own people and the complete lack of scruples. But after all that, New Delhi’s writ still does not run in nearly one-third of the country.
From time to time, New Delhi’s rulers keep setting up committees to study the Naxalite problems. And for India, the Planning Commission is one of the mo
st reliable repository of comprehensive information. That it is also a helpless witness to the government’s unpardonable apathy to its important proposals for remedying the situation all these years is a separate story.
The government however requires the Commission for hard statistical facts and figures, and understanding of what is happening at the ground level. That after all this, the GoI leaves all planning to the magnates of the market economy is also a different story.
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Quite rightly, the report says that poverty does create deprivation but other factors like denial of justice, human dignity, cause alienation and this results in the conviction that relief can be had outside the system by breaking the current order asunder. |
The story that we are to tell you is based on a report now in the possession of the WSN that was commissioned by the government to understand Naxal problem. That even such a wonderfully produced report may also end up with the usual obligatory list of remedial measures should not reduce its importance since these measures have remained unimplemented for years.
“Development Challenges in Extremist Affected Areas” is the title of the report of an expert group set up by the Planning Commission of the Government of India. Dated March 2008, the report contains meticulously collected latest facts and figures, rigorously examines the causes of the continuing economic exploitation and social discrimination in the adivasi and dalit-inhabited areas even after 60 years of independence. It is significant that this particular expert group was set up by the government in May 2006, in the background of increasing Naxalite activities in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa.
The group consisted of a variety of people ranging from veteran ex-bureaucrats (like D Bandyopadhya who chaired it, and is well known for his implementing the Operation Barga land reform measure in West Bengal, and S R Sankaran who heads the Hyderabad-based Committee of Concerned Citizens which had been trying to bring the Andhra Pradesh government and the Maoist rebels to the negotiating table) to retired police officers like Prakash Singh, ex-director general of police, Uttar Pradesh and Ajit Doval, former director of the Intelligence Bureau. From the other end of the spectrum, we have well known activists and academics like K Balagopal of the human rights movement and Sukhadeo Thorat, chairman of the University Grants Commission and a champion of Dalit emancipation, among others.
That a mixed bag of this nature, consisting of experts from different disciplines with differing opinions, could prepare a consensus report on several contentious issues and come up with a unanimously agreed set of recommendations, suggests that all is not lost. But all will be, given the Government of India’s ability at remaining deaf and dumb.
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While the official attitude is to blame the Naxalites for violence, and call all actions “an act of cowardice”, this report talks about the structural violence implicit in the social and economic system and underlines how Naxalites have indeed carried out certain socio-economic reforms in their areas of control. These are the reforms that the executive ought to have implemented. The deep shade of Red is replacing the judiciary and the police in ensuring law and order for the poor and the oppressed. |
Dalits, Adivasis and Naxalites
Although the terms of reference did not specifically mention Naxalites (or Maoists), the group’s brief was to identify causes of unrest and discontent in areas affected by “widespread displacement, forest issues, insecure tenancies and others forms of exploitation like usury, land alienation and imperfect market conditions…”. Clearly, such areas fall in the above-mentioned five states – and significantly enough, the group organised field visits in these areas to observe the situation at first hand, on the basis of which it has come out with stark revelations that expose the culpability of the state in denying the poor their basic rights, the treachery of a corrupt bureaucracy to implement the laws, and its complicity with a trigger-happy police to suppress popular protest.
Maintaining that “the main support for the Naxalite movement comes from dalits and adivasis”, the group concentrated on these two sections (termed as scheduled castes and scheduled tribes respectively in official parlance) which comprise about one-fourth of India’s population, the majority living in rural areas.
Apart from the high levels of poverty, the dalits suffer from various types of disadvantages like limited employment opportunities, political marginalisation, low education, social discrimination, and human rights violation. As for the adivasi population, besides remaining backward in all aspects of human development including education, health, nutrition, etc, they have been steadily losing their traditional tribal rights and command over resources. The report points out in this connection the administration’s failure to implement the protective regulations in scheduled areas, which has resulted in land alienation, forced eviction from land, dependence of the tribals on moneylenders – made worse often by “violence by the state functionaries”.
Incidentally, every dalit and adivasi poor in India have not joined the Naxalite movement. There are many states with pockets of high proportion of adivasis and dalits but little Naxalite influence, as in Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat and Rajasthan. The report quite rightly points out that “poverty does create deprivation but other factors like denial of justice, human dignity, cause alienation resulting in the conviction that relief can be had outside the system by breaking the current order asunder”. It adds that for such a violent upheaval to happen, there is the likelihood of the “spread of awareness and consciousness”. And this is where, as the report suggests, the Maoists have played a significant role by stepping into the craters of dalit and adivasi deprivation in the five states, and organising the deprived for their rights.
Its authors situate the Naxalite movement in the historical context of the “development paradigm pursued since independence”, which they assert, has “aggravated the prevailing discontent among marginalised sections of society”. While explaining the current surge in Naxalite activities, they slam the neoliberal “directional shift in government policies towards modernisation and mechanisation, export orientation, diversification to produce for the market, withdrawal of various subsidy regimes and exposure to global trade” as “an important factor in hurting the poor in several ways”.
Following this conceptual approach, they look at the Maoist movement in a way that is different from the prevalent official attitude which primarily blames the Naxalites for the violence. Instead, the present report lays stress on the “structural violence which is implicit in the social and economic system” and which in the opinion of its authors prompts the radical groups to justify their own violent acts. The authors of the report admit that the Naxalites have indeed carried out certain socio-economic reforms in their areas of control.
|
It is better that India recognises this reality and legitimises the positive Naxalite contribution to the implementation of the pro-poor laws – which the state had failed to carry out. In other words, the government should negotiate a settlement that allows the Naxalites to run their administration in their pockets of control. |
Naxalites as a Surrogate State
The report brings out that the Maoists are actually carrying out the reforms that the executive ought to have implemented, and are replacing the judiciary and the police in ensuring law and order for the poor and the oppressed.
In the forest areas of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, Orissa and Jharkhand, the Naxalites have led the adivasis to occupy forest lands that they should have enjoyed in the normal course of things under their traditionally recognised rights, but which were denied by government officials through forest settlement proceedings that have “taken place behind the back and over the head of the adivasi forest dwellers”. While the government remained indifferent to the need for paying minimum wages to the adivasi tendu leaf gatherers in Andhra Pradesh, the Naxalites by launching a movement have secured increases in the rate of payment for the picking. The practice of forced labour in the same state, under which the toiling castes had to provide free labour to the upper castes, was done away with due to a “major upsurge led by the Naxalites in the late 1970s and early 1980s of the last century…”. Commenting on the “peoples courts” set up by the Naxalites in their areas of control, the report observes that “disputes are resolved in a rough and ready manner, and generally in the interest of the weaker party”.
The report also reveals how despite change of government, successive rulers suppress the poor and the disadvantaged. There is a design behind this continuity. The rulers, irrespective of party affiliations, are lackadaisical and sloppy in implementing pro-poor legal measures. But the moment the Maoists try to enforce those measures they are quick to use against them with extreme efficiency another set of laws – the draconian laws that have been enacted over the years (e g, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act; Chhattisgarh Public Security Act; Andhra Pradesh (Suppression of Disturbances) Act, etc).
Asserting that the Naxalite movement has to be “recognised as a political movement with a strong base among the landless and poor peasantry and adivasis”, the experts warn the government against resorting to “security-centric” measures like setting up vigilante groups such as Salwa Judum in Chhattisgarh. Instead, they have called for “an ameliorative approach with emphasis on a negotiated solution”, and urged the government for a resumption of the peace talks with the Naxalites which was initiated in October 2004, but broke down in January 2005.
As for the Indian state, the experts have been rather frank.
They have shown how, in quite a large swathe of inaccessible territory, the state’s writ does not run, and the Naxalites have been able to establish a parallel and alternative order that has largely benefited the poor – especially the dalits and adivasis. It is better that India recognises this reality and legitimises the positive Naxalite contribution to the implementation of the pro-poor laws – which the state had failed to carry out. In other words, the government should negotiate a settlement that allows the Naxalites to run their administration in their pockets of control – on the lines of the settlement arrived at with the Naga rebels of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak Muivah) who have not given up their arms and run a parallel government in parts of Nagaland.
Referring to the Indian government’s conciliatory approach to such insurrectionary groups, the authors of the report raise the legitimate question: “Why a different approach to the Naxals?” It is for the Prime Minister to answer this, since he is the one who calls Naxalite violence the most serious internal security challenge faced by India.
worldsikhnews.com/25%20June%202008/Government%20of%20India%20Guilty%20as%20charged.htm
Handia: The Source of Livelihood of Adivasi Women
Impact of Handia on tribal people
The term “Handia” is used in the Chotanagpur plateau for local consumption. It is a country liquor made from fragmented rice with toxic herbs. It is a liquid substance, which is essential among the tribal community, especially in the Munda and Santhal tribes. Handia is regarded as a popular drink among the tribals of Keonjhar, Mayurbhanja, Sundargarh, Deogarh, Sambalpur, Balangir, Dhenkanal and Angul Districts of Orissa and also in other states like Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. It is also found among the tribals in Bangladesh and Nepal. It is very difficult to know which tribes initiated the use of Handia. Both Munda and Santhal claim to be the inventor of it. Handia is now a very popular drink in the whole Chotanagpur region. Initially Munda and Santhal used it but nowadays it is getting popular in other castes and other tribes, like Kissan, Ho, Oram and Bhumija. It is also called “Diang” in Munda, “Handi” in Santahaly and “Kusuna” in Kissan.
Handia occupies a pivotal role in the tribal community, socially, culturally and economically. Handia is accepted as a most sacred drink in the Munda and Santhal tribes. It has religious uses and values. Handia is offered to local deities and in dead ancestors’ rituals.
The use of Handia is very common in the occasion of marriages, birth anniversaries and festivals. The festivals are: Baa Parba and Nuakhai (Phulabaguni), Akhitrutiya, Raja Parba, Ratha Yatra and Rakhi Parba. Handia is the best treat for guests and friends, and it has been used in this way from time immemorial.
From a social and cultural point of view, Handia binds the tribals together like a string of thread.
Firstly, during social meetings and social functions (i.e. marriage, birth and death rituals), the tribals greet each other with Handia.
Secondly, while going to friends’ or relatives’ houses, they take Handia with them as a present. It indicates the status, love and affection of the guests. Similarly, the host also welcomes them with Handia.
Thirdly, at the time of common rituals and cultural functions, the tribal people drink Handia, dance and enjoy themeselves together. During funeral ceremonies, the deceased’s household offers Handia to villagers and relatives. But in these days Handia is not made in the deceased’s house. So the relatives bring Handia with them to help the household. In this study, it is observed that Handia occupies a most important place in day-to-day life of the tribal community.
In the preparation and business of Handia, the tribal women play the key role, as its production is regarded as kitchen work. It also generates significant income for the household. By promoting Handia preparation and sales, the tribal women have been able to make economic gains.
Methodology
The present study has been undertaken in five villages of Keonjhar district as part of a livelihood research project. The study is based entirely on primary information collected from the households, information which is both quantitative and qualitative. Qualitative data were collected about production processes, methods of sale, reciprocal trading relations and seasonal household consumption. The quantitative data were also collected on the seasonal production of Handia and Ranu, income within and outside the village, investment of labour time, total expenditure on production, consumption and sale of Ranu (in kg) and Handia (in litres), differentiated by season. Focus group discussions in villages were also used to collect information regarding the social, cultural, and religious importance of Handia in their society. This study is basically designed with a holistic in-depth approach. Some case studies of Munda women and non-tribal business households were also conducted to obtained detailed qualitative and quantitative information. We also visited the Handia Hat and Handia Godown to clarify the marketing procedure of Handia and Ranu. Group discussions with non-tribal persons involved in the Handia business were also conducted, the perception of Handia by other people was investigated, and a case study of non-tribal people was made.
We also collected secondary information regarding the impact of Handia on health and legal status from the Medical and Excise department of Keonjhar District.
Uses of Handia
Handia is used for two purposes – consumption and business. Previously, tribal people used Handia only for consumption, but during the last 30 years it has also been used for business purposes.
Consumption purpose
The tribal people (from children to old people) take Handia as an important drink at breakfast, lunch and dinner. One can manage for 10 to 15 days without any other food. During the summer season, Handia saves the body from sunstroke. By drinking Handia, the tribals become more energetic during work. Similarly, in the time of cold, it heats the body.
It also compensates for the deficiency of food for as much as 10 to 15 days for tribal people who cannot get even one meal a day. So Handia is regarded as a supplementary food for tribals. Nowadays other caste people also consume Handia for intoxication. As a result, Handia has become commercialized gradually. But these consumers do not allow their children to consume Handia.
Business purpose
During the last 30 years the tribal people have used Handia for business purposes. When the Munda tribes from Bihar migrated to Orissa and settled in different parts of Keonjhar and other districts, they initiated the Handia business and gradually it spread to the tribes in Orissa, who were attracted by the Handia practices (Munda and Santhal tribes). It is a secondary source of livelihood for most of the tribals. Some tribals accept the business as a primary source of income. Most Munda and some Mahanta and Majhi tribal women prepare and sell Handia among the neighbours and at the market. There are four categories of households engaged in the Handia business:
- Households engaged in “Ranu” preparation and sale at the market. (Ranu is a tablet composed of rice and roots, which is necessary for preparing Handia).
- Households engaged in the Handia business who purchase “Ranu” from others.
- Households engaged in both “Ranu” and Handia preparation and business.
- Households engaged in collecting roots from the forest and selling them at the market.
Composition of Handia
Uncleansed rice (of a slightly reddish colour) and the tablet “Ranu” are used to prepare Handia. Ranu has various local names, e.g. Mullica / Mulikia and Bakhar. Some of the tribals told us that they did not previously use this tablet, but nowadays they use it for business purpose to make the Handia more intoxicating. Some of the tribals also informed us that the tablet has always been used in Handia production because without it the prepared Handia will decompose.
