Caught in power play,these villages still in search of light

Nehri and Bagraha cock a snook at official accounts of the state of health care in the region that base themselves on numerical counts of dispensaries/ PHCs/ beds per lakh of population in Bundelkhand. Or,similarly,assess educational infrastructure in terms of schools per lakh of population. Since the districts that fall in Bundelkhand have a remarkably low density of population — the region has 280 persons per square km as opposed to the Uttar Pradesh average of 690 per square km — the conclusions can often be dramatically misleading.

Nehri and Bagraha are joined to each other by more than just their capacity to punch holes in the official development narratives. Both were briefly hauled out of their invisibility last year when Rahul Gandhi chose to visit this village and this hamlet on his most high-profile touchdown so far in Bundelkhand.

Villagers of Nehri still recall Rahul’s visit of April 17,2008 to the home of Bhagwat Kumhar. Local NGOs had been struggling to highlight the story of Bhagwat: he is said to have died of hunger in 2005 after the local strongmen or “dabang” captured his land which lay on the other side of the Nehri mountain.

Bhagwat,a potter by caste and profession,used to source the clay from that piece of land. Once the clay stopped coming,his remaining plot of land was mortgaged,and Bhagwat sank further in debt when he married off his elder daughter and son. “I was in high school when he died,” remembers his son Sunder Lal. Today,Sunder Lal takes his entire family to Allahabad for eight months in a year,by the truck that practically empties out Nehri,especially its Harijan and backward caste mohallas,every September.

If Sunder Lal did not go away to Allahabad,he would have little option but to crush stones. Ever since the unrelenting drought laid waste to the crop,the mountain is the only source of employment in Nehri. The large stone-crushing machines that carry out what is the most important industrial activity of the Bundelkhand districts that fall in UP,

are missing in Nehri. Here,stones are still crushed,painstakingly and painfully,by hand.

About 20-30 years ago,recalls Raja Bhaiyya who lives in nearby Atarra,and runs a small NGO,the Nehri mountain was green. “There was a dense forest,where villagers’ animals would graze. And peacocks would dance in the rain.” But then came the drought,villagers started cutting the trees and breaking the mountain in Nehri.”

In Bagraha,too,life returned quickly to normal after the VVIP visit of last year. This village of Kols is nearly empty too — its young men have gone to Surat,Karbi and Banda to find work. About 40 of the 125 houses are already locked,says Karia,and in several others,soon only the very old and the very young will remain. Karia has a job card and has only been able to get 10 days’ work under NREGA so far this year. “I haven’t got the money yet. The nearest bank is about 18 km away,and payment can take up to two months.” He will also go to Indore this year,he says.

Things will only change in Bagraha,says Chunvad,who retired as watchman in the Forest Department,once his community of Kols (SC) is declared a Scheduled Tribe. “Only then,something of what the government sends for us will reach us. Right now,the benefits are all taken by the more powerful among the SCs,the Jatavs. We only get the left-overs,” he says.

As the BSP spread into Bundelkhand,the district of Banda,a former Communist stronghold,became its bastion. R K Singh Patel,MP,and a founder-member of the BSP in the region,who shifted to the SP in 2007,admits,“We (the BSP) could only stoke the people’s aspirations,but we were not able to improve their material conditions. When I was in the BSP,I would keep asking the people to give a majority to the party,for things to change. Now I say the same lines,this time on behalf of the SP. But for Bundelkhand,nothing has changed.”

Daddu Prasad,senior minister of the Mayawati government who hails from Banda,focuses his attack on Rahul Gandhi. “What attachment does he have for the region? He is only looking for the master key of power. We are telling the people: this man is coming to steal it from you,” he says.