Santanu Saraswati
Rajmahal Hills (Pakur), January 13---"We are two in one--Pahariyas and the pahars (mountains). Digging mountaineous soil is just like a physical exercise for us. When we don't do it, we feel tired," laments Manoj Pahariya, one of the nearly 2.5 lac strong Scheduled Tribe Pahariya community of landless agricultural laborers in eastern Jharkhand.Traditionally engaged in food cropping , assessing the quality of soil for generations and protecting the mountains from the evil spirits, they are today fighting a grim battle for survival.Unemployment, usage of new methods of cultivation and money-lenders (all from north Bihar) have forced majority of them to migrate to nearby urban centers and also as far as Punjab in search of employment and a stable means of survival.This has resulted in some of the villages in this Santhal Pargana region entirely becoming bereft of any male population, says Manoj, working for the Centre For Education and Communication, a non-governmental organization which works for the rights of agricultural laborers.The situation further worsens for the Pahariyas as they have no land and the demand for their traditional work has rapidly disappeared, he observed.According to Bimal Singh, a panchayat leader in Littipara, Pahariyas have been always been living without land and cattle and they have been without land and cattle and they have been surviving as agricultural laborers and sharecroppers. Initially in the 70's and 80's various family members were working to save money.But it is no longer possible now for floods, shifting courses of rivers, adverse fallouts of drainage congestions, embankments and water loggings have had a serious impact on rural agricultural scene of this region since the early 70's, observed Bimal.In the recent past, the dispossession of Pahariyas from rural lands and employment too is taking new turns, says Manoj, adding for the last five years, landlords have purchased tractors.They now hire tractors from outside as well and one landlord rents it to another for ploughing at the rate of about Rs 170 per bigha, he pointed out.It has become easier for landlords as now they do not require labor, cattle or plough for a major part of their farming.With the result that now work is available only for three to four months round the year, and that too primarily for women. Sowing and harvesting and in between some other works related to standing crops are barely enough for women. More and more Pahariya men are unemployed. The new landlords too do not want men-power for long term basis.Manoj,however, recalls that the situation earlier was not so grim as there were variety of other jobs available in the village. Like making of paper packets, knitting of ropes, weaving of baskets, stitching of leaf plates, husking of rice and preparing eatables from it. But jobs have virtually dried out today for the men folks in the villages with the opening of rice mills both in village and at the blocks.The landlords prefer to go to the mills for husking their crops. Similarly paper packets have been replced by polythene packets.According to Manoj, the Jharkhand Government has promised alots for the community, but nothing has come out yet. And with the passage of time, they are fighting their grim battle all alone.
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