The tablet “Ranu”
The tablet “Ranu” is bitter in taste. It is composed of sun-dried rice, roots and barks of the following trees:
- Agnijhada: This root is also used for medicinal purposes to minimize the lack of appetite.
- Patal-garud: This root also used to cure snakebite.
- Bhuinlimba: This root also used for curing skin diseases.
- Mahulchhali: This is a bark used for medicinal purposes.
- Kuruchi Chhali: This is a bark used for medicinal purposes.
- Bhuin Boitalu: This is a fruit generally used to improve digestion.
All the above roots and barks are bitter in taste. These are available in the forest only in the rainy season. So the tribal women keep these roots and barks in stock for the whole year. Some of the tribals collect them from the forest and prepare Ranu at home. Others purchase them at the market. They are also available in small, set amounts, i.e. one handful of the mixture. The cost of one such packet of the mixture is Rs 6/- at the market.
Processing of Ranu
Sun dried rice and the mixture of roots and barks are used to prepare Ranu. First, the bark and roots are dried in the sun and ground together into a powder. Then the sun dried rice is moistened and converted into flour. Mix the rice flour and powder into a dough. After that, roll the dough into small balls. Then lay out straw in four layers, between which the small balls are scattered. Leave the balls to dry for 2 days. The tribals believe that, if the Ranu takes 2 days to dry, and then it will also take 2 days to process the Handia.
While preparing Ranu, some Munda women observe the traditional system that before preparing Ranu, they place rice powder on a leaf in front of the “Pitrupurusa” (ancestor). Then they add water to this powder and make dough. They fold the leaf around the dough and bake it in the fire. Afterwards, the Ranu are served by family members to others. Family members themselves cannot each them. By offering the Ranu mixture to God, they believe that, from that Ranu, they can produce and sell more Handia. The Munda women who are involved in Ranu production prepare it twice a week.
Testing of Ranu
After the Ranu has been prepared, it can be tested by throwing it into the fire. If it blazes up, then it is considered usable and if not, then it is useless.
* Cost Benefit of Ranu Preparation
| Particulars | Quantity |
Market Value |
| Sun-dried rice | 5 kg (10 manas) | Rs 30/- |
| Mixture of barks & roots (1 bundle) | According to quantity of rice | Rs 10/- |
| Total | Rs 40/- |
From 5 kg of rice one can produce 12 mana Ranu tablets. The cost of one mana Ranu is Rs 15/- only. By investing Rs 40/- for Ranu preparation, one can get Rs 15 * 12 mana = Rs 180/-. So the net profit is: Rs 180/- minus Rs 40/- minus Rs 40/- (two days labour charge) = Rs 100/-.
Processing of Handia
According to indigenous conceptions, Handia is processed by women. Processing takes three days. Uncleansed (bagada) rice and the tablet, Ranu, are used to prepare it. First, the rice is boiled with water in such a way that rice is soaked through with water. Then they break the tablet into pieces, mix these with the boiled rice and keep the mixture untouched for two days. During this time, the mixture will ferment and will have a sour taste.
To extract juice from the mixture, one can squeeze the mixture through a sieve (chaluni) for filtration. For one mana or 1/2 kg rice one can use two tablets (or one, if it is large). The Handia can be hard, medium and soft, depending on how the Ranu is used. The whole process is performed by women. This is because women are always in charge of the kitchen and Handia-making is entirely kitchen work.
* Cost Benefit of Handia Preparation
| Particulars | Quantity |
Market Value |
| Uncleansed rice | 6 kg (12 manas) |
Rs 30/-
|
| Ranu | 12 nos |
Rs 2/-
|
| Total |
Rs 32/-
|
From 6 kg rice it is observed that the tribal women produce 18 litres Handia. They sell the Handia in one-gina amounts (a gina is a local measuring pot with a capacity of 250 ml), which cost only Rs 1/- a piece. By selling 18 litres of Handia, the women get Rs 72/- only. So the net profit is Rs 72/- minus Rs 32/- = Rs 40/- only.
The Munda women prepare a special Handia for religious functions. Before preparing the Handia, they cleanse themselves by bathing, put on clean cloths and also wash the ‘Dekchi’ (big silver pot) clean. While preparing Handia they eat no food. This Handia is first offered to God and only then may the household members consume it. Others are not allowed to consume this Handia. Munda women prepare Handia two or three times a week. But in the summer season most of them prepare it more often.
Marketing
As with production, the Munda women also have the responsibility for marketing. Because if women do the selling, there is little chance of credit sale. The men are more liberal and unable to collect the price properly. If a man does not want to pay after buying a drink, a female seller is easily able to put pressure on him for on-the-spot payment. The male drinkers want to drink, but they don’t want to be humiliated by the woman at the market place. Secondly, during selling, the Handia needs to be mixed with water and the men do not know the quantity of water to be mixed.
Selling of Ranu
Ranu is sold in at the market and from homes also. Ranu is sold at the market on the basis of a local measuring system – “Ganda” (4 nos) and mana (local measuring pot). The cost at the market of Duee Gandas (8 nos) of Ranu is Eka Tanka (one rupee).
- Some women go to different villages for vending Ranu.
- In many cases, the women supply Ranu on a weekly basis to Handia Gowdams, located in Dhenkikote and Jhumpura.
Selling of Handia
The Munda women prepare Handia in their houses and sell in the following places:
- Selling from home
- Selling at daily markets near the roadside, with 10 to 15 sellers
- Selling at the Saptahik Hat (weekly market), at various locations
- Selling by order
- Selling at Jatra (festivals)
Selling from home
Most Munda women sell Handia at their homes. People of different castes, from the same and nearby villages, come to consume Handia. A household will sell more if they maintain good relation with their customers.
Selling at daily markets
Some women come regularly to the daily market or sit by the roadside. This gives them a regular income. Their customers are mostly people travelling along the road.
Handia Hat
The main objective of the “Hat” is to provide Handia to people who wish to consume it outside their homes. The tribal people are so used to Handia that they also require it when they are away from their homes. It is noteworthy that the Handia Hat is always held at a distance from the main Hat because if it is located in the main Hat, then it may:
- Catch the eye of Excise Department.
- Cause disturbances for people who are not drinking Handia.
A big Handia Hat is held at Dhenkikot every Saturday. This Hat is completely separated from main market. Nearly 50-60 households from nearby tribal villages come here with Handia for sale. On Saturday, there is also the general “Hat” at Dhenkikot to which people from nearby villages come to purchase vegetable cereals, pulses, clothes etc. There is a get-together of people from different villages. In this situation, the Munda women bring Handia for marketing purpose and sit separately from the main market. After selling their Handia, they purchase basic things at the market. It is seen that the tribal women mostly dominate the Handia Hat, while the general market is dominated by males. As the males are engaged in various work, it is difficult for them to sit still for 8-9 hours selling the Handia, because Handia Hat continues from morning to evening. We also remarked another interesting fact: that the young women coming to the Hat to sell Handia are dressed up in all their finery to attract customers.
Selling by order
Sometimes businessmen and cultivators order Handia from Munda women, so they can provide Handia for their labourers, and attract them to work for them. Also, during social functions, households sometimes order Handia from Munda women, to serve their guests and relatives.
Selling at Jatra (festivals)
Most of the Munda women sell Handia at local festivals, like Raja (3 days), Makara (9 days), Rathayatra (10 days), Dola yatra (13 days). The gathering of Handia-sellers is an additional attraction at all the festivals. The income from these festivals is much greater than the daily income.
Limitation
There are some limitations adopted at the time of preparing Handia. These are:
- The women do not talk with anyone during preparation.
- They do not eat watered rice.
- When preparing Handia for worship purposes, they bathe early and put on clean clothes before preparation.
Prohibition
The tribals prohibit Handia consumption by people suffering from fever, cold, cough and tuberculosis. Pre-school and school children are also not allowed to drink Handia.
Disorders
The tribals are so used to Handia that, if they do not take it several disorders are found with them, e.g. headache, bodyache, laziness etc.
Impact in Health & Hygiene
Good Impact
Handia removes jaundice, colic, dysentry; it hinders sun struck and makes the stomach cool.
Bad Impact
Drinking Handia may create inferiority complexes among non-Handia consumers. Some times men expend much money on Handia consumption and this causes familiar disturbances. Excessive drinking of Handia also causes social disturbances and may occasion many diseases like tuberculosis, asthma, bloodlessness, neurological and stomach problems.
Legal status
xAccording to law, Pachwai (Handia) is defined under section 2 (16) of Bihar and Orissa Excise Act 1915, as fermented rice, millets and other grain whether mixed with any liquid or not; any liquid obtained therefrom, whether diluted or undiluted; but does not include beer.
Under the provision of the Bihar and Orissa Excise Act 1915, one can sell and purchase Pachwai (Handia) within the limits of 7 kilograms or liters (undiluted) and 18 kilograms or liters (diluted). If one sells or purchases amounts beyond the limit, that will be treated as an excise offence and he/she will be accused under excise offence 47 (A) of B & O Excise Act 1915. In spite of this, many tribals and non-tribals are actively involved in this business throughout the district, whereas one license is provided for sell and purchase of Pachwai to a non-tribal person at Remuli.
In Keonjhar district, 34 cases have been filed against the offence during March ’01 to August ’01 out of which 80% cases were filed against a tribal.
Here the Handia sellers are getting privilege to sell of Handia up to 18 litters in a day, which helps them for their livelihood.
Now, consumption and preparation of Handia is not only limited among the tribes (Munda, Santala), but non-tribal people also undertaken this activity as a business. Our study shows that, different caste accepted this as a business purpose and they gain more profit than the tribals. In our study villages (Ramachandrapur, Bhanjatikra, Sandhiaposi and Barhatipra), all Munda people consume and prepare Handia but 25% of them make a expected profit and others prepare only for consumption and sell Handia to purchase oil, salt and intoxicated items (Tela luna ‘O’ dukuta).
Though Handia is originated from Munda and Santal and it is a most important part of their culture, but they are deprived to utilize it more profitably in their livelihood where as by utilizing same technique and procedure, the non-tribal make profit beyond expectation. From our observation, we assume that there are some reasons for which the munda people can not make profit in this business which are mentioned below :-
- Though Handia business is not adopted as primary occupation so they cannot concentrate fully in this business.
- There is no wider scope for marketing in the village area.
- Most of them are not interested to come to market area for regular sale because there are so many competitors in the market.
Now the situation is so that, the concept of Handia business among other caste people is now increasing and munda people are going to purchase Handia from non-tribal people for consumption.
Case study of households preparing Ranu and selling it on the market
Gouri Munda
Gouri Munda, a 32 years old woman is the wife of Sukru Munda living in Sandhiapasi village. She has two sons and three daughters aged from 14 to 6 years who are reading in the Hindibhanga school which is 3 kms away from Sandhiapasi village. Sukru Munda is engaged as a mason in the local villages and also working in his own agricultural field. During summer season, he goes to outside for mason work. Gouri assists her husband in their agricultural field from mid-June to mid-November and in between she also works as wage labourer in the village. Apart from this period she is busy in homework because there is no other work around.
As the household rears goats (3 nos), ducks (big: 2 nos & small: 11 nos), bullocks (5 nos) and cow (2 nos) that help the household to earn money and Gouri is the only person to take care of these livestock. In addition to this she prepare Handia and Ranu throughout the whole year.
Since 17 years Gouri has been preparing Handia in her in-laws house. When she was unmarried she did not know it but after that, her mother-in-law taught her the Handia preparation. At that time she purchased Ranu from others. But since 5 years, the idea of Ranu preparation came to her mind because of two reasons:
- By followings others as it is a profitable source of income.
- To minimise the expenditure of Handia preparation.
Handia consumption at home
Though all her children are going to school, they do not consume Handia at all. They (she and her husband) are the only persons who consume Handia at home. But since 2 years, her husband is restricted by Doctor to take Handia as he is suffering from tuberculosis. But during summer season, he takes Handia rarely. So she is the only member who consumes and prepares Handia. She prepares Handia mainly for consumption purpose. She uses 3 manas of rice for Handia preparation in a week for her own consumption daily (2 Gina, the measuring pot, of Handia which costs Rs 2/-only) and sells the remaining at her residence. By selling at residence she gets Rs 30-40/- in a week. When discussing with her about the expansion of Handia business, she remarked in the following way:-
- As most of the most households of Sandhiapasi and nearer villages were making Handia in their houses, as a result there was no sufficient customer for purchasing from her.
- Most of the customers purchased Handia on credit basis and did not pay regularly. So, it would be difficult for her part to run behind these customers for money collection.
- By selling in the market or door to door vending, she felt uncomfortable because by taking Handia to outside, one should take additional utensils i.e. bucket, danki, dhala and Chalani sieve for selling and it was not possible for her to take all these alone.
- She had already set physically and mentally with Ranu preparation.
Keeping all the above matter in view, she has been preparing Ranu since 5 years for business purpose.
Ranu Preparation
Gouri prepares Ranu twice in a week and each time takes minimum three days for preparation. In a week, she chooses two days i.e. Friday and Saturday for preparation, because for selling on Wednesday she can get sufficient time (5 days) for it. For making Ranu, she uses sundried rice, roots and barks. The roots and barks are Bhuinlimba (Burumarchi), Agnijhada, Jhinkiputa, Akalabindu (Pitu), Patalgarud and Bhuinkakharu (Bhuinboitalu). She purchases Akalabindu, Agnijhada, Patalgarud and Banalanka from market because these are available in the distant Hill and she is unable to collect these from the hill. For collecting Jhinkiputa and Bhuinlimba, she goes to Jangle (Forest) with other munda women, which is 2-3 kms from the village. Sometimes Bhuinlimba is not available in the jungle, so she has to go to other jungle near Manoharpur and Suakati with other women by bus. If necessary, they have to stay for 2-3 days there, for collection of Bhuinlimba. So, in that week, she cannot prepare Ranu.
