Living in eternal negligence – A political travelogue on the tribals in the Sundarbans, Bengal
December 26, 2008
By Sanjay Ghosh, South 24 Parganas. Translated from Sangbad Manthan by Koel Das, Sanhati.
This political travelogue probes the lives of tribals in the Sunderbans, looking at their means of livelihood, Panchayat power dynamics, and access to the public distribution system, mid-day meals, and education. The writer comes to the conclusion that “…even after 62 years of independence, this part of Sunderban, located 3 hours from Kolkata, is a land of nothing…”.
I was going once again to South Durgapur village, inhabited by the tribal communities of South 24 pargana’s Sunderban region.
Joynagar can be reached by railways in one and half hours from Sealdah via the southern branch. It is an additional one and half hours from Joynagar to Mahendra’s crossing via Petkuchand river bridge by private bus. From here, 8-10 minutes walk on the unpaved lane on the right side of the road will lead to Kultali police station’s South Durgapur village’s “Bonbibir Ghola”-a place belonging to the Santal tribal community. The bus stopped at Jamtala which is 20 km away from Jaynagar and a trekker was needed to travel the remaining 9-10 km serpentine lanes leading to Petkuchand. Jamtala is a developed area in the neighborhood with health office, B.D.O. Office, school, college etc. Various tribes like Munda, Oraon, Bhumija Kora, Santals reside on both sides of the road from Jamtala to Petkuchand.
A few ladies sitting on the backseat of the bus were discussing the flood that devastated the Sunderbans along with its various water bodies, located in the coastal regions of Bay of Bengal. One was discussing how trawlers for catching fish were swept away by water reminding her of water sprays of elephant’s trunk. Although another trawler was able to rescue 10-12 people but 2 persons went missing.
Outside, it was raining now and then- today is 8th Ashwin, September 25th - the sky is covered with clouds. The ladies along with many others descended when the bus reached Jamtala. Quite a few school students got on the bus. Two young men sat beside and behind me. While talking with them, I came to know that they are 2nd year arts students in the Dr. B.R. Ambedkar College, which opened about 4-5 years back in Kultali.
Biswajit Sardar (22), who sat next to me, informed that they come from the district of Kantamari. He and Sarat Sardar (21), who sat behind me, belong to the Munda tribe. These two along with their friend, Prabhas Sarbar (22) are the only three tribal students in the 2nd year. I came to know that their three-storied college is being extended to four stories. A total of 3 permanent teachers including the principal along with 10-11 temporary teachers teach approximately 700 students. Another tribal girl named Sheela Sardar and another boy studies in the 1st year. The girl lives near Kantabari market. Sarat’s house is at Daspara in South Durgapur while Prabhas stays in Shyamnagar. The girl is probably the first college-going girl among the Kultali tribal community. But they could not specify whether she belongs to Munda, Oraon or other tribes. Nonetheless it became clear that only 5 among the 700 students were from the tribal community, i.e. less than 1%.
Out of curiosity, I checked the census data. For the year 2001, total population of Kultali region was 187989. Out of that, 88851 (46.26%) were schedule cast (SC) and 4844 (2.85%) were scheduled tribe (ST). I was getting more and more curious. I enquired whether there was any one among the tribesmen who were more educated than them. Biswajit told that Fani Sardar from Shyamnagar has passed M.A. Basanta Pahan and Satya Pahan from Kantamari has also passed M.A. And one Mahabir Sardar is doing M.A. in geography from Calcutta University.
Biswajit complained that because of their tribe’s ST status, awarded to tribes with backward economy, they should be eligible for government stipend or scholarship. But in spite of filling out and submitting the requisite forms in the 1st year, they are yet to receive the scholarship. Enquiries to college principal and even Alipore treasury have borne no solution to their problem.
I came to know from Sarat that most of their family members are day laborers or field laborers. Biswajit’s father had passed away. It is hard to distinguish them as tribals and not bengalis on the basis of their looks and clothing. Although new generation tribals are bengali in looks, clothing and language, yet they are victims of discrimination in every sphere of their life.
