Life in the Mountains, with Naresh Bunkar.

                 Don’t we always wish we had a house on the mountains, where every morning we could wake up to the most beautiful sunrise and end our days with scenic sunsets?! Won’t we envy those who already live in such places? But, that is only till we know the whole truth. 

                 Baiga Adivasis, a community living on the hilly regions of Chattisgarh, till very recent times, struggled for their basic needs of food and water. They would have to walk miles and miles to get food from ration shops and to get access to clean drinking water.

                 But they have a friend who is no less than a messiah for these villagers, Mr. Naresh Bunkar. Bunkar (43), has been working for the betterment of this community and many more, and fighting for their rights. When he started with his work, the problems these villager faced were mainly about basic facilities like hand pumps, schools, electricity etc. One of the first cases he reported on CGNetswara.org, is of a school in Pipatola village where a school was sanctioned in 2008 but even till 2012 there was no building constructed. Another case was from Pandariya block, where the school teacher came to school only once or twice a month. After reporting the case on CGNet Swara’s alternative media platform, a few days later, the school teacher was suspended and government authorities made sure that the school began to function properly. 

                 Water was also another very basic issue, but Bunkar has worked very hard to restore basic human rights of these villagers. Every hand pump from the 22 villages of Achanak Marg, Lori block, Mungeli district, were repaired and fixed by the PHE department after Bunker reported the case of unsafe drinking water in this area, on CGNet Swara.

                 But for the past couple of years, a rising struggle for this community is their right over the land they live and they have been living on for many years now.  Even with the Forest Rights Act in place, the rights of these original inhabitants are not always being safeguarded.  Since Land rights are a pretty tedious issue, Bunkar , while fighting for these rights, has gone through life-threatening experiences. One such case was of the Bhangitola village, where Deputy Ranger (of that time), Lokinath Lahre demanded Rs. 3000 from each villager to get his land secured. But in spite of paying the bribe, even after 5 months, only 10 out of 33 villagers got their land secured.  When Bunkar questioned him about why the work wasn’t done inspite of paying money, the ranger denied of accepting any bribe at all. After several complaints to the seniors and reporting on CGNet Swara, the ranger admitted of accepting the bribe, and was forced to return back the money; but got suspended.

              Another challenge for Naresh Bunkar was a case from Shendurkhal panchayat, in 2014, where solar power equipments got stolen from the panchayat bhavan. Even after filing the FIR, there was no action taken. Only after the issue got reported on CGNet Swara, the police had to work on the case. But this particular incident caused too much trouble for Bunkar. The police and others conspired against Bunkar and falsely accused him of threatening a man and end his life. Later, he was also accused of  eve-teasing and sexually harassing a village girl. Since, both the FIRs filed were false, especially the latter which stated the date of crime as a date on which Bunkar was not even in town, Naresh Bunkar was declared as not guilty.

Naresh Bunkar, field reporter CGNet Swara

          Come what may, none of these obstacles deter Bunkar from working for the Baiga community, all he says is ‘ there is no better blessing in the world than the blessing you get from helping the needy’.

Adivasi- The 'Backward Culture'

            

            On my first visit to the "Haat" - the local market, which moves from one village to the other everyday, I found myself lost in the commotion. For a long time, I just kept looking around to notice and observe how different these villagers were from us. Nothing more than the language they spoke and the clothes they wore seemed different, they too just like us- 2 hands, 2 legs, 2 eyes, 2 ears and 1 nose. What then makes us think so differently about them?

             Is it the culture? Do we think they are primitive and backward? Just a little while later, they proved what they were.

            After spending some more time in the Haat, I realized that about 40% of the villagers were drunk. Being a young 'Indian' girl, around drunken men, I naturally became insecure and defensive. Prepared myself to react to any dirty eve-teasing or inappropriate touch.

          But not one, not one of those drunken men said or looked at either of us, with any wrong intentions. In a crowded place, where if this was Mumbai, I am sure I wouldn't have gone home without being commented upon or being touched 'by mistake'. But this place, felt safer than home. This is their culture, the so-called backward culture.

         Throughout the yatra, every place I went to, was a place 100% safe for women. Their culture teaches them to respect everything equally, not just women but also animals and nature. They worship Nature. They understand life much better than us. In spite of us being so 'forward' in our thoughts.

        This culture does not discriminate on the basis of gender at all. Women have all the freedom to express themselves in whichever way they wish to. Here, men and women can drink together, talk together laugh together, Enjoy- without being judged by the society.

    Unlike our 'well'- cultured society, where it is 'okay' if the husband returns home drunk and beats up the wife occasionally, but if the wife sips on some wine, she is not a good woman.

       That society and their culture, was what we were. What we should have been. But instead, we are just living in a 'well' cultured society.

Bahini Darbar- The Local Newspaper

We all need newspaper to know what is happening in and around us. In villages it is a little difficult to reach out to all the places for even leading or local newspaper agencies.  A small village in Rewa, Madhya Pradesh had the problem but now they have made a newspaper, which is handwritten by some group of Dalit and Adivas women.

The paper used is an A4 size notebook sheet and consist of 10 pages. The newspaper is written in their local language Bageli and now they have their Radio station too.

The newspaper started from an argument because of the unfair treatment towards the Dalits of the society. The village in Rewa has less numbers of hand pumps for water supply and everyone has to stand in row to collect water. The Dalit’s have to wait in line but if an upper caste person comes then the Dalit have to move back and give them privilege.

One day a dalit stud up for her right and tried to complain to the authorities but even they did not help her. This unfair treatment towards the Dalit created a burning flame within the women to help themselves and the Dalit community. That was the beginning of Bahini Darbar. 

Photo Courtesy: Hindustan Times

Their main topic consist on Women's Rights, Domestic Violence, Child Rights, Health and land rights, Environmental Rights, and they have started Library for the underprivileged. 

Bahini Darbar is now a local newspaper of Rewa where only 12 women work for 15 days to release the newspaper and rest of the days they do their work to earn money for their living.

They roam around many villages to collect information or stories which are untold and kept in dark. Once the paper is ready a team of 3 go to villages to publish the paper. They travel by foot to each village they come across and give them copy of their newspaper to whoever has subscribed for it. 

The main distributor’s name is Gudia and the Editor of this newspaper Jamnavati has completed 12std. Nirmala being illiterate travels to villages to give newspaper and calls up a meeting for women to raise issues to solve them. 

This is the change which brought empowerment in the Dalit community and gave them a reason to take part in the society. Now in Rewa, no one shows the ill treatment towards the community.

TRIP TO UNTOUCHED INDIA

Can you imagine life without Internet, Wi-Fi or even range in your phone? Can you think of no air conditioner or television by your side and living below the hot sun?

The places I visit during the 5 day trip held by CGnet citizen journalism Yatra with Gondi team was a blessing. We visited 5 villages in Bijapur District which are Irkapali, Bedre, Ketulnar, Naimed and Farseghad.

The best village among these were Irkapali, the most simple, beautiful and yet untouched by development. The villagers had a welcoming heart and were very open minded which we thought was a myth in villages.

 They dint had electricity or pipe water; instead they had solar panels and hand pump. They had an amazing concept of