Ranu Processing
At first, the roots and barks are dried up in the sun and then are grinded with sundried rice into power. For grinding purpose, she uses “Dhinki”or husking pedal block (an indigenous instrument for grinding these substances) and she takes 5 hours for grinding. Sometimes her husband assists her for this activity. The detailed activities and the time she spends for Ranu preparation is given below.
| Days | Activities | Time |
Hours
|
| 1st day (Thursday) | Collection of roots and barks | 8AM – 4PM |
8 hours
|
| 2nd day (Friday) |
Husking of Paddy to rice |
5AM – 9AM |
4 hours |
| Grinding of rice, roots and barks | 10AM – 4PM | 6 hours | |
| Preparing Ranu and setting in straw bed | 5PM – 9PM | 4 hours | |
| 3rd day (Saturday) | Same as 2nd day | 5AM – 9PM | 14 hours |
| 4th & 5th days (Monday & Tuesday) | Pick up the Ranu from straw bed and dry it in the sun |
4 hours
|
Cost of Ranu Preparation
For one week, she prepares Ranu in two phases and in each phase, she invests 7 manas of sundried rice. The details cost for this is given below-
| Days | Particulars | Quantity | Market Value |
| Friday | Rice | 7 manas | Rs 40/- |
| Roots and barks | 1 bida | Rs 10/- | |
| Saturday | Rice | 7 manas | Rs 40/- |
| Roots and barks | 1 bida | Rs 10/- | |
| Total | 14 manas & 2 bidas | Rs 100/- |
So, for one week she invests 14 manas of rice, which cost Rs 80/- and Rs 20/- for roots and barks. Sometimes she increases the quantity according to the order of the customers. From 14 manas of rice, she produces 25 manas of Ranu.
Marketing System
For marketing of Ranu, she has contacted four villages i.e, Balibandha, Hundula, Dehuripada and Kashipal and she goes once in a week i.e. Wednesday to these villages for sale. She goes by bus to Balibandha for which the bus fair is Rs 4/- and then she moves by foot to Hundula, Dehuripada and Kashipal, which are 4 kms, 3 kms and 3 kms from Balibandha respectively. She is vending Ranu among 11 households in Balibandha, all households (20 HHs) in Hundula, 4 HHs in Dehuripada and 3 HHs in Kashipal. All these 38 households belong to SC and ST (Kamar, Bhumija, Santal, Kolha, Bhuian and Ganda). Out of total Ranu, she sells a maximum amount in Hundula village because all the households prepare Handia and sell in Jurudi Hat near Joda on a regular basis and they all depend on her for purchasing Ranu. Most of the times more Ranu have been ordered from this village. According to her, during summer season, Raja and Makar festival, the demand of Ranu increases. Sometimes, she can not fulfill the target, as she is the only person to prepare Ranu at home.
By selling 25 manas Ranu, she gets Rs 300/- in a week @ Rs 12/- per one mana Ranu, whereas others sell Ranu @ Rs 15/- per mana. By clarifying the above, she answered that, though all the contacted households are the permanent customers for her and she has been selling them in Rs 12/- from the beginning, so she could be liberal to them.
Regarding the sale of Ranu at “Hat”, she stated that, she could not sell Ranu at nearby market named as “Jhumpura Hat” because all the Ranu sellers had fixed their customers who are coming regularly to that Hat. If she goes to the Hat, then the regular sellers might not cooperate her to sale and no customers would purchase Ranu from her and it would also take more time to make the customers towards her.
Case study of households engaged in both Ranu and Handia preparation
Jema Munda
Jema Munda, the wife of Udaya Munda who is a 35-year-old woman residing in the village Bhanjatipra. She has six daughters (one of which is married) and three sons. The main occupation of the household is agriculture and she works in her own agricultural field and also works as agricultural worker in inside and outside the village. She also produces vegetables from her kitchen garden. She also collects sal seeds and mahua flowers from the forest.
Besides the above activities, Jema Munda prepares Handia to earn additional income for the household. She has been preparing Handia since six years, but at first she prepared Handia for consumption purpose of the family. At that time she purchased Ranu, the tablet from market or others. When she realised that other households are making profit by selling Handia, she decided to take off this as a business.
Handia Consumption at home
All the family members except the last two children who are two years and 6 months old are consuming Handia daily at home. Both husband and wife consume 16 Gina (steel cup) Handia in a day which cost Rs 16/- only @ Rs 1/- per Gina (1 Gina = 200 g approximately). Sometimes Udaya Munda takes 10 to 15 Gina Handia in a day. The elder 3 children (aged 19, 18 and 15 years) drink 15 Gina Handia (5 Gina per head) in a day whereas the small children (aged 9, 6 & 5 years) also take 6 Gina Handia. The last two small children (aged 2 yrs & 6 months and 6 months) are not allowed to take Handia. The family members take Handia twice (in morning after brushing the teeth and after coming from work) in a day. The total consumption of Handia in a day is Rs 37/- approximately.
Preparation of Ranu
Since four years she has been preparing Ranu and before that purchased Ranu from market or from other sources. She prepares Ranu for own purpose and she does not sale these. The only purpose of making Ranu in the house is that, it minimizes the expenditure of Handia preparation.
There is no certain date for making Ranu in a week or month. At a time she prepares some Ranu and finishing these, she prepares again. For once, she uses 6 mana of sundried rice and Jhinkilai (Jhinkiputa) for making Ranu. She only uses Jhinkilai instead of other roots and barks and she collects Jhinkilai from the near hill. Before making Ranu, she goes to hill with other women to collect these from morning to evening and after finishing these, she goes again to collect.
Processing of Ranu
The first activity is grinding paddy to get sundried rice and for this, she uses “Dhinki” or husking pedal block (an indigenous instrument for grinding these substances). Then before grinding sundried rice, she takes bath and after that grinds sundried rice and Jhinkilai into power by “Dhinki” and keeps some power in a leaf separately in front of Pitrupurush (Ancestor God). After preparing Ranu and setting in the straw beds, she adds water with the separated rice power to make a dough. Then the dough is folded with a leaf and burnt by fire and shared by all members of the household. No out-sider is allowed to share with this. The detailed activities and the time she spends for Ranu preparation is given below.
|
Days |
Activities |
Time |
Hours |
|
1st day |
Collection of Jhinkilai from the Hill |
8AM to 4PM |
8 hours |
|
2nd day |
Paddy husking to rice |
3PM to 7PM |
4 hours |
|
3rd day |
Grinding of sundried rice and Jhinkilai to power |
7AM to 11AM |
4 hours |
| Preparing Ranu and setting in straw beds | 11AM to 3 PM | 4 hours | |
|
6th day |
Pick up the Ranu after drying up and then dried in the sun |
8 AM to 10 AM |
2 hours |
For processing of Ranu, it takes 3 days. The most interesting thing is that, from grinding sundried rice to preparing Ranu, Jema Munda makes fasting. She is in faith that, by performing this ritual, she can produce better Ranu.
Cost of Ranu Preparation
For one time, she invests 6 mana sundried rice, which costs Rs 36/- and 150 g of Jhinkilai which she collects from hill. She produces 9 mana of Ranu from 6-mana rice. If she sells in the market, then she may earn Rs 135/- but she does not sell.
Handia Preparation
She prepares Handia daily and each time takes two and half days in processing. She invests 6 kg of parboiled rice each time. She purchases these rice from the shop @ Rs 6.50/- per kg and she adds one Ranu in one mana rice. Firstly she boiled 6 kg of rice with water and after cooking, it leaves for cool. Then she adds 12 nos of Ranu into the cooked rice and leaves it for two and half days for processing. To extract Handia juice from the cooked mixture, she squeezes it in the mixture with water and uses a sieve (chaluni) for filtration.
In summer season, she prepares Handia daily and each time she uses 7 to 8 kg of para-boiled rice for preparing Handia.
In religious functions, she prepares special Handia (Bangadiang) for warship and the family members consume this Handia. The other members are not allowed to consume this Handia.
Marketing System
Jema Munda sells Handia in her own house. Sometimes she goes to nearby market for sale. Different castes people (Munda, other castes like milkman, Brahmin, Washer man and others) from Nusuripasi Barhatipra, nearby villages and other people who come across in front of her house, purchase Handia from her. She sells Handia on Gina (steel cup) basis and she gets Rs 1/- by selling 1 Gina Handia. In winter and Rainy season, she earns Rs 30/- to Rs 40/-, while she earns Rs 50/- to Rs 60/- in summer season. The reason is that, during rainy season, the weather is cold and Handia is not prepared well. The income is also less in winter season because in this season most of the families prepare Handia and they need not come here to purchase.
While asking her question about the sale of Handia in the market, she told that, as the customers are coming to her house, she does not need to go to market to sell Handia.
Impact of Handia on non-tribal people
In Dhenkikote area, some of non-tribal people undertake the Handia business by quitting their previous occupation. Here we are presenting a case study how a non-tribal household makes more profit by selling Handia at Dhenkikote area.
Gurucharan Mahakud
´belongs to Gopala/Gauda community and the traditional caste occupation of the community is to rearing cattle and selling milk. For last 36 years he is residing at Dhenkikote and at that time he was engaged in his little betel shop at Dhenkikote market. At that time he had undertaken furniture business to maintain his family of 4 members (wife and two sons).
The concept of Handia business as a profitable trade, came into his mind in 1998 by the inspiration of Bula Sahoo, a rice businessman at Dhenkikote market. In the beginning, he started to drink Handia by preparing it at home because his wife knew the preparation. At first he started this business with a small amount of rice and when he observed that the people came to the house to purchase Handia frequently from him then he increased the amount upto10kg rice in a week. According to the growing demand of the people, he increased the amount gradually up to 1-quintal rice at a time to strengthen the business.
Material needed for preparing Handia
For preparing Handia, para boiled rice and Ranu are needed. In the rainy season, he prepares 2 to two and half quintal rice (2 to 2 ½ quintals) of rice in a week where as 3 to 4 quintal rice is needed in a week for winter and summer season. He purchases the 10 to 15 quintal rice at a time from Dhenkikote market and every time he has stock of 10-quintal rice at home.
For preparing Handia, he purchases Ranu from outside. One household from Dandipasi village provides Ranu to the household. He is purchasing Rs 500/- Ranu in a week depending on the preparation of Handia from the household of Dandipasi where 5 members in that household are engaged to prepare and supply Ranu.
Preparation of Handia
Now Gurucharan and his wife, Madhabi prepare Handia thrice in a week (Monday, Wednesday and Thursday) and it takes three days for processing. In Wednesday of every week and every month he prepares excess Handia (1 quintal rice) to meet the need of people on Hata day, which is held on every Saturday at Dhenkikote. As two persons are not sufficient for Handia preparation, Satrughna Naik, a resident of Dhenkikote who knows the preparation, is appointed as a full time worker to help them. Satrughna takes Rs 25/- with one lunch and Handia consumption (10 bela = Rs 20/-). They cook 80 kg to 1 quintal parboiled rice at a time in 4 nos of silver dekichi (big cooking pot in which 20 kg rice can be cooked). They use table fan to cool the boiled rice, then 160 to 200 nos of Ranu are mixed with it and they keep the substance for three days in dekichi to process. He uses two rooms for preparing Handia one is store room and another is kitchen with processing room.
Household consumption
In this household Gurucharan only consumes Handia of 10 bela (Rs 20/-) in a day and Madhabi takes Handia rarely. It is very interesting that the domestic animals of the household also consume Handia. The cows (3 nos) consume 12 bela Handia (Rs 24/-) whereas the goats (4 nos) take 3 bela Handia (Rs 6/-). Gurucharan told that without giving Handia to his calf, he does not sell Handia to anybody. He again told that the animals are so used to Handia that, if they do not drink it, they make disturbances by destroying the Handia pots.
Marketing
For marketing Handia he/she does not go to outside. All caste people from nearby villages are coming to his house to drink Handia. In Hata day (Saturday), the number of the customers are so excess that, the three persons cannot sell properly. In order to smooth selling, he has appointed 2 persons Ghasiram Mahakud and Narayan Naik to sale Handia. Each of them earns Rs 25/- with lunch and Handia consumption. Everyday 150 to 200 people are coming here to drink Handia but in every Saturday, the number of people increases to near about 500. For smooth distribution of Handia to 50 persons at a time, the household has purchased 50 belas. To make the business more attractive, Gurucharan also prepares gram item and serve them for Rs 1/- only. Sometimes, contractors take a huge amount of Handia of Rs 200/- to Rs 300/- at a time to give their workers. During marriage time, some mundas also take Handia to distribute their neighbourers and relatives. Gurucharan maintains the accounts of Handia selling.
Cost Benefit of Handia preparation
Expenditure for one week
|
Sl No |
Particulars |
Quantity |
Amount |
|
01 |
Parboiled rice |
2 quintal or 200 kg |
Rs 1200/- |
|
02 |
Ranu |
400 nos |
Rs 50/- |
|
03 |
Fire wood |
Rs 50/- * 7 days |
Rs 135/- |
|
04 |
Labour charge (1 no) |
Rs 25/- * 7 days |
Rs 175/- |
|
05 |
Marketing cost (for two persons) |
Rs 25/- * 2 (persons) |
Rs 50/- |
|
06 |
Gram |
5 kg per day @ Rs 22/- per kg |
Rs 770/- |
|
Total |
Rs 2380/- |
The above expenditure is only for winter season. Though the demand of Handia increases in summer season, the cost of Handia preparation is minimum Rs 3005/- only (for three quintals of rice).
Income per week
| Sales per day (6 days a week) | @ Rs 500/- * 6 | Rs 3000 |
| Sales on Hat day (Saturday) | Rs 3000 | |
| Total | Rs 6000 | |
| Total income | Rs 6000 | |
| Total expenditure | Rs 2380 | |
| Total profit per week | Rs 3620 | |
| Total monthly profit | Rs 3620/- * 4 | Rs 14.480 |
Savings of the Household from Handia Business
Out of the income from Handia business, Gurucharan saves Rs 30,000/- in LAMPS at Dhenkikote and Rs 50,000/- in Baitarani Gramya Bank at Barhatipra. He also deposited Rs 300/- in LIC for three years in the name of his wife. In addition to the above deposit, he has constructed 11 rooms upto roof level for which he has already spent more than 3 lakhs rupees.
