On the peripheries of the Achanakmar Wildlife Sanctuary in Mungeli district lies Sargi village where Mehku Baiga and his wife, Itri Baiga, along with 20-odd families reside. This is a settlement of the Baiga, classified by the state as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG). The hamlet is located in the forest so one can바카라t reach there by car바카라one has to either walk or go by bike.
The Baiga tribe in Sargi village have no electricity, no gas cylinders, and no television sets. They have small, makeshift huts made of leaves and tarpaulin. One can바카라t find any traces of modern life until one notices a few phones, though not smartphones, and a few solar panels fitted in some huts. In several other districts, especially in Madhya Pradesh, many Baiga families can be found using electricity, TV, and bikes.
At 4 pm, Mehku is sitting on a charpai with his friends, rolling his cigarette. He smokes and drinks like any other male Baiga. Itri is standing near him, carrying her youngest son. 바카라He doesn바카라t leave me바카라, she says, grinning and tightening her hold on him. The couple has four children and one died. They still don바카라t have any plan in terms of their family, like many other Baiga couples in the region.
Their day starts with a visit to the deep forest to collect wood, medicine, and food for the day바카라s use. By the evening, they finish off all their remaining chores, because, with dusk, their love for alcohol starts brimming. They often drink a homemade brew prepared from mahua flowers. Itri and other Baiga women also drink. They smoke too, but most women do not.
Girls have the agency to choose their husbands and leave, at will. During marriages, 바카라the boy바카라s family either bears the entire expense of marriage, which involves the arrangement of clothes among other things, or can offer the girl바카라s side a mahua brew party,바카라 says Mehku. 바카라The arrangement of the brew is one of the major preconditions. It determines the lavishness of a marriage,바카라 he adds.
Unlike conservative Indian societies, no moral policing bars premarital relationships. But marriages generally happen after puberty. The Baiga allow remarriage and even divorce. For instance, 20-year-old Bishram was married for two years, but his wife left him as he was not able to fulfil the economic needs of the family, 바카라I don바카라t do any work, my family is poorer than her family.바카라 The majority of the Baiga population resides in the Kabirdham and Bilaspur districts of Chhattisgarh, and in Kawardha (Kabirdham) they are the highest. The Baiga are one of five PVTGs in the state along with Abhujmaria, Kamar, Pahadi Korwa, and Birhor. In Madhya Pradesh, they can be found in Eastern Satpura, Mandla, Dindori, Balaghat, Baghelkhand and Sidhi Janpads. A tribal group is classified as PVTG based on attributes such as declining population, forest-based livelihoods, pre-agricultural level of existence, extremely low literacy, and a subsistence economy. Researcher Devendra Prasad Pandey of the Mahatma Gandhi Chitrakoot Gramoday Vishwavidyalaya in Chitrakoot conducted a study to build a contemporary socio-economic profile of the Baiga tribe in Sidhi, Anuppur, and Shahdol districts of Madhya Pradesh. It was published in The Economic and Political Weekly. He found that 68 percent of respondents are involved in agriculture, while 29 percent are contractual labourers.
Behind 바카라development바카라
The word baiga means sorcerer-medicine man. The Baiga tribe is known for its knowledge of medicinal plants. Still, health is its greatest tragedy.
Parvathi, a woman in her late 20s, recently lost her five-year-old daughter to an unknown disease that she still has no clue about. 바카라She fell sick and died immediately,바카라 she says. She couldn바카라t take her to the doctor. Even if she would have time to take her daughter to the doctor, she would have to walk to the Sargi village and then ask someone to drop her to the hospital or wait for the bus.
Most Baigas don바카라t see doctors until some government or NGO-appointed doctor visits their habitation or they require immediate medical attention. In Sargi village, they rely on the advice of a vaid (local medicine man) named Gunia Baiga who has knowledge of medicinal plants.
Health indices paint a dire picture. According to a study, there are 1.5 times as many cases of stunted and underweight Baiga children than the state average of Chhattisgarh, as well as a very high level of malnutrition in children under the age of five. Studies also suggest that numerous cases of diarrhoea and malaria go undetected, which further increases the mortality rate. Pandey found that 43 percent of the respondents still use ash and oil to wash their hands and 63 percent said that they don바카라t have access to toilets. Still, no heed is being paid. Instead, government policies for PVTGs have been focused on increasing fertility rates.
PVTGs were not allowed to access permanent contraception 바카라 enforced from 1979 till 2017. This archaic order was quashed by the Chhattisgarh High Court in December 2018. The court was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL), filed by ten families of the Baiga tribe, along with two NGOs Jan Swasthya Sahyog, Ganiyari and Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (JSA), Chhattisgarh. The PIL filed in court found this order that stopped PVTGs from accessing contraception a violation of the fundamental right to 바카라personal liberty바카라 under Article 21. In an earlier judgment, the Supreme Court had recognised reproductive choices as one of the 바카라dimensions바카라 of personal liberty under Article 21. The government brought such a law to control the 바카라diminishing바카라 population of PVTGs. But data suggests a different scenario. As per the 바카라Statistical Profile of Scheduled Tribes in India, 2013바카라 by the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs, the population of PVTGs has been steadily rising since the 1960s. It increased from 0.77 million in 1961 to 2.76 million in 2001. Though the latest data is unavailable, all extant data clearly suggests that it is not a low fertility rate that needs redressal but poor health matrices.
A lack of awareness is keeping the Baiga away from availing even temporary contraception like condoms. Almost no Baiga male uses condoms or any of the temporary contraceptive methods. Moreover, despite the order, access to contraceptive surgeries remains out of reach in Chhattisgarh. For several years, 바카라they are going to Madhya Pradesh to avail contraception to private clinics known to them바카라, says Santosh Kaiwart, a worker for Jan Vikas Parishad and Anusandhan, a local NGO. Here, they claim, they are not allowed to undergo any contraceptive operations. The group of people from the Baiga tribe which Outlook met is under the impression that contraceptive surgeries are still banned in Chhattisgarh. Therefore Mehku and Itri say, 바카라We get it done in Madhya Pradesh.바카라
Education among the Baiga tribe is another sad story. Nobody is educated among the group of Baiga families that Outlook met, though a few were literate. Ramkali, a young girl, could only manage to study till the fifth standard, the highest level of education among Baiga families in Sargi village. Owing to some efforts by local NGOs and the government, a new generation has started going to school, 바카라Our kids go to school,바카라 says Mehku. 바카라The state of education is bad across all tribal areas, especially among primitive tribes,바카라 says Kaiwart. Still, in Pandey바카라s study, 27 percent of the respondents don바카라t send their kids to school. Moreover, 54 percent of the respondents said they are unaware of the provision of welfare schemes under the National Food Security Act, 2013, Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, and the Right to Information Act, 2005. The fact that a 90-year-old Manglu has an Aadhaar card that lists his birth year as 1980 makes policymakers바카라 indifference clear. Given that his son is older than 40, the age on Manglu바카라s card sounds like a macabre joke. Nobody cares about their disappearance.
(This appeared in the print edition as "Encountering 바카라Development바카라")