I felt this even more when I got down from the bus. The two boys went to their own destinations a while back. Upon getting down from the bus and seeing two girls, a teenager dressed in school uniform and a little girl, taking off their sandals and walking slowly on the clay road, I asked them whether the road was too muddy. I did not understand their reply. I got my answer the moment I landed on the muddy road. It is impossible to take even one step on the road with sandals on; you can slip and fall anytime, getting mud all over you in the process. I have walked many a times in muddy roads, but this is my first experience with such slippery, sticky, muddy road. I saw a few people working in the fishery next to the road. They were returning to their village. One of them, Bimal Sardar (26-27) helped me reach my destination. Before that I have fallen in a pothole, my sandal’s got stuck in the mud and I had to cross knee-deep water. Afterwards, I got down in the pond to get rid of the mud from my trousers and cleaned my muddy sandals with a water hyacinth and finally reached my destination.
I was a bit surprised when Bimal showed me his house calling it his “Koonji”. It was a small clay hut with hay roof. The entrance did not have proper doors. As far as I knew, “Koonji” was a shed with roof covered from all sides and just big enough for one person who stayed there to keep an eye on the field. Bimal lives with his wife and son in such a “Koonji”. He has his own small pond next to it along with a small piece of land. Pointing to a canal located around 100-150 yards away from the pond, Bimal told that South Durgapur is on this side of the canal, and Shyamnagar lies on the other side. Water from canal, which is connected to the Thakuran river, broke the clay barrier and overflowed Shyamnagar during the recent flood.
Part 2
Whenever I have visited this Santal neighborhood, they have hosted me in the only concrete home in the area. It is the local “Than” (a place for worshiping their gods and goddesses), house of the local leader and priest, Nimai Sardar (61). We talked in the outside patio, and the local people gathered in the open place and brick road out in the front. Nimai Sardar’s eldest son-in-law, Tarapada Sardar (55) and his daughter along with his four grand children stay in a clay house nearby. Although Nimai Sardar is not educated, Tarapada had some education and expressed their problems more coherently.
There are about 150-151 people in the 30 odd tribal families in the area. All of them are laborers. The lush green paddy crops covering the field in front of their houses belong to outsiders, not them.
Tarapada said that orginally they are from Ranchi in Chotonagpur. Almost 100 years or three generations back, they moved here and their ancestors made a home here by clearing the forest. A local man named Khoda Baksh Gazi, owner of the fishery covering 100-150 bigha, leases the shrimp fishery for Rs. 1.5 lakh. About 40-42 years ago, this Khoda Baksh Gazi made Tarapada Sardar’s father sign a blank paper under the false pretense of getting him a loan and grabbed their 8.5 bigha land.
To recover Yudhisthir Sardar’s 7.5 bigha, Nimai Sardar’s 7.5 bigha and Ratan Sardar’s 7.5 bigha land, lost similarly, they did all they could including fighting court cases from 1996-97, appealing to the B.D.O. Office in Jamtala, appealing to the S.D.O. Office in Baruipur. Finally, last year during the month of August, 2007, Ratan Sardar got back his land. The remaining people are yet to get their land back. Some of the local people find politics at play here; according to them, Ratan Sardar, and not others, recovered his land due to his close ties to the local CPIM leaders.
Last time CPIM’s Sukumar Sardar was elected as the sarpanch of this Kultali panchayat committee. This time it is Kanaklata Giri, also from CPIM. Last time CPIM’s Kanchan Naskar was the sarpanch and Zalil Molla, deputy-sarpanch, of the Deulbari Debipur gram panchayat, under whose jurisdiction is this South Durgapur. Before that, SUCI party’s members have been elected for the past 20 years. This time again SUCI’s head Pankaj Mondal and sub-head Zakir Haldar were elected.
Nimai Sardar complained that he has been involved with CPIM for the last 25 years. But he applied for pig farming training and farming and for relief with SUCI, and was suspended from CPIM before the panchayat elections this time, because of that. Accordingly, he showed me 59 photocopies out of 104 applications, filed on the behalf of Durgapur and Shyamnagar Birsa Munda tribal club. All of this is related mainly to pig farming. The club’s chairman is Nimai Sardar and secretary Tarapada Sardar. He showed me 4 more applications for the old age pension scheme. These belonged to 1) Yasoda Sardar (65), 2) Saro Sardar (65), 3) Sarathi Sardar (60) and 4) Nimari Sardar (60). All of them are from the village of South Durgapur. Nimai Sardar thinks the age limit to receive pension scheme is 65 for bengalies and 60 for tribals. I saw that application dated 20th August 2007 had a receiving date of 20/8/2008.