Perception of other people towards the household
In Dhenkikote area, 12 non-tribe households are doing Handia business since 15 years and as Gurucharan has developed a lot during three years, so they are jealous to him. Regarding this, he said that the neighbourers do not tolerate his progress, so they do not come to his house. As he is making Handia business like a Munda, he has not good relation with his relatives and neighbourers. Nobody likes to come to his house.
Source: anthrobase.com/Txt/S/Satpathy_N_Satpathy_R_01.htm
Villages turn islands, lakhs homeless in eastern India
India flood crisis ‘deteriorates’
The flood situation in India’s eastern states of Orissa, West Bengal and Jharkhand continues to deteriorate, officials say.
But they say that there has been some improvement in the worst affected state of Assam in the country’s north-east.
More than eight million people have been affected by severe floods and thousands have been displaced.
In Orissa officials say they are battling to get food to marooned people in the north of the state.
Many states in the north-east and east of India have been hit hard by flooding.
The army has been deployed in the state of Jharkhand – where nearly two and half million people have been affected by torrential rain – the heaviest for six decades, according to officials.
Five people have died in the wet weather in West Bengal and four in Orissa, officials said.
“We have not been able to reach thousands of people encircled by flood waters on all sides as road links have been badly damaged and the swirling water of the rivers is making the movement of boats difficult,” a senior official engaged in the Orissa relief operation told the BBC.
The district of Lakhimpur in Assam is one of the worst hit
Nearly 40,000 people in the state’s low lying areas have been evacuated to safer places.
The Orissa government started air-dropping food to inaccessible areas on Thursday morning.
Officials said nearly a million people in four Orissa districts – Mayurbhanj, Balasore, Bhadrak and Jajpur – have been affected by the floods.
More than half a million people have been affected in Balasore alone, officials said, and a total of 850 villages have been cut off.
Consolation
Meanwhile three army columns were rushed to West Bengal’s West and East Midnapore districts after more than 700mm rainfall lashed the two districts over the past three days.
A total of two million people have been affected by the floods in these two districts as the Subarnarekha River continued to rise, leaving nearly 300,000 people marooned.
The BBC’s north-east India correspondent, Subir Bhaumik, says that there was some consolation for the authorities in Assam, where there are signs that heavy rainfall is abating.
But our correspondent says that the worst affected districts of Lakhimpur and Dhemaji districts remain cut off from the rest of the state following a huge breach of national highway number 52.
Officials say that two and half million people have been affected by the floods in Assam and 12 have died.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7464375.stm
Villages turn islands, lakhs homeless
Floods continued to wreak havoc in three eastern states and Assam on Thursday.
In Orissa, an estimated 10 lakh people have so far been affected by floods while in West Bengal lakhs of villagers have been stranded and about 55,000 rescued and placed in 150 relief camps. In Jharkhand, about 3,000 people have been affected by nature’s fury.
In Assam 22 people were killed in two districts bordering Arunachal Pradesh due to excessive release of water from a hydro electric project in Arunachal.
The flood situation in north Orissa remained grave on Thursday with the Subernarekha, Budhabalanga, Baitarani and Jalaka rivers inundating large areas in the districts of Balasore, Bhadrak, Mayurbhanj and Jajpur. A portion of National Highway 60 near Rupsa in Balasore district has been swept away, cutting off the road to Bhubaneswar and Kolkata. The death toll however remained at four.
In Narayangar in Bengal’s Midnapore West district, 85-year-old Kulebala Maity took shelter on a tree-top till she was rescued by armymen on Thursday afternoon.
78-year-old Jarnali Bera was trapped in roof top when flood water washed away their house in Amedein village in Midnapore West.
Though Maity and Bera were rescued on Thursday morning, there are lakhs of other villagers who are still stranded in flood waters in Midnapore East and West districts.
In Jharkhand’s East Singhbhum and Seraikela-Kharsawan districts, more than 3,000 families have been rendered homeless in flash floods following a record 363.07 mm rainfall on Wednesday. Two persons died while over a dozen others survived from drowning in the flood waters. In Jamshedpur, two more gharials escaped from their enclosure in the Tata Zoo. One had reportedly been swept away by the floods into the swelling Subernarekha river on Wednesday.
hindustantimes.com/storypage/storypage.aspx?id=20ae94e2-c40e-40c5-856c-b2cbdb06b1b6&&Headline=Villages+turn+islands%2c+lakhs+homeless
Rains wreak havoc in eastern India, army called out
Kolkata-Bhubaneswar (PTI): Rains wreaked havoc in most parts of eastern India as army troops were on wednesday rushed to two flood-hit districts in West Bengal while Orissa alerted the Air Force and Jharkhand sought army help to tackle the situation that has affected nearly 25 lakh people.
Five persons died in West Bengal and four in Orissa due to the torrential rains, officials said. Three army columns were rushed to West Bengal’s West and East Midnapore districts as an IAF helicopter made an aerial survey of the affected areas, state Finance Minister Ashim Dasgupta said.
If necessary, food would be airdropped from tomorrow in the two districts that have registered a record 700 mm rainfall in the past three days, he said, adding the situation has been compounded by 3.50 lakh cusecs discharge from the Chandil-Galudi reservoir in adjoining Jharkhand.
In Orissa, the state government alerted the Air Force for relief and rescue operations. Describing the situation in four districts, particularly in Balasore as “grim”, Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Manmohan Samal said nearly 1.5 lakh people have been affected due to the flash floods caused by torrential rains.
The steel city of Jamshedpur recorded 338.1 mm of rainfall — the heaviest in the past six decades — since on Tuesday.
In the northeastern state of Assam, the situation showed some signs of improvement with cessation of rain even as the worst hit Lakhimpur, where 22 people have perished, and Dhemaji districts remained cut off following the breach of National Highway 52.
hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/000200806181964.htm
Rains disrupt life in Jamshedpur
Jamshedpur (PTI): Torrential rains, the highest in a decade, lashing the Steel City and its surrounding areas in Jharkhand, disrupted life for the third day on Wednesday.
Met office sources said a record 338.1 mm rainfall was recorded here since Tuesday morning.
Railway services came to a grinding halt due to the rains, Railway sources said. Most of the trains passing through Tatanagar were either cancelled or diverted.
The police and fire-brigade personnel were kept on high alert and executive magistrates asked to watch the situation which might worsen if the rains continued, East Singhbhum deputy commissioner Ravindra Agarwal told PTI.
Waterlogging was reported from low lying areas and boats were used to evacuate people, he said.
“We have shifted about 400 people to safer places but some people in Kadma and Mango are still stranded on roof-tops,” Agarwal said.
There was, however, no report of any casualty, he said.
Over 100 families in Jugsalai, Bagbera, Shastrinagar, Azadnagar, Daiguttu were affected as water gushed into the areas from Kharkhai river.
Road traffic in several areas, including Bistupur, Jugsalai were disrupted due to water-logging.
The boundary wall of an automobile factory at Adityapur industrial area collapsed last night washing away several semi-finished equipment, including gas cylinders and huge quantity of hydraulic oil.
While some schools in the steel city were closed due to waterlogging, attendance in offices was thin.
hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/004200806181521.htm
Traditional drink ‘Handia’ sells like hotcakes in Orissa
In the tribal areas of Orissa, the traditional drink ‘Handia’ is very much in demand in summer.
The drink made by fermenting rice through a special procedure, is intoxicating, keeps the stomachs cool and is a source of high energy. In the process, the tribals also make good money out of the sales.
Some call the country liqour the poor man’s whisky. It is popularly known as ‘Chipa Handia’ or ‘Badaej Handia’ among the tribals.
The drink is immensely popular among the tribals in the region as it is commonly used during marriages, birth anniversaries and festivals.
It is also considered as a sacred drink and is offered to deities and used in other rituals.
The word originates from ‘Handi’ a big earthen pot in which the rice is fermented.
The procedure involves soaking and boiling rice in water. After that a herbal root, locally known as ‘Bakhar’, is powdered and mixed with the rice. The mixture is kept untouched for two days for fermentation. The liquid then is allowed to trickle down a bamboo sieve and collected in earthen pots.
“Handia is not a harmful drink. It is rather beneficial. It’s consumption also has cultural relevance as it is being consumed for ages. Some people think that people can fall sick with it and it can also lead to death but that is not true. The energy we get from the drink is much more than what we obtain from our usual diet,” said Raghunath Soren, a villager.
It is essentially a summer drink as it protects people from extreme heat conditions.
“The drink keeps our stomach cool and is also intoxicating. Though we can make it at home, we enjoy having it outside. We drink around two to three glasses costing Rs four to five,” said Arun Patra, a villager.
The drink has also become a source of livelihood for unemployed people in the region.
“We make good money during summers and earning comes to around Rs 200-250. During winters, we earn approximately Rs 70-80,” said Lali Baske, a seller.
The tribals have inherited from their forefathers the procedure of making the traditional drink and the craft passes on from generation to generation. (ANI)
news. webindia123. com/news/ articles/ India/20080620/ 979263.html
Sudesh Kumar writes on Reservation, Religious Conversion and Development of Schedule Class (ST/SC) in India
Tribal and Christian are already two big social classes separate to each other. Jharkhand High Court (HC) should not call Tribal-Christian to any people in official term since; it’s not giving any benefit to them for their past life being a Tribal. By saying Tribal-Christian HC is itself creating new social class in country. In better way HC should defined all converted people as Christian. So that, people could be better off as Christian or Tribal coz neither of them are minority as a whole in Indian context but, if new class will be promoted as Tribal-Christian then, it will certainly bring a minority class as per population size etc.
Also, I had been hardly heard that Tribal-Muslim or Tribal-Hindu is asking for their ST (Schedule Tribe) status. From my personal experiences, I know, govt. has no objection if Tribal is Hindu (Tribal by origin + Hindu by faith = Tribal-Hindu) and enjoying ST status to get all reservations. In real example – one of my Oraon friend is Hindu (by faith & possibly from last many generations) and he is enjoying ST status. Similarly, if another Oraon friend of mine is Christian then he should be equally enjoying ST status like my Tribal-Hindu friend do.
Why and how should the reservation be from my view?
If you go to get caste / tribe certificate from local govt office, at that time officer does enquiry and verify your family backgrounds, such as your surname, family tree etc. So, if you belong to particular tribe / caste then possibly you would be carrying its surname. But, when religious conversion takes place, some people change format of their traditional name including surname. Also, at the same time, some people change format of first and middle name but don’t change their surname.
When people carry surname means they feel proud to show their origin and community or family identity of past life and generations. Now, if we find people who still embrace their surname but, namelogy or format of first and middle name has changed due to religious conversion. In that case person should be fully eligible to get Schedule or Reservation status. Why? To better understand it, we should first know the – why people need reservation and why they get it? It has needed to promote everyone equally by a state. As we simply know, “a person / community deserve to have schedule status or reservation if that is away from mainstream of society and in trap of socio-economic- political backwardness (i.e., called poverty circle in development economics language) more than the general population.” Our governments have given reservation to a Tribal and Dalit-Outcaste (person who is not associated to caste pyramid as per ancient Hindu Religion) because they deserve to get it as per above mentioned definition of need of reservation.
And this govt reservation policy certainly up-lifted many but, of course not to everyone since, it was not that much perfect for everyone whoever comes in Scheduled Status. So, some people of this status look for better-offs through their individual efforts and out of these some got in catch of religious conversion in order to speed-up their socio-economic- political development, so that we can treat them equally.
From the above discussion here, we find two elements to promote development of Schedule Status granted people.
1. Govt Development Policy for entire scheduled community;
2. Individual Policy – (education, job, business, access of future insurance instruments and religious conversion etc). Here, religious conversion and better access of Christian missionaries support is best individual development tool in short run for one person or one poverty trapped community in Indian context.
Now, the question is for how long this Scheduled Status should be granted to people? After having better use of above mentioned both policies suppose, people have been developed more from their previous level of life at all fronts such as socio-economic and political etc. Then does it changed their past life? Of course not and obviously it can change only present or future but not the past. So, from their past life they have been carrying problems of long run nature and it will take a long time to solve their problems of long run nature, possibly it can take couple of generations. Now, we should be agreed to take out reservation policy after certain time, let say after 3rd generations since, it was granted. So, Dr Ambedkar was absolutely right, as he said this reservation policy should be removed after certain numbers of years. But, did present reservation policy give equal benefit to all scheduled status granted people? As we see, more than 70 percent of people didn’t get benefit as much govt. have expected to provide them in order to connect them from main stream of society. On the other side, there are also 30 percent of scheduled status granted people, who have used it at best. And still these 30 percent people are using it even if they don’t deserve it. So, our govt reservation policy is out dated now.
Here it can be concluded that – there is no question of how long reservation policy should go but, the point is failure of govt reservation policy (either due to political instability or whatever reason). Also, the problem that is being faced by above mentioned 70 percent of Scheduled status granted people is still main issue of concern because, if it goes on then we will have more added problem such as – Naxal, Religious Conversion etc. So, can we look for such a good policy that can finish poverty-circle of those 70 percent of Scheduled status people including general people regardless of their caste, religion and communities?
—
Sudesh Kumar
Jharkhand (India)
sudeshkumar@jharkhand.org.in
Jharkhand’s Present – Bad…&..Future – Worse!
Before I start any sort of discussion here, let me first introduce myself. I am Sarsij Nayanam, and I belong to Ranchi. I finished my entire education in Ranchi (Schooling from Vikas Vidyala and then DAV Public School, and Graduation from BIT,Mesra), and I am proud of the fact that I got the best I could have ever thought of. Now I am working with L&T Bangalore, and planning to settle down here at this place (thats what is the plan, more because here lies my job and future career prospects).
