Paharias an unreachable, deprived lot in Nuapada
Tuesday, 11 June 2019 | AJIT PANDA
| NUAPADA
Sukri Paharia (60) is unable to move out of her village due to an
injury in the sole of her right foot, which she got while collecting
bamboo from the nearby forest.
The wound is aggravating as she is unable to get treatment. “The hospital is located at a distance of five hours walk from our village, how can I go there with this wounded foot?” asks Sukri.
Sukri lives in Badurpen - a small hamlet of Patdarha village with sixteen households belonging to Paharia community, who are one of the PVTGs in Chhatishgarh and MP but are non-tribal in Odisha. Patdarha, which is one of the unreached areas of Boden block in Nuapada district is 25 km far from the block headquarters.
The people in Badurpen walk through the hilly track of about six km to reach the main village.
A six km long ghat road from Buaisadani to Patdarha connects some of the hamlets to the GP headquarters Bhainsadani. Unless there is a need like for buying PDS rice, the villagers usually do not visit the GP office.
Sukri's first job every morning is to clean up the wound with turmeric water and apply some local herbs and leaves collected from the forest on the wound. “But this wound never heals, I am suffering for last six months,” says Sukri with pain.
In spite of this, she works, helps other members of the family in weaving of bamboo baskets for making out the living. Her family members take those products to the weekly market at Boden every Monday to sell, but the income accrued from this work doesn't help them make their two ends meet.
Getting health facility is always difficult, not only for Sukri and other inhabitants of Badurpen, it is a dream for everyone living in different twelve hamlets of Patdarha village scattered in an area of about twenty sqkm inside Patdarha plateau located at an altitude of 3,000 feet above sea level.
The case is the same with Paharia people of a dozen of such villages like Khadang, Datunam, Dhekunpani, Kathfar and Bhainsmundi located in the remote pockets of Sunabeda and Patdarha plateau of Nuapada district. Lack of basic health facilities along with the non-availability of nutritional food has affected the life of the Paharias more than others.“Everyone here depends upon the 'Desi doctor' (quacks), including the women during their pregnancy and child delivery. We don't get proper food and the AWCs (nutrition centres) are non-functional in small hamlets like Badurpen. All such things make our situation worse, “ says Dambru Paharia of Badurpen. “It is only because we do not have any road communication,” he rues.
Some local politicians and officials keep the opinion that the Paharias should sift their village to a location nearer to the road point. “How can we do that,” ask the villagers. “We don't have any land for cultivation of food, we depend on bamboo and other forest produces for eking out our living, it will be extremely difficult for us to collect those from forest if we go far from the jungle,” they say and further add that, there are other reasons why this primitive tribe loves to remain inside the forest, like availability of forest foods and marketable non-timber products, cultivation of cereals in forest land and moreover their likeness for maintaining distance from the mainstream society, that the developed people do not understand.
Several studies on the life style of the Paharias of Odisha have been done in the past and all of them suggest that this community has been ripped off their tribal status, which they enjoyed in British rule. Following all mandatory rules and guidelines, the Odisha Government has forwarded the recommendation of the Tribes Advisory Committee (TAC) to the Centre for bringing an amendment to the constitutional order, but the proposal is pending with the Center for more than ten years.
The livelihood of Paharia people in the meanwhile is gradually deteriorating due to this negligence. The other matter of concern is that their population has started showing a decreasing trend.
The total population of the Paharias in Odisha would be about 7,000 at present and except a few villages, most are located in remote areas devoid of basic facilities.
Most of them do not get the benefits of the nutrition, pension and education programme.
There are above 30 children in Badurpen and Bhainsmundi hamlets below the age of sixteen, but none of them goes to school, because the children have to walk through the hilly track of six km to reach the nearest education centre at Kodobhata.
Ten people of these two hamlets deserve to get OAP, NFBS and widow pensions, but their applications are pending with the block office for long. The only option left for them is to depend on the fate.
The wound is aggravating as she is unable to get treatment. “The hospital is located at a distance of five hours walk from our village, how can I go there with this wounded foot?” asks Sukri.
Sukri lives in Badurpen - a small hamlet of Patdarha village with sixteen households belonging to Paharia community, who are one of the PVTGs in Chhatishgarh and MP but are non-tribal in Odisha. Patdarha, which is one of the unreached areas of Boden block in Nuapada district is 25 km far from the block headquarters.
The people in Badurpen walk through the hilly track of about six km to reach the main village.
A six km long ghat road from Buaisadani to Patdarha connects some of the hamlets to the GP headquarters Bhainsadani. Unless there is a need like for buying PDS rice, the villagers usually do not visit the GP office.
Sukri's first job every morning is to clean up the wound with turmeric water and apply some local herbs and leaves collected from the forest on the wound. “But this wound never heals, I am suffering for last six months,” says Sukri with pain.
In spite of this, she works, helps other members of the family in weaving of bamboo baskets for making out the living. Her family members take those products to the weekly market at Boden every Monday to sell, but the income accrued from this work doesn't help them make their two ends meet.
Getting health facility is always difficult, not only for Sukri and other inhabitants of Badurpen, it is a dream for everyone living in different twelve hamlets of Patdarha village scattered in an area of about twenty sqkm inside Patdarha plateau located at an altitude of 3,000 feet above sea level.
The case is the same with Paharia people of a dozen of such villages like Khadang, Datunam, Dhekunpani, Kathfar and Bhainsmundi located in the remote pockets of Sunabeda and Patdarha plateau of Nuapada district. Lack of basic health facilities along with the non-availability of nutritional food has affected the life of the Paharias more than others.“Everyone here depends upon the 'Desi doctor' (quacks), including the women during their pregnancy and child delivery. We don't get proper food and the AWCs (nutrition centres) are non-functional in small hamlets like Badurpen. All such things make our situation worse, “ says Dambru Paharia of Badurpen. “It is only because we do not have any road communication,” he rues.
Some local politicians and officials keep the opinion that the Paharias should sift their village to a location nearer to the road point. “How can we do that,” ask the villagers. “We don't have any land for cultivation of food, we depend on bamboo and other forest produces for eking out our living, it will be extremely difficult for us to collect those from forest if we go far from the jungle,” they say and further add that, there are other reasons why this primitive tribe loves to remain inside the forest, like availability of forest foods and marketable non-timber products, cultivation of cereals in forest land and moreover their likeness for maintaining distance from the mainstream society, that the developed people do not understand.
Several studies on the life style of the Paharias of Odisha have been done in the past and all of them suggest that this community has been ripped off their tribal status, which they enjoyed in British rule. Following all mandatory rules and guidelines, the Odisha Government has forwarded the recommendation of the Tribes Advisory Committee (TAC) to the Centre for bringing an amendment to the constitutional order, but the proposal is pending with the Center for more than ten years.
The livelihood of Paharia people in the meanwhile is gradually deteriorating due to this negligence. The other matter of concern is that their population has started showing a decreasing trend.
The total population of the Paharias in Odisha would be about 7,000 at present and except a few villages, most are located in remote areas devoid of basic facilities.
Most of them do not get the benefits of the nutrition, pension and education programme.
There are above 30 children in Badurpen and Bhainsmundi hamlets below the age of sixteen, but none of them goes to school, because the children have to walk through the hilly track of six km to reach the nearest education centre at Kodobhata.
Ten people of these two hamlets deserve to get OAP, NFBS and widow pensions, but their applications are pending with the block office for long. The only option left for them is to depend on the fate.
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