He also showed me the application for relief aid, 4-5 kilos of rice and one saree per family, for 2006 and 2007. But he has not received any relief for 2008 till now. They told me that a new B.D.O. (Subhash Shikari) had joined in 2008. The relief application is due to poverty.
Three years back (2005), I got a picture of their financial condition from Nimai Sardar- a total of 30 families, population of 150-151, monthly income of Rs.700-800 per family. It boils down to Rs.140-160 per head for a family of 5. This is much lower that the poverty line (Rs. 225) stipulated by government of India. They get work in the paddy fields from 10-12 days up to a maximum of 30 days per year. Many also work as laborers cutting crops and as various other types of laborers. But they do not get the full salary. Earlier they used to get Rs. 60 instead of Rs. 70 without the food-allowance. During the construction of Petkul Chand bridge by the government, they got a rate of Rs. 60 without food. But they got only Rs. 50 without food and Rs. 40 with food while working from 8-11 a.m. and 2-5:30 p.m. under the local landowners.
Now they are getting an average of Rs 100, told Nimai Sardar, Tarapada Sardar and Raban Sardar and Bimal from the fishery. Raban told sometimes, it is Rs. 80, sometimes Rs. 120, with the average being Rs. 100.
But what is the reason of this salary hike from 2007? They told that many are leaving for outside jobs, hence the salary hike of the people staying here. Bimal answered that the owner is paying more to minimize his loss due to flood. Maybe all of these are true, but doesn’t the enormous price increase in recent times have a role to play here? So one ponders whether the salary really increased or stayed the same.
The tribals and the poor bengalis are facing lots of problem due to the ban on catching baby fish from the river. They go to the far away islands of Sunderban taking permits from the forest department. They sell the crabs they catch. If not, they sell the bark of the Bani tree, dry wood from Garan tree. Young people go to North 24 parganas or Hoogli for work and if they get work through the contractors, they have to pay Rs 10 /day to the contractor.
A few days back, Ratan Sardar told this correspondent in an interview that mostly 10 families out of 30 here have ration cards, the remaining 20 do not. The cards are either B.P.L or Antodaya. For example, Nimai Sardar (61) received a family Antodaya card on 19/2/2006. Nimai Sardar told that he gets almost nothing from this card, except the occasional 500 gm or 1 kilo rice, usually obtained after forceful demands. His wife, Ramani Sardar (50-51) however gets the family B.P.L card.
The women present told that the ration shop is only open whole day on Sunday and Monday, half day/full day on Tuesday. Effectively, it is open two and half to three days in a week. So many people cannot collect rationed items during those days. Kerosene is available only one and half days starting on the 15th of every bengali month.
Part 3
Most people in Shyamnagar belong to the Munda tribe with the exception of a few Santals. Nimai Sardar told that although Bonbibi’s Gheri and Ghola areas of South Durgapur village are inhabited predominantly by Santals, other tribal communities like Bhumija Kora, Khajar and even many non-tribal schedule cast people reside in other neighborhoods of this village. These people, under the leadership of Nimai Sardar and Tarapada Sardar, have established “Rabindranath Thakur Shishu Shikhya Kendra” (Rabindranath Tagore Children Education Center) with the 93 students of Shyamnagar and Durgapur.
I found it very surprising to learn that this children’s educational institute does not receive “mid-day meal”. Tarapada said that even after repeated talks (20-25 times) with the ex-chairman of Kultali panchayat committee, Sukumar Sardar, regarding this issue, there has been no solution. Following their request and being a citizen and researcher of tribal culture, I enquired about this in the S.D.O office and got a strange reply from the “O.C. (officer in charge) mid-day meal”, Pradyut Chakraborty.
He said that it ought to be checked whether this is a private school or not? But upon asking Sukumar Sarkar over phone, he said that 4-5 schools cannot get mid-day meal because of their inability to get NGO status. A couple of months have passed after this, yet this school in the very poor area, where mid-day meal is needed most, is not receiving mid-day meal.