Eversince I got a chance to see the world outside Ranchi, I have been almost always been compelled to compare the situations with those at Ranchi. And almost always I have come to the conclusion that Ranchi (or for that matter Jharkhand) could turn into world class places, but hampers such aspirations is the will-power to change things. And I am not only blaming the government but also the people of Jharkhand.
Take any instance, be it the traffic condition of Ranchi or the Babu-ism which is prevailing in the state, or take the unwillingness of the governemnt to do any meaningful development for the people. In all these cases (and several hundred other cases) its people who have not asked that ‘why this has not been done?’, and this is the sole reason why politicians do away with some bizzare excuses.
The politics of Jharkhand has seen the worst of what India could have ever imagined. Almost all the politicians have criminal charges (although exceptions are there), almost all have a long list of ‘gundaa-ism’ and corruption and several other severe charges. but are people actually bothered? Next time they would again turn-out to vote for the same people, without even thinking twice about the future of their state or the future of their kids.
Jharkhand is one state which is abundant with the natural resources, and its absolutely capable of becoming the richest and the most developed state of this country. But in past 7 years what happened?
I really wish to ask some very very important questions from all you people, and I do expect that you should be able to answer these questions ONLY to yourself and do some soul searching…….
1. How much did you salary/earning increase in last 7 years? (Or let me put it this way, in past seven years how much more financially capable did you become?)
2. How many new Govt Schools/Colleges/Hospitals did you see in your city? (Since Jharkhand was a new state, and had enough funds to start these basic facilities so is it not the right time to get a count of these basic facilities?)
3. How many well maintained roads did you see in your area? And how many new roads did you find?
4. Since Jharkhand was formed on a hope to build a new state which would be self-sufficient, so how many new industries actually started? How many MNCs/Indian provate companies actually set up their offices in Jharkhand?
5. How many times did you pay bribe in last seven years (in govt offices)?
6. How many times did you approach a minister/politician, and it turned out to be successful/useful (without paying any bribe)?
7. Did you feel that the Infrastructure needs a greater attention, but probably the govt doesn’t feel the same?
There are several thousand other questions which you should be asking yourself, and then decide weather you are in the right place or not?
And before I finish writing this article, I would also like you all to ponder over these questions……
How come politicians keep getting richer? (have you ever seen their children driving a ‘cheap-type’ vehicle?) or Have you ever wondered why politicians kids almost always enter into politics? How come IAS officials gain so much that they afford a living standard which is much higher than average India? From where do policians and senior officers get so much money that own huge assets…….
think if you can……(although I doubt over the fact that anyone will ever think about those questions….)
Anyway, I always welcome comments and some constructive feedback as well as some suggestions.
Thanks & Regards
Sarsij Nayanam
The new game industrialists play to acquire Adivasi land
Gone are the days when industrialists who want to set up industries approached the government to acquire the land, forcibly if need be, and hand it over to them. People are becoming more aware and are more organised. The govt has burnt its fingers trying to forcibly acquire land. Kalinganagar, Singur, Nandigram are good examples. Now the govt is telling the industrialists to buy or lease the land on their own.
So the capitalist owning class is devising new ways of acquiring the land of the farmers. Blatant terror tactics will not do. The land owners have to be persuaded into giving their land. The process of dividing consists of the following steps:
1) Identify some discontented young men in the village community and entice them with money and promise of employment in the company. It is not hard to find such young men in any situation. They are usually a little educated, but are unemployed and loitering about. They are generally dissatisfied with society but would not be willing to play any constructive role towards the solution of the problems their village community faces. They also realize that in today’s society money is what counts finally.
They are also sufficiently alienated from agrarian economy to the extent they will not do agriculture- related work in their own fields. There is no such thing as any emotional attachment to their land. And in the case of Adivasi communities, these young men do not have any regard or respect towards the traditional Adivasi leadership and do not abide by the opinion of the elders of the village community. Such persons are given motor cycles cum daily allowance by the companies, and are told to play an active role in the process of land acquisition. So they become the first persons who agree to give their land to the company. Thus the first step in dividing the village community is completed.
2) The rest of the village community can be divided into two broad categories: the silent majority who in their heart of heart do not want to give their land to the company but feel powerless to frontally confront the very powerful company, the administration, the police. Also they do not have much idea about the company, nature of the project, impact on environment, details of compensation, quality of rehabilitation etc. In other words, this is the section of the population which can be swayed and persuaded to part with their land. The company starts to work on them. The company people know that these simple people must be nurtured to accept the project and agree to be displaced. Feelers are sent through the already purchased young men who by now become the middle men between the company and the people. Some of people’s needs in the area of health and education facilities are identified. The company sends a few officers hailing from the area who together with the young men assemble the people and make tall promises about the wonderful rehabilitation they will have when they give their land for the project. The company also offers to build, equip and run primary schools, small hospitals, community halls, install hand pumps etc. at its own cost. Better rates of compensation for land & property than what the govt itself would give are promised. One company job per household is assured. In brief, heaven on earth is promised to people. Liberal offers are made to take groups of these people to far away places where this very company has rehabilitated the displaced people so beautifully that they are supposed to be better off now than they were ever before.
Gradually over a period of time, an increasing number of these farmers are no more opposed to giving their land to the company. In this way, the initial resistance begins to weaken. Thus the second step in dividing the village community is completed.
3) There then remain a smaller but awakened and vocal group who are against the project and the company. They are attached to their land, and in the case of Adivasi communities they consider their land not only as the main source of sustenance but also as a sacred heritage of their forefathers and the dwelling place of their spirits. They are also aware about the companies which want to set up projects in their midst thus alienating their land and displacing them. They have come to realise that the companies invest not for the development of people but for profit and only profit. Experience tells them the industrialists are not to be trusted. Hence they would say loud and clear that they will not give their land to the companies on any count.
Let us see how the industrialists tackle this group.
The industrialists know very well that this section of the village community cannot be persuaded to surrender their land. Rather, these outspoken persons have to be dealt with in a stern way. Detailed planning is done with the local administration, local police, already bought off young men as to how to neutralise these men who are passionately opposing the project. Which of them can be frightened by what action. If they will not be frightened, how to implicate them in false cases so they can no more be on the scene. There are instances in Jharkhand where the leaders of resistance movements were booked under non-bailable cases and some of them were jailed for several months as the lower courts refused bail and recourse to the High Court took more than a year just to get bail. Even the traditional elderly Adivasi leaders were accused of serious crimes such as attempt to murder, rape etc. The young activists protesting against the project were brought to a situation where they could not even go to the weekly bazaars for fear of being arrested and could not take a bus to go somewhere for fear of being picked up by the police or be physically assaulted by the goondas hired by the company.
In the mean while the industrialists busy themselves organising face-saving ‘public hearings’ from which these troublesome elements can be kept away, and work out the dynamics of getting the approval for the project. And once it is done, it is announced in the media that the people have not only approved the project but have welcomed it and are ready & willing to give their land for the project. Thus the third step in dividing the village community is completed.
Finally there are instances where the affected people have not allowed any division among them and have consistently stood together in solidarity in resisting the project. Such extraordinary situations need extraordinary solutions. This is where the collaboration of the state govt, local administration, police force is important. We then witness ‘state terrorism’ in its most ugly form. Koel Karo (Tapkara) police firing in 2001 at an unarmed peaceful crowd killing eight persons and injuring several is an unforgetable example. Kalinganagar firing in 2005 killing eleven persons wherein the Tata Co went to the spot not only with its bull-dozers but also accompanied by 11 platoons of armed police provided by the state govt.
This is the ultimate, calculated blow to people’s resistance to industrial projects aimed at displacing people and alienating their land.
From all that is said above, it is not to be concluded that people have lost the battle. Increasingly they are becoming aware of the manipulations of the industrialists. People will soon develop their own strategies to remain united and definitively refuse to give their agricultural land to industrialists. It will then be the task of others with a human conscience to stand by the struggling farmers in support and solidarity.
newswing.com/ ?p=1045&page=2
Rs 6358 Crore balm ready for singed Jharia (Jharkhand)
Residents Living Above Century Old Mine Fires To Be Shifted
Wednesday 07th of May 2008: The Jharkhand government and Coal India Limited (CIL) are preparing a rehabilitation package for 67,000 families to shift them from the Jharia mine area where fires has been raging below the ground for almost a century.
Jharia is in Dhanbad district, around 270 km from state capital Ranchi. It has huge deposits of coal, under the control of Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL).
According to BCCL officials, in Jharia 70 major mine fires have been raging underground in an area of around 400 sq km.
The BCCL officials have said the company has lost 37 million tonnes of coal worth Rs.30 billion due to the fires.
The fires have made the earth’s surface unstable and dangerous to live on. Cave-ins are frequent. Over a dozen houses have been destroyed and at least 30 people killed over the years.
According to experts, 1,000 million tonnes of coal are still available in the Jharia mines, but they can be extracted only when people are shifted out and efforts made to extinguish the fires.
Jharia mines have been operational since 1896. The fires that started soon after spread in the 1970s.
‘We have almost completed the rehabilitation package,’ said Jay Shankar Tewary, state mines and geology secretary. ‘Around Rs.4,000 crore (Rs.40 billion) will be spent in the next ten years in shifting of people from the mine fire area and rehabilitating them to safe places.’
According to officials, CIL – the parent company of BCCL – will pay Rs.25 billion for the rehabilitation, and the rest will be shared by the state government and funds generated from the coal conservation and development fund.
The state government officials said 23,000 of the 67,000 families staying in the danger zone do not have any documents proving their rights to the plots on which they live. ‘The rehabilitation package will deal with both legal and illegal landholders, but their packages will be different,’ they said.
Earlier rehabilitation packages were not accepted by the residents of Jharia. On many occasions, they held demonstrations seeking adoption of scientific methods to extinguish the fires without shifting them.
newspostindia. com/report- 53055
Rs 6358cr rehab package to save Jharia
Ranchi, May 7: The state government today approved a rehabilitation package drafted by Coal India Ltd (CIL) for around 67,000 families, paving the way for evacuating Jharia where an underground fire has been raging for over 90 years.
After high-level meeting chaired by chief secretary A.K. Basu, CIL chairman Partho Bhattacharya said the package would be worth Rs 6,358 crore, 50 per cent of which would be contributed by CIL.
As reported by The Telegraph yesterday, the package involved the relocation of 67,000 families to a safe zone after the creation of adequate infrastructure. It is part of the three-phased Jharia Action Plan which would include dousing the underground fire and relocating highways and railway tracks passing over the Jharia coalfields.
According to sources, the package would now be okayed by the state cabinet before being sent to the Centre.
At today’s meeting, the state government relented to the CIL plea of approving the 2004 master plan — modified in 2006 — instead of insisting on incorporating the favourable components of the national R&R policy. “Since we are not opening any new mine, the national R&R policy should not come into the picture,” Bhattacharya said.
Among the others who attended the meeting included state mines and geology secretary Jaishankar Tiwary, BCCL chairman and managing director A.K. Pal, North Chhotanagpur commissioner B.K. Tripathy and Dhanbad deputy commissioner Ajay Kumar Singh.
All agreed that the Jharkhand Rehabilitation Development Authority would execute the package. The authority, headed by the North Chhotanagpur commissioner, would acquire land to relocate oustees.
As for the socio-economic survey of the area, Singh was asked to look for a new agency to replace the Central Mining Research Institute that had been involved in the job earlier.
Bhattacharya said that the decision to finalise the package was significant for both the mining industry as well as the people of Jharia who have been risking their lives by braving the underground fire that has been raging since 1916. “The state government has urged us to open a training institute so that local boys would be employable in the upcoming mining industries,” he pointed out.
Bhattacharya clarified that fire fighting would begin only after evacuating the area — relocation sites had been identified north of Jharia.
According to the package, the oustees would get houses and compensation. Besides, they would get minimum agricultural wages for 500 days. Unauthorised homeowners would have the option of getting either a house or land in lieu of their houses
telegraphindia. com/1080508/ jsp/frontpage/ story_9241320. jsp
Balm ready for singed Jharia – Meet to finalise rehab plan for 67000
Ranchi, May 6: The state government is ready with a rehabilitation package for over 60,000 families who would have to be shifted out of Jharia where an underground fire, raging since 1916, is estimated to have consumed 37 million tonnes of high grade coking coal valued at Rs 3,000 crore.
Acting in tandem with Coal India Limited (CIL), the Madhu Koda government is finally ready with the Rs 4,000-crore package egged on as it was by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh no less during his recent Bokaro visit.
State mines and geology secretary Jaishankar Tiwary told The Telegraph that 67,000 families would have to be shifted to a safe zone. “We will have to declare the zone as unsafe before we begin the relocation,” he said.
Implementation of the Jharia Action Plan would be finalised tomorrow at a meeting between chief secretary A.K. Basu and CIL chairman Partho Bhattacharya. The chairman and managing director of Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL), which owns the raging mines, would also be present.
“We want CIL to agree to it before we get a cabinet approval for our proposal,” Tiwary maintained.
According to Tiwary, there were three components to the action plan — douse the underground fire, shift the affected families, and thirdly, relocate the highways, and railway tracks that pass over the Jharia coalfields.
The state government, the mines secretary pointed out, was asked to relocate only those who weren’t employees of BCCL. “We have identified 67,000 families, 23,000 of them are unauthorised landholders. Besides, there are 658 public buildings, like schools, dharamshalas among others, which have to be relocated,” he said.
The rehabilitation package, BCCL’s original proposal reworked in the light of the new national R&R policy, and the action plan would be implemented through the Jharia rehabilitation development authority headed by the North Chhotanagpur commissioner.
Around Rs 4,000 crore would have to be spent over the next 10 years. While CIL would contribute Rs 2,500 crore, the rest would come from coal conservation and development fund.
One of the issues that would be discussed tomorrow was the quantum of relief. In its original proposal for the oustees, BCCL sought daily wages for each of them for the next two years, creation of adequate infrastructure facilities at the new habitations, vocational training and adequate compensation.
“BCCL wants to stick to the old proposals,” said Tiwary. “However, we are telling them to make a one-time payment to every oustee so that they could get some capital to begin a new venture, he added.
telegraphindia. com/1080507/ jsp/frontpage/ story_9237065. jsp
Subject Line by Jharkhand News
First blog on mines of Jharkhand Region
Orissa institute to start open school for Adivasis (Tribals) near Bangalore
Orissa institute to start open school for Tribals near Bangalore
Bangalore, UNI : Encouraged by the success of running a tribal school in Bhubaneswar, Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) is planning to a start a similar school near Bangalore.
The proposed school complex would come up in five to ten acres of land to provide education and necessary infrastructure facilities,including accommodation to the tribal children. A proposal had already been submitted to Karnataka Governor Rameshwar Thakur seeking allotment of land.
Disclosing this to UNI, KISS Founder Secretary Achyuta Samanta said here that the school would initially provide free education to around 1000 children belonging to tribal families. Funds required for the project would be raised locally, once the land was allotted by the Government, he added.
The ultimate objective was to set up a University of Tribals,exclusively for children hailing from various tribal belts across the country. Facilities, among others, to be provided at the University included food, clothes, books and education from Kindergarten to Post Graduation, all under one roof, he added.
He said KISS had already succeeded in its venture to provide free education to tribal children in Bhubaneswar, where 5000 children were accommodated in a Tribal Residential School in the KISS campus. This included some from tribes classified as primitive.
The intake would be increased to 8000 children during this year, he added.
Dr Samanta, who has the distinction of being the youngest Vice-Chancellor of a University in India, as recorded by Limca Book, has to his credit a conglomeration of educational Institutions, ranging from Engineering, Rural Management, Computer, Language, Law and Health through a non-governmental organisation called Kalinga
Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT).
deccanherald.com/Content/May42008/state2008050466226.asp?section=updatenews
Teachers booked for stripping girl students in Dhanbad, Jharkhand
Ranchi, April 28 (IANS) A Jharkhand school principal and four teachers have been booked for allegedly asking 13 girl students to strip to look for missing money, police said Monday. An FIR was lodged Sunday against the principal, Mohammad Sharfuddin, his deputy Rajiv Kumar Singh and three women teachers of Balika Middle School of Moddidih colliery in Dhanbad district, around 290 km from Ranchi, police said.
The report was filed after the parents complained that the school staff had forced their kids to remove their clothes to frisk them for lost money of one of their classmates.
On Saturday, Nazia Parveen of Class VIII claimed to have lost Rs.55. When the money was not found, the girls of the class were first asked to remove their shoes and then their skirts and shirts.
“When I refused to remove my skirt and shirt, the lady teachers threatened to strip me before the principal. I had no option but to remove my clothes,” the police quoted one of the students as saying.
The money was not found. And the teachers reportedly threatened the girls not to tell their parents about the incident.
The principal has denied the allegation saying: “The girls were asked to remove only shoes and socks. No girl was asked to remove her skirt and shirt.”
The parents, after learning about the incident, gathered in the school premises and allegedly thrashed the principal and his staff before complaining to the police.
The principal has lodged a counter-FIR against 10 people for the alleged assault.
Dhanbad, 28 Apr 2008,TNN: Police have registered FIRs against the headmaster and four other teachers, including two women teachers, of Modidih Girls High School near here on the charge of outraging the modesty of 13 schoolgirls in the school building. In protest, the girls of the school have decided not to attend school from Monday.
According to sources at the Jogta police station located about 20 kms from here, FIRs have been registered against secretary of the school management committee Surendra Singh, headmaster Mohd Sharfuddin, assistant headmaster Rajiv Kumar Singh, besides Sushma Kumari and Priti Kumar (both women teachers) on a complaint filed by a student of Class VIII.
The principal, too, has filed complaints against guardians of ten students, who had allegedly misbehaved with him and other teachers and reportedly assaulted them. The students had complained to their parents about their stripping by the school headmaster and some teachers on the school premises on Saturday. Enraged over the incident, the guardians went to the school the same day and reportedly assaulted the headmaster and others. They were demanding arrest of the headmaster and other teachers.
Dhanbad district education officer Rajkumar Prasad Singh told TOI here on Sunday that the school, run and managed by the public sector Bharat Coking Coal Company(BCCL),was neither registered nor recognized. It was run on the land and building given by the BCCL.
Singh said, “It is a serious incident and I have written to the BCCL management to take strong action against the erring teachers. The incident is highly condemnable, but since the state government has no control over the school, it cannot directly take any action. However,the police have registered FIRs against the headmaster and the teachers involved in the case.”
Singh said the incident occurred following a complaint lodged by a student that her purse was missing. The 13 girls were later taken at a room and their clothes removed by the headmaster and teachers. However, neither the money nor the purse was found on them.” The agitated girls later complained to their parents who stormed into the school premises demanding arrest of the headmaster and other teachers.
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Patna/Teachers_booked_for_stripping_13_girls/articleshow/2989318.cms
news@jharkhand.org.in | Broadcasting NEWS that matters to Jharkhand Region
Evangelist martyred for Christ in Jharkhand
Burju Village (Jharkhand): Today (28th April 2008) An activist of RSS in Burju village of Kunti district Mr. Durgan Mundu approached JEL church evangelist Rev. Letaro Horo with a request to visit his home for a prayer for his family members for healing.
The innocent evangelist arrived Durgan’s home on 28th late evening and prayed for the family .While he was praying closing his eyes Durgan lynched him with an axe used for cutting trees. The preacher was done to death in a most brutal way. Later the villagers caught Durgan redhanded and handed over to the Muru police station in Khunti district of Jharkand
Burju village is 125 Kms away from capital town of Jharkhand Ranchi and 175 Kms from Tatanagar
Please pray for the bereaved family members and believers in India
persecution. in/node/2771
Naxalites do not oppose NREGA
Sometime in the middle of the night, the widower got up, stole past his four sleeping children, and hung himself from a nearby berry tree with his late wife’s sari.
Fighting crushing poverty in his Gitildi village in Jharkhand, 40-year-old Turiya Munda killed himself last month because he had not been paid his wages for months under the ambitious rural employment guarantee scheme – the world’s largest social security programme.
Munda had worked for 48 days digging a pond a kilometre away. He kept waiting for months for his money – Rs 3,360 – then gave up, becoming a tragic milestone – the first NREGA death.
The state government has recommended action against local officials. When government officials sleep on their jobs across one third of India, they often love to blame the militants.
True enough, Gitildi village is in the militant heartland where squads of rebels have come by often, asking villagers to support them. But Munda gave up his life (see adjoining story) because of officials’ sloth, not Naxalites – the rebels are not creating roadblocks for the implementation of the rural jobs law here, or elsewhere.
In another part of the state, a group of villagers stood in the sun in Dundu village with some eloquent proof of that: pieces of blank paper. The villagers were digging to build a pond in the insurgency-wracked Latehar district, under the rural jobs law that guarantees 100 days of employment each year.
The blank papers were job cards – the equivalent of a bank passbook. They showed how villagers had not got a single day of employment last year, even though Naxalites have allowed the project to run unhindered.
In some areas of Jharkhand, local Naxal units even put up posters urging villagers to claim their right to employment. “The Naxalites do not oppose NREGA. They ask us to work and demand employment,” said Ram Avtar Singh, a 50-year-old Dundu villager, as he set aside his spade and fetched his blank job card from his home across the road. “If the officer at the district headquarters says that ‘I cannot do this because the Naxal will shoot me’, then that is just a good excuse for not doing their work.”
It is a crisis of governance that resonates in tens of thousands of villages across insurgency-affected India, the very villages where sincere implementation of the jobs law is perhaps needed the most. One-third of the country – at least 200 of the 600-plus districts from Jammu and Kashmir to the Naxalite-affected dozen-odd states or the northeast – is currently under the shadow of armed movements.
Government officials in New Delhi as well as the states often say that that is the reason why the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) has not reached a huge section of people in areas like these. Dundu village lies in the Matlong region, a medley of steeplechase-like mud roads flanked on all sides by hills.
The SUV rolls past quiet villages, where men and women watch the strangers. No outsider comes to these parts any more. So when NREGA was announced in 2005, it seemed like the godsend that would lift the villagers from crushing poverty.
“We are desperate for employment. If we got work here, in our village, are we mad to go to the cities for work?” said Daroga Singh, standing outside his home in Dundu. Villagers wondered whether Naxalites would attack those taking part in NREGA programmes. But the rebels also wanted to know more about the law.
“They came to me one night and I was asked to explain the detailed provisions of the NREGA – then sought my help in preparing a write-up on it. I think they also made some posters locally and put them up, asking people to take part in it and seek work,” said a local NGO official in a district near Latehar.
He declined to be named, citing fears of police action. In Dundu, platoons of Naxalites, both men and women wearing green uniforms and carrying guns, frequently walk down the mud road next to the pond project.
They watch the pond building project with curiosity, but the villagers know that this is one government project that is not at risk. “When their squads passed by this road some days ago, they asked me: ‘are you getting your wages?’ I said ‘no’,” said Ram Avtar Singh. “They said ‘You must take your wages, it is your right’.”
Insurgents do not oppose the ground-breaking NREGA because it touches the everyday lives of the poorest – and targeting it could mean a popular backlash.
However, this comes for a cost – they are known to take levies or taxes from NREGA projects running in their areas. But villagers say this is no reason why people should not get employment. “The Maoists take five per cent levy here, we know that. The government official takes much bigger cuts. Both do it,” said Peshkar Singh, standing in the shade of a tree as others looked on.
By the end of January, one member each in 29 lakh families in Jharkhand had job cards – but out of these, only 13.5 lakh had demanded employment from the government, Jharkhand’s NREGA Commissioner Amitabh Kaushal said. Even going by the government’s figures, it was unclear why 15 lakh families in the state living in abject poverty would not demand employment guaranteed to them.
A central government official monitoring NREGA projects said Jharkhand’s estimates were under a shadow of doubt. “According to their figures, everyone who demanded a job got it within 15 days.
But that is not turning out to be true,” said the official, declining to be named. “The record keeping in Jharkhand is abysmal – and it suits them.”
Officials never inspect records on the ground in Naxal areas, and the unusual visitors are also interrupted in their interviews with a phone call as they approach the edge of the dense forest that holds Naxal hideouts.
“You have come too deep – so far so good,” a voice says in a phone call to HT’s Latehar reporter. “Please turn back with your guests.”.
(With Vishal Sharma in Latehar)
(This story first appeared in the Hindustan Times on March 22)
Neelesh Misra
(forum@jharkhand.org.in)
http://www.jharkhand.org.in/forum
Adivasi welfare exposed in Jharkhand – CAG targets fraud NGOs, detects funds misuse
The CAG has pulled up the Madhu Koda government for under-utilising and at times misusing crores of rupees it had received over the years for tribal welfare — a damning indictment for a state that prides itself on the slogan “tribal first”.
Tabled in the Assembly recently, the report not only detected fraudulent use of funds by NGOs but also pointed out that the government used only Rs 85.55 crore of the Rs 183.84 crore it had received during 2003-07.
Meant for use in 112 of the 214 blocks covered under the Centre’s integrated tribal development project, the unused funds were parked in banks. The interest it earned, the CAG revealed, was used to repair official buildings.
The CAG’s findings are based on its assessment of tribal hamlets in 44 blocks in Chaibasa, Chakradharpur, Jamshedpur, Khunti and Ranchi.
According to the CAG, Rs 2.19 crore was given to three NGOs — Srijan Mahila Vikash Manch (Rs 1.01 crore), Indira Adivasi Mahila Vikas Sanstha (Rs 43 lakh) and Pradan (Rs 75 lakh) — for executing water harvesting horticulture schemes and micro-lift irrigation projects in Chakradharpur, Chaibasa and Khunti.
“These NGOs did not submit vouchers, measurement books, muster rolls etc in support of the work they carried out. In fact, two NGOs — Srijan Mahila Vikash Manch and Indira Adivasi Mahila Vikas Sanstha — were unregistered and had no experience in these matters,” the CAG found out.
The CAG concluded that since basic accounting norms were not followed, “defalcation of Rs 2.19 crore by the three NGOs could not be ruled out”.
The CAG also found out that Pradan had created community assets worth Rs 74.84 lakh on private land, thereby benefiting undserverving individuals.
The CAG has also castigated the state government for constructing nine hostels for tribal students at a cost of Rs 4.36 crore in private institutions when rules mandated that the state provide free land so that it retains control over these hostels.
The hostels came up in the premises of XISS, Ranchi; St. Xaviers College, Ranchi; Bundu Women’s College, Bundu; Cambridge Institute of Technology, Tatislway, Ranchi; Mission School, Vijaygiri ST Tamar; St Baranbas Hospital, Ranchi; St John Boys High School, Nawatanr; St Joseph High School, Torpa and Ursuline Convent Girls High School, Simdega.
The CAG has also detected wasteful expenditure of Rs 86.08 lakh as around 126 schemes for constructing ponds and irrigation wells were abandoned midway.
telegraphindia.com/1080329/jsp/frontpage/story_9071077.jsp
Adivasi & NREGA: Corruption mars welfare security
THE CENTRAL government introduced several anti-poverty programme in KBK (undivided Koraput, Bolangir and Kalahandi) districts to prevent hunger deaths and to prevent migration from rural to urban areas. But the fate of the poor has not changed.
The government introduced National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) in Orissa, on February 2, 2006, to strengthen the economic condition of the rural poor in India, with a commitment to ensure the poor people’s right to work. The right is restricted to 100 work days in an year for a family and providing them pure housing power from the public distribution system (PDS) shops to keep them free from hunger .
As a journalist, with an experience of over 25 years, I found the NREGA, the biggest and noblest anti-poverty scheme in the post-independence India. However, the biggest noble scheme seems defeated in KBK districts. The officers looted, and are still looting, the poor men’s money in an organised way by taking advantage of their innocence and illiteracy.
