As many as 26 labourers of Dhekunpani village in Sunabeda plateau had been working in a brick kiln at Karimnagar in March, 2012. The broker assured them to pay Rs 7,000 per person, but they got nothing. Fed up, when they wanted to come back, the contractor did not allow them to leave the work place. He said that he had paid full amount to the broker for the labourers in advance.
Kamalsing Paharia fled from the kiln and reached village by walking for eight days. On a tip off from him, the other labourers were rescued from their working place at Karimnagar by NGO Action Aid. The rescued labourers were given two quintals of rice per month for four months. Barring this, the administration did not extend any other support. Out of 16 rescued labourers, eight were children. The youngest was 2-year-old Dhansing Paharia. One child named Golsing Paharia (5) died after a few months of returning to the village due to sickness.
Notably, the rescued persons belong to 15 Paharia families of the village. They were working in the brick kiln in eight groups. After returning to the village, they engaged themselves in their family trade, bamboo basket weaving, to earn their livelihood. The administration did not provide any wage work to them.
Dhekunpani village is located at a distance of 60 km from the block headquarters Komna. It is one of the remote villages of the Sunabeda wild life sanctuary. A majority of the households in the village belong to Paharia community. The Paharia community is a Primitive Tribal Group in Chhatishgarh and Madhya Pradesh. But, they are non tribal in Odisha. There are around 10,000 Paharias in Nuapada and Kalahandi districts.
The Tribes Advisory Committee has recommended for inclusion of the tribe in the constitutional order since 2008, but there is no further development in this regard. There are 90 Paharia households in Dhekunpani. The main occupation of the people is bamboo weaving. Other sources of earning are agriculture from July to October and collection of Mahua flowers from March to April for about a month.
The lands they cultivate belong to Forest department. Non-tribals in the district have not yet been allotted entitlement of forest lands under FRA. They are thus officially landless. Komna BDO said, “We cannot allot houses under IAY, nor can we help them for land development under MGNREGS, because they are landless on record.”
All the 90 Paharia households of Dhekunpani have now temporarily shifted to deep forest – about 20 km from their residence to collect Mahua flowers. 34 households have gone to a place called Kechha Pakhan, the rest are in Gurulpani.
They will be back to their village towards the end of the month, when the flowering will end. They have constructed temporary sheds of tree branches to stay during the collection. The mud houses with straw roofs in the village have been deserted for the time being, most of which are withering due to lack of maintenance. The villagers at present are taking only rice and salt. The children have stopped going to schools for last two months. The MDM is thus not available to them. Getting safe drinking water is a major problem for them. There are three tube wells but all are defunct. Water is not available.
The women are now collecting water from a 6-foot deep temporary well dug inside the village pond. The pond has totally dried and has turned in to an open defecation field. The small well inside the pond is the only source of water for all types of uses.
Their applications for land entitlement under FRA are pending with the forest department. The district administration of Nuapada has principally agreed to provide entitlement to Nuapada district after a 20-day-long strike of the forest dwellers and the tribals at Khariar in February, 2012. Further, support for IAY and other land based activities can be given by various Government departments after the allotment of lands. “But, this is not possible because the officials are afraid of entering in to the plateau due to presence of the Maoists,” admitted an official of the forest department.
The Government is planning to spend more than Rs 100 crore for the development of Sunabeda. But, the Gram Sabhas in two Panchayats of the plateau have not been effective for more than three years.
“The ABDO of Komna block was in charge of Chakotia Bhunjia Development Project of Sunabeda. He was doing well in the area and had gained confidence of the tribals, but now he has been withdrawn and the Project Director (PD), Watershed, has been given the charge. The PD never visits our area,” said tribal leaders of Junapani village.