It is common knowledge that the central government has declared the tribal areas of South 24 Parganas as underdeveloped region. Yet there is no logical answer as to why this underdeveloped region does not receive mid-day meals even now, while they are provided in relatively developed areas. Minimum research shows that the descendants those who cleared the Sunderban forest to make way for habitation and gave their lives to tigers, crocodiles and snakes in the process, are victims of everlasting affliction in every step even to this very day. The suppressed anguish of these innocent, helpless people finds expression in their music, words.
When the clay barrier of the Thakran river in the next village, Shyamnagar, and the government roads broke, saline water entered the paddy fields and destroyed the entire crop. There can be no more farming now till there is heavy rainfall and the rain water washes away all the saline water. The S.D.O. and B.D.O. came and inspected everything. People whose homes were flooded took shelter in the tents of relief camp, set up on the road across the river. People were fed khichudi (boiled rice mixed with lentils) for a couple of days in the relief camp. South Durgapur’s Nimai and Tarapada Sardar gave me this news. Around 10 in the morning of 26th September, 2008, Chandrakanta Sardar, a known resident of Shyamnagar village, told this correspondent over phone that water entered by exploding about 100 ft. of the barrier. There is still some water-leak now (after the repair). About 100 people lost their homes. Approximately 300-350 people were getting relief aid. Now it has stopped. B.D.O, S.D.O. and chairman had all pledged compensation and aid in rebuilding the homes. But listening to Mr. Sardar’s tone over the phone, they do not sound too relieved by this.
I came to know from South Durgapur while returning on 25th September that the bus service was halted for 7-8 days in the last 2-3 months. It has resumed but is irregular due to poor road condition. Taking advantage of the situation, the trekkers, autos and vans have increases their fare. The bus stops after dark, just after 6. While crossing the slippery, sticky, muddy road carefully on my way back with Tarapada Sardar holding my hands; with trousers folded, slippers in hand, carrying the shoulder bag containing umbrella, water, camera and notebook, I came to know from a young man named Gouranga Mandal (18) that the ration cards that are being used were issued previously, and no new ration cards are being issued now. No one under 30 years have a ration card.
This is not surprising anymore. Because even after 62 years of independence, this part of Sunderban, located 3 hours from Kolkata, is a land of “nothing”. The shrimps, exported from the fisheries here, bring in invaluable foreign exchange. The owners are becoming richer and richer. Yet the people producing will have to live in “Koonji” like animals, will not have access to proper brick roads for walking, their children will not get mid-day meals, they will not get job cards, even if they get job cards, will not get 100 days work, will not get ration cards, even if they get ration cards, will not get the necessary items, even if anyone among them enters college by mistake, they will not get scholarship, even after being declared an underdeveloped region, they will not get poverty-based relief, will not get old age pension scheme.
I returned that day with a dangerous experience on the road/transportation. I have experience traveling precariously on top of the buses and trekkers. But that day, bus was not available after 6. Luckily, I got a trekker. The fare to Jamtala was Rs 20, which usually is Rs. 6-7 during regular service. While traveling on the bus, I did not pay attention but seeing the numerous pits and potholes on the road in every step, it felt as if America did not bomb Vietnam or Iraq but this very road. There was no bus to go to Joynagar from Jamtala. It was past 7, and the trekkers were returning and not willing to go. The auto will go, if it was reserved for Rs. 200. The fare was for this correspondent, along with father and son which boiled down to Rs 66 per head. A pedaling van agreed to go but asked for Rs. 230 for 3-4 people. That cost per head was also similar. Finally, I got hold of a motor van for Rs. 100, which meant about Rs. 35/ head. After spending deeply agonizing one hour in Petkulchand and one and half hours in Jamtala, that seemed like the luckiest option. While going, it took two hours by bus from Joynagar to Petkulchand and cost Rs. 15. The return journey cost Rs. 55 and took five hours. I surely hope I painted a picture of travel/transport after 5:30/6 in Sunderbans for the readers.
June 26th, 2009 at 1:01 am
The enitire matter is to be publicised widely so that each and every individual comes to know what is going in the suburban west bengal.
Thanks samrat
March 16th, 2010 at 2:30 pm
Well I do not know of the dire conditions because I am one of the permanent lecturers in Dr. B.R. Ambedkar College.I have been teaching there for the past three and a half years.
July 8th, 2010 at 12:04 pm
Well I do know of the dire conditions because I was one of the permanent lecturers in Dr. B.R. Ambedkar College.I had been teaching there for the past three and a half years.