A visit to some villages under the Kaberibadi and the Pedalada panchayats under the Bandhugaon block in Koraput district reveals the pathetic condition of the Kondh tribe. The government, the local elected representatives and the government officials ignore all the 23 villages, which are on the other side of the river Jhanjabati. The tribals living there do not know any other languag, apart from their own dialect Koya, Telugu and a bit of Oriya language.
While most of these villages can only be reached by foot, some villages can be accessed by two- wheelers in all seasons, except rainy season. A concrete 150 metre road, from Kaberibadi to Maudivalsa, under the NREGA funds of Rs 2, 50,000 is completed and no other work is in sight to provide employment to the people. This proves the negligence and carelessness, which is nothing but the denial of the constitutional right to work and live.
A few villagers of the Maudivalsa panchayat of the Bandhugaon block received job cards, but neither had they received job nor any employment allowance. The story is the same in all the 23 villages, which have a tribal population of 6056 and 70 per cent of the population below the poverty line. Male literacy is about four per cent and the female literacy is zero.
These depressiong figures made this writer to visit Kaberibadi, Maudivalsa, Lopeta and Barlamunda. Most of the tribals mortgaged their below poverty line (BPL) cards, to sundhi and baniya/kumutis (business community people), who are buying food grains under the PDS and selling them in local market.
In the Barlamunda village, a local tribal journalist, Lakmidhar Meleka, accompanied me. Barlamunda village is under the pedalada grama panchayat of the Bandhugaon block, bordering Andhra Pradesh. About 100 families reside in the village and one must track about 15 km. to reach there. The means of transport are non-existent.Out of the 100 families, 63 families have BPL cards and 15 people have been identified under the antyodaya anna yojana. But not even a single family has benefited by these schemes.
Most of the BPL cardholders mortgaged their cards to the moneylenders belonging to the sundhi family, the most exploiting class in Andhra Pradesh, and in Orissa.
About eight years ago, eight families were identified to provide houses under the Indira awas yojana. Out of these eight houses, five houses are completed and construction work is yet to start in the remaining.
Most of the schools under the education department, and the anganwadi centres in 23 villages are cut off by the river Jhanjabati and are functioning only on paper. Government benefits like rice for mid-day meal to the students (no students seen reading), food and other materials to the anganwadi centre is available at a rate, which is 50 per cent less than the market rate at the block office Bandhugaon. When contacted the block development officer (BDO), Dukhishyam Paik, gave no official information showing false, fabricated and concocted reasons.
The child development project officers (CDPO) were nowhere to be seen and an official revealed that the teachers are officially working but not physically present in the schools. They are more powerful financially and politically and it is difficult to take action against the teachers.
All the 23 villages are desperately trying to get their problems solved by submitting their representations to the higher ups, but all in vain. As a final recourse, all the voters of these 23 villages boycotted the by-poll, held for the Lakshmipur assembly constituency, on April 12, 2008, in protest against the non-construction of a bridge over the river Jhanjabati and for not getting the BPL cards and job cards.
The BDO advised a few local journalists, including this author, that the boycott threat, issued by the Communist Party of India- Maoist (CPI- Maoist), was nothing but to save his skin.
Hundreds of women, of the deomali mahila federation of Dudhari, rallied from the office protesting against the involvement of government officials in corruption, while implementing the welfare schemes.
The president of the federation, Kosai Jani, leaders, Tikiri Disari, Sunam Antal, Mali K Jani, sarpanch of the Pitaguda Daitari Kandulphula, committee member of the kanti lingaraj gemel, spoke in well attended public meetings at Similiguda, to prevent irregularities while implementing the anti-poverty schemes and payment of long outstanding wages. They also demanded for equal rights to women and submitted a representation to the BDO, Semiliguda, urging him to fulfil all their legitimate demands within 30 days, failing which another rally will be organised.
It is a shame on the part of the government to leave the corrupt anti-poverty implementing agency without initiating criminal charges. Even today, many families have not received the job cards. Those, who have got job cards, applied for the job but they neither got the work nor any unemployment allowance, which is mandatory under the NREGA.
Village committees are yet to be formed and the local contractors take the projects. Gender discrimination is rampant in KBK. There are no facilities at the work site, like temporary erection of shed, drinking water and medicines. Most of the job cards are being kept with the contractor or the panchayat officers. The unemployed youths are migrating to the neighbouring states in search of work and food.
It is corruption that is keeping India perpetually poor and makes life miserable for the common citizen.
The Orissa development action forum (ODAF) is a network, which is working in 13 districts of the state for the development of the adivasis. Apart from many other things, it has taken a keen interest in facilitating the implementation of the NREGA.
Orissa organised a two-day consultation on NREGA/OREGA on from June 18 to 19, 2007. The seminar was attended by villagers, the representatives of political parties, the government authorities, the panchayat representatives and the civil society organisations and it submitted a representation to the chief minister through its executive secretary, Dr William Stanley, on behalf of the 55 participant who attended the seminar. We have to see and watch how the government implements the suggestions of the ODAF.
Merinews, 15th April, 2008
K.Sudhakar.Patnaik
Widow’s face blackened for praying in Dhanbad district of Jharkhand
Ranchi, April 4 (IANS) A widow was forced to wear a garland made of shoes and her face was blackened after she defied a ban on her to offer prayer at a temple in Dhanbad district of Jharkhand. According to reports appearing in the local media, Kalawati Devi was banned by villagers from entering the temple as she was a widow.
Driven by superstition, the villagers claimed her husband died due to her and her entry into the temple will prove to be a bad omen for the villagers particularly to married women.
Kalawati, a resident of Pawapur village that comes under Haiharpur police station of Dhanbad district around 240 km from Ranchi, dared to violate the ban and prayed in goddess Kali temple Tuesday.
The villagers gathered near the temple and forced her to wear a garland made of shoes. Later the villagers blackened her face and moved her in the village.
According to reports, the victim registered a case against six men and 30 women of the village. The villagers Wednesday demonstrated in front of the police station and demanded withdrawal of the case.
8 Maoists were gunned down at Bandu village under Ranka Police Station in Garhwa
Joint teams of the Jharkhand police and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) on Tuesday achieved two major successes against the Naxalites in two separate operations.
Security personnel gunned down eight hardcore CPI (Maoist) cadres, including a woman and a sub zonal commander, in Garhwa in the wee hours in a fierce encounter and recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition from their possession.
They also recovered 80 landmines planted on a 1.5-2km stretch of macadamized road in Bokaro in a special operation, which is still continuing. Director General of Police VD Ram said the recovery of landmines was the biggest in Jharkhand. Police sources said it was the biggest haul in the eastern region so far.
The Maoists were gunned down at Bandu village under Ranka Police Station in Garhwa after 1 am on Tuesday when they were moving on a tractor. “We had received a tip off about the movement of Maoists. One SLR, four 303 rifles, three 315 rifles, one stengun, one DBBL gun, one country made revolver and large number of live cartridges besides naxal literatures and belongings of the Maoists were recovered,” the DGP said.
Of the eight deceased, one was identified as Basant Yadav, a sub zonal commander, while two others are suspected to be Rajesh Paswan and Lallan Thakur, area commanders of the CPI (Maoist). “Others are yet to be identified,” the DGP added.
Regarding the landmines recovery, the DGP said it was made from the forest area in Bokaro between DTPS and Nawadih police stations after the police teams acted on a tip-off and pressed landmine search devices into service. The landmines had been planted in a series to target police, he pointed out.
He announced Rs 20,000 cash reward to each of the officers of Jharkhand police and CRPF who participated in the Garhwa operation and Rs 10, 000 cash reward to each of the CRPF jawan. Each of the JAP-7 personnel who were part of the operation would get a cash reward of Rs 20,000. The DGP said he would also recommend their names for gallantry awards.
As many as 320 Naxalites, 280 policemen and 750 civilians have been killed in naxal incidents in Jharkhand, ever since its creation on November 15, 2000.
hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=c779d1cd-0315-4ef6-abb3-ecc8826c67c1&&Headline=8+Maoists+killed%2c+80+landmines+recovered
NTPC to take over Jharkhand PTPS plant
The power ministry has laced with sweeteners its offer to let Central generation utility NTPC take over Jharkhand State Electricity Board’s coal-fired power station at Patratu for turning it around. Power secretary Anil Razdan has informed the state chief secretary that the Central utility will also set up state-of-the-art generators and provide power to villages in the plant’s vicinity besides taking up distribution in Ranchi.
According to the proposal, NTPC will use the land available at the power plant to set up units of 660-800 mw capacity, while at the same time renovate the existing 110 mw generators to improve efficiency and ensure they are good for the next 10 years or so. The new generators will be less-polluting than the existing machinery and will run longer before needing maintenance shut-downs. NTPC is also willing to take over the distribution licence for Ranchi. Not just that, it also promises to supply electricity in villages within a radius of 10 km of the Patratu plant through the Centre’s Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana.
All these will come with the added benefit of community development programmes and relief and rehab to be carried out by the Central utility. The biggest gain for the state is the power that will be available once the plant’s generation improves and the additional electricity from the expanded capacity. The Patratu plant’s performance during the last 7-8 years has been dismal.
Central records show that the plant’s efficiency has declined from 20.7% in 2000-2001 to a meagre 9.12% in 2006-2007. This means the plant has been producing power at just 9% of its rated capacity of 840 mw.
This becomes negative generation if one considers the fact that all this while the plant’s auxiliary power consumption has varied between 13% and 22%. In net term then, the plant has been consuming more power than it has been producing.
NTPC has a remarkable track record of turning around old power plants doddering on the brink of blowing their fuse permanently. It has turned around and expanded units such as Unchahar and Tanda in UP, Talcher in Orissa and Badarpur in Delhi. It is also working on the Kanti plant in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district.
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NTPC_to_take_over_Jharkhand_plant/articleshow/2896404.cms
Humta Pahad resembles a cake with a huge piece missing
Humta village in the interiors of Jharkhand has a queer, yet extraordinary, landmark — a mountain with one side completely flat. Hundreds of metres of gray rocky expanse glistening in the sun, Humta Pahad resembles a cake with a huge piece missing.
If the sight of the mountain strikes you as odd, the ‘flat’ explanation is bizarre. For years, villagers have been chipping away at Humta Pahad so they can feed their families. They cut the rocks, which are then snapped up by construction industry giants.
The disappeared side of the mountain is a statement on the state of governance in the insurgency-hit region, where officials do not venture, saying Naxalites will attack them. Villagers say that is a convenient excuse.
“Government officials tell us, ‘we cannot come there, it is an MCC (Maoist Communist Centre) area’. But that is not true,” said Draupadi Devi, the only woman in her village preparing to be a graduate in a year. “The Naxals do not try to stop development work. They know we will oppose them if they do.”
Many children go to school in the area, but that, for most, is their dead end. The few who could go to college in nearby Bundu town had no employment opportunities thereafter. There was little to earn from, except by selling firewood. None of the welfare schemes of the central or state governments have touched the lives of the people here.
“We had to feed ourselves and our families, and we realised there was nothing that the government or anyone else was going to do for us,” said Turu Munda, 45, as he takes a break from stone cutting.
Every morning at 7, dozens of men and women come to the site, many barefoot. The men trudge up the rock face with hammers. The women remain at the base to chisel the rocks into neat cubes and lug them to the waiting trucks.
They get a rupee and a half for every cube of rock — as big as two loaves of bread pressed against each other. Of that, the village head or munda gets 20 paise as commission, because he owns the mountain according to customary laws.
A munshi (clerk) sits at the base of the mountain jotting down every tedious detail. Each rock is accounted for before villagers dump them in the trolleys. These belong to agents of construction companies in Ranchi, forever looking for raw material to feed the booming construction industry.
Villagers work 11 hours every day, winding up at about 6 pm, making Rs 150 on a good day. With no other livelihood opportunities in sight, many wonder how long it is before the Humta Pahad will disappear.
“It was a huge mountain. One third has been cut off over years now. Let us see how long it lasts,” said local lawyer Vinod Kumar Singh.
hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=58a3ec29-7898-4e55-bd5c-832de0470e65&&Headline=Hunger+made+them+cut+a+mountain
Migration of Jharkhand: An important livelihood strategy for the poor
JHARKHAND IS one of the richest in India in terms of mineral resources and industry but still very poor, with a large tribal population. The focus of this section is on migration which has become an important livelihood strategy for the poor.
In a study by Aloka(2008) 12 villages in Jharkhand, using household surveys and PRA methods. Data were collected in two rounds from these villages. In the first round a census level survey was conducted and then twenty-five percent of the sample were selected for further and detailed investigation. They found that one-third of the households had at least one member migrating. Around seventy percent of these were short term migrants who went out during the lean season. Short period migration is lowest from Gumla (56.6 percent) a village dominated by upper castes and highest from Palamau (78.5 percent) a village with a large SC and ST population In general short-term migration was higher among poorer groups, involving over 80 per cent of the landless and 88 per cent of illiterates. Another distinctive feature of this region is presence of a large number of labour contractors and the role played by them in the migration process. The proportion of migrants sending remittance to the village for the use of those who stay behind and the percentage of the income from migration, which is sent as remittance, also varies by caste and class. Migration has wide ranging consequences on both the migrants and those who stay behind. Around 98 percent of the migrants, without any noticeable regional (district wise) variation feel that their income has increased because of migration.
The wage rate in the village has also increased because of migration, which has benefited all the people of the labour class-both those who migrate seasonally and those who stay behind. Around one third of the migrants reported improvement in their housing condition 86 percent in the standard of their consumption and more than seventy percent in their expenditure on social occasions. As a result they feel more comfortable in comparison to those who do not migrate. Migration has enabled people to acquire skills and educate their children. 22 percent of the migrants said that they acquired skills such as better methods of cultivation and reported improvement in their agricultural production because of it. There are some adverse impacts of migration as well including a higher work load, exposure to disease, the neglect of children and their education. Migration has a profound impact on women. It affects both those who migrate and those who stay behind in the village. Some women in the sample mentioned that migration has saved their life otherwise they were heavily dependent on the Sahus (the business man and money lender community) of the village who used to give them loans at exorbitant rates of interest.
