Birjiyas and Kisans who have come down from Burha pahar at Madgari plains in Garhwa district live with their chicken and dogs. A big hen adores the room of Sarju Birjiya which was noticed about 10 days back.
Sources said Birjiyas and Kisans are PTG ( primitive tribe group) and tribal has a record of neat and clean living but here in this Panchayat Bhavan of Madgari these Burha Pahar people lead a highly unhygienic life.
The tribal beauty of living clean even in poor economy is missing here.
Anand Birjiya there said “We are used to live in mud house where our women do all sorts of safai. But here our floor is pucca and we do not know how to keep it afresh as our belongings are all scattered here on the floor where on our motri chotri ( read bags made of old sarees etc) we keep either our heads or legs for its security at night.
The Birjiyas and Kisans at present cannot afford minimum of 20 rupees for a single hair cut.
Basanti Devi here said the space where they have been stashed is not big enough to accommodate 28 families and this cramming is telling upon their cleanliness.
Girls do wear school uniform more perhaps to have a stitch on their body but do not go to school at all which is quite nearby said another here identified as Sukul Birjiya.
A fleet of earthen hearths is there under a shanty structure not enough to bear the onslaught of heavy rains. A pucca kitchen is coming up there but its completion is at least a month’s away said sources.
These hearths for majority of people of Burha Pahar living here get activated one time a day. “Hum loge kal chulha ek time jalta hai,” said Purni Kuarn a widow here.
Sources said Garhwa district has a few philanthropic bodies like Rotary club,
Giants club, many mahila sanghtathans but as these Birjiyas and Kisans said none has visited them since February here when they came and settled here.