Box 5 Segmented migrant labour markets in Jharkhand A study of brick kiln migrants by Shah (2006) emphasises the highly segmented nature of this work: “While low-caste Bihari labourers specialise in moulding bricks and Bengali labourers extract clay, Jharkhandi tribal and low-caste labourers carry bricks to and from the furnace, trucks and stores. In the Daisy Factory, Jharkhandi labour accounted for almost half the labour force. Factory owners told me that, unlike Jharkhandis, Bengalis could not endure carrying bricks and considered it a menial task. Jharkhandi women balance up to eight uncooked bricks on their heads. Men either receive these bricks from women to line the furnace, or carry greater loads of up to sixteen cooked bricks on a bamboo sling across their shoulders.“
Jharkhand’s only SC/ST police station in dire straits
Jharkhand’s lone police station set up specifically to probe the complaints of socially marginalized people has very few policemen, no power, telephone or even furniture.
Probe delays have almost become routine, denying justice to many belonging to the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and the Scheduled Tribes (STs).
One would be taken aback just walking into the police station here. There is no power, no telephone, no chairs and tables, and the lock-up doesn’t even have a door handle! They have managed to get a power connection – but that too illegally.
The station had its own vehicle six years ago but has none right now.
“Reconstitution and modernisation is a must. The present resources are not enough to meet the challenges. We need to strengthen the SC/ST cell to do justice with the cases lodged,” said Gauri Shankar Rath, additional director general of police, Crime Investigation Department (CID).
“We will try to improve the infrastructure and send a fresh proposal for the betterment of the SC/ST police station,” he added.
The number of cases lodged and the charge sheets filed also indicate the step-motherly treatment given to complaints lodged in the SC/ST police station here.
In 2005, while 27 cases were lodged, charge-sheets were filed in only five and six were said to be incorrect. Similarly in 2006, as many as 60 complaints were filed, but only nine were charge-sheeted and as many were found to be incorrect.
While 73 cases were registered last year, charge-sheets were filed in just two and charges were found false in two of them.
According to the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, a deputy superintendent of police (DYSP) rank officer should investigate cases lodged in the SC/ST police station. And a superintendent of police (SP) rank official should supervise them.
But Ranchi’s SC/ST police station has only one sub-inspector, one hawildar (head constable) and one constable.
“A proposal to create separate posts of DYSP, inspector and constables was moved in 2002 itself, but was struck down by the home department,” said a CID official.
People are also unhappy that most of their charges are either found to be false or they are kept endlessly waiting for justice.
Shivashankar Prasad, a washerman in the Shivapuri area here, filed a complaint in June 2002 against a retired police official’s son for assaulting and threatening him. He is yet to get justice
Similarly, Ajay Shankar Prasad lodged a case against one Sri Ram Sahu and his wife under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act last year.
Sahu owns a bus that ferries schoolchildren. Prasad’s daughter used the bus but he was unable to pay Sahu for six months. The girl was one day forced to get off the bus and Sahu allegedly abused and threatened Prasad.
But Prasad’s charges were found to be incorrect during the probe.
“In many cases the charges do not stand due to delayed investigation. The witnesses turn hostile as those who have money and power twist the cases. And this way people who have lodged cases under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act are denied justice,” said a police official posted at the station.
While tribals constitute 27 percent of the Jharkhand’s population, Dalits form 11 percent. But to look into their complaints, there is just one police station and that too with shoddy infrastructure.
Interestingly, Jharkhand, which was formed in 2000, has spent more than Rs.3 billion on the modernisation of the state police and 13,000 constables have been recruited in the last seven years, according to official figures.
But the condition of the lone SC/ST police station seems to have only worsened.
Ranchi, March 11 (IANS) khabrein.info/ index.php? option=com_ content&task=view&id=13139&Itemid=88&limit=1&limitstart=1
Naxlism feeds off genuine issues. It calls for policy, not police
Lakshmi Mittal of Arcelor fame is finally about to deliver on his promise to invest in his home country. The plans he has unveiled are mind-boggling: Rs 1,00,000 crore ($24 billion) to be invested in two steel plants and iron ore mines in Jharkhand and Orissa that will produce 24 million tonnes of steel when they come on stream. Planning for the project is going well: all that remains is to identify a source of iron ore for its Orissa plant. Herein lies the rub. For, if the Maoist insurgency in central India continues to develop at its present speed, he may never find the iron ore he needs to operate his plants.
That would be tragedy for both the states, which are among the poorest in the country. At a conservative estimate, Mittal’s investments will generate at least a hundred thousand jobs directly, in the two plants and associated mines, and anything between a million and three million jobs indirectly. But to get there, the government will first have to displace thousands of tribals from land and forests. And those thousands have decided that they will fight to defend their rights.
Twenty-nine months after the first ‘swarm attack’ by 500 Maoist cadres backed by local tribals on the jail, police station and armoury in Jehanabad, ‘Naxalism’ is no longer considered a fringe phenomenon. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has candidly acknowledged that it is the most serious threat the country faces. But there is a huge gap between this realisation and the efforts that the government has made so far to meet it. Literally, all that it has done so far is to meet state governments’ increasingly urgent demands for modern weapons, additional CRPF battalions, and the training and despatch of counter-insurgency forces. But New Delhi knows that repression alone is not the answer. The Approach Paper for the 11th Plan could not have put this better or more explicitly: “Our practices regarding rehabilitation of those displaced from their land because of development projects are seriously deficient and are responsible for a growing perception of exclusion and marginalisation. The costs of displacement borne by our tribal population have been unduly high, and compensation has been tardy and inadequate, leading to serious unrest in many tribal regions. This discontent is likely to grow exponentially if the benefits from enforced land acquisition are seen accruing to private interests, or even to the state, at the cost of those displaced. To prevent even greater conflict…it is necessary to frame a transparent set of policy rules that address compensation, and make the affected persons beneficiaries of the projects, and to give these rules a legal format.”
Despite its clear perception of the problem, the Manmohan Singh government has done nothing to ‘frame a transparent set of policy rules’ and give them a ‘legal format’. A part of the problem is that the power to acquire land for mines, in particular, was largely devolved to the state governments during the NDA regime, through an amendment of the 1957 Mines and Minerals Act. The NDA government also allowed foreign companies to enter this politically charged area of mineral development. These two enactments have given Naxalite leaders all the moral justification they need to mobilise armed resistance. With only a few exceptions, state leaders have used their powers of land acquisition to enrich themselves or fund their parties. It is no coincidence that the Communist Party (Maoist) came into being only two years after these amendments.
While India Inc dreams of overtaking China, the Maoist insurgency has intensified. Since ’04, there have been more than 50 ‘swarm’ attacks on jails, police stations and armouries. All have met with total success.In two attacks in Orissa last month, the Maoists captured 1,600 weapons, including machine guns and AK-47s.
In Orissa, 12,000 out of 30,000 posts in the police are vacant, and in three districts they have stopped wearing their uniforms. But Orissa pales into insignificance before the intensity of the uprising in Chhattisgarh, which recorded 531 incidents and 413 deaths in 2007. The Maoists have a single rallying cry: “Development projects are taking away our land and our traditional rights. We will not allow them to proceed.” They are succeeding.
The only way to arrest the further development of this insurgency is to make the affected people its beneficiaries. Offering them a price for their land is often not possible because they have no recognisable property rights. But in addition to being resettled, both individuals and entire villages can and should get a royalty in perpetuity from the income generated on their land. Mittal’s steel plants will, at present prices, generate Rs 70,000 crore of revenue a year. A half per cent royalty divided among the villages and individuals who lose their land and rights would make them rich beyond their dreams, enable them to send their children to schools, and lift them out of poverty forever. He can, of course, afford it. But what is preventing New Delhi from making this a part of the law and indeed the constitution of our land?
outlookindia. com/full. asp?fodname= 20080317&fname=Col+Prem+ Shankar+Jha+ (F)&sid=1
10 lakh people in the country may be displaced due to coal mining projects by 2025
About 10 lakh people in the country may be displaced due to coal mining projects by 2025, according to a study conducted by the Central Mine Planning and Design Institute Limited (CMPDI), a subsidiary of Coal India Limited (CIL) and one of India’s leading consultancy organisations.
“An estimated 8.5 lakh people are set to be ousted by the coal mining projects by 2025 and an additional 1.12 lakh will be displaced if the master plan, formulated by CIL for Jharia and Raniganj coalfields is implemented. The large scale displacement of people will be caused by the land requirement for coal mining which will reach 2,925 sq km by 2025, up from the existing 1,470 sq km”, B Dayal, general manager (technical services) of CMPDI said.
The share of forest land for coal mining activities is also set to grow from 20-25 per cent at present to 30 per cent by 2025.
The CMPDI study has also touched upon the issue of closure of mines and the contentious issue of permitting mining in forest regions. The report has called for demarcation of coal reserves under forest areas as ‘yes’ and ‘no’ mining zones.
It has also advocated the framing of greenhouse emission norms which coal mining companies ned to adhere to during and after mining.The study points out that since rehabilitation is a very sensitive issue in the country today, there is need for consensual rehabilitation and involvement of people in the mining projects right from the beginning.
“The mining companies need to offer attractive rehabiltation packages to the displaced people. Not only this, they also have to invest in peripheral development like building better roads, hospitals and schools for the displaced families.
What they need to focus is on how they can improve the quality of life of the people who are going to be ousted as a result of the mining projects”, Dayal alleged. He further said that the mining companies should make all efforts to generate alternative employment avennues for those people who are not absorbed in their projects.
Dayal cautioned that the spurt in mining activities will also generate a lot of ash and other waste products. At present, coal mining generates 300 million ton per annum of ash and another 200 million ton of washery rejects per annum are slated to be added as CIL has planned to supply washed coal to all its consumers barring pit-head power plants.
Keeping in view the contribution of mining companies to the surging pollution levels, the CMPDI study has stressed on the need for CIL to adopt clean coal technologies like Coal Bed Methane (CBM), Coal Mine Methane (CMM), underground as well as surface coal gasification and coal liquefaction.
business-standard.com/common/news_article.php?leftnm=1&autono=316032
Handiya and Haat in Jharkhand
The smell of moist mahua and fresh fish hover in the air, the fuss over the price of potato is deafened by the shriek of a woman startled by a stray dog. Bright striped underwears hang next to garish pink ribbons, terracotta pots and neatly woven sieves converse like friendly neighbours, while an already inebriated old man pleads for another bottle of handiya, the rice beer that can knock off your onions for less than 10 rupees. In a corner a woman sits alone with just a handful of chillies, on the other, a bearded, craggy man hawks bones, herbs, and potions for utmost sexual pleasure. His confidence can be contagious, though his wares can impair even the believers.
The more the people, the more varied their wares and their stories. Every Wednesday and Saturday, farmers and small traders from neighbouring villages swarm to Morabadi Maidan in Ranchi to sell what they either grow in their gardens or can buy from the wholesale market. The place starts buzzing with activity very early when men and women spread plastic sheets to mark their territory for the day. A place under a tree is the most prized spot, while being relegated to a corner means bad business. Out of sacks and plastic bags tumble potatoes, onions, radish, carrots, tomatoes, cabbages and by 10 in the morning the place is a riot of colours – red chillies, purple eggplants, green cabbages, freshly washed white radish, all pitted against mounds of potatoes wearing brown jackets and onions in red layered dresses.
Was I looking from the ivory tower into the world below? Perhaps. How else would I have known the story of 70-year old Sadan Devi, who still bawls for her husband who died 50 years ago and curses her Fate for having borne such ungrateful sons. She comes to the market because she has to fend for herself. She needs money and asks me brazenly whether I could take her home; she promises to tend to my garden and take care of household chores, all she wants in return is a life of respect.
It is a little respect and some extra moolah that they all crave for. Sunaina Devi studied till class VIII but poverty and marriage drove her to selling vegetables in a market. She has nothing else to do for five days a week and tells me I should write about their plight so that the government could sit up and notice.
I coax Parvati into sharing the handiya-making recipe; she goads me to drink rice beer, she promises it would keep my stomach cool and my health peachy. She also propounds the virtues of rice beer and why it should be the nation’s staple drink.
It is women who rule the roost in the haat, both as buyers and sellers. Most men are mere standbys, they strut around aimlessly; at their best they serve as appendages to their women folk.
Haggling is the order of the day, be it for a rupee or a penny. Every penny is jealously guarded and tucked away in stringed cloth purses. The purses itself are kept in a vault – inside the blouse or beneath the petticoat and are pulled out with amazing agility. Most have lunch in the haat itself; tea can be had for Rs 1 for a tiny glass, and lunch for as little as Rs 5. There’s enough variety to choose from – fried fish, rice and dal, potato curry, gulgulas, pakoras, jalebis and puffed puris.
These stories are enacted not just in Morabadi Maidan, on every street and every fair ground in Ranchi you would find a Sadan Devi hunched on a plastic sheet, quibbling over the price of tomatoes and waiting for Godot.
Just as the sun starts walking down the elm, most of the sellers in the market start packing up too. The unwanted potatoes go back into the sacks, dust is shrugged off the underwears and frocks and shoved into large bags, inebriated men swagger and scream, the plastic sheets are folded and the candles and lamps are snuffed out. Sadan Devi, Parvati and others walk home or get packed like sardines in autorickshaws. Not much waits for them at home.
Tomorrow, for them, is always a distant dream. Cliched, but replete with hope.
Title: The smell of fresh mahua, the fuss over pricey pototaoes
Source: Discover India magazine, March 2004.
http://www.jharkhandi.org — broadcasting Jharkhandi Video 173
http://www.jharkhandi.org — broadcasting Jharkhandi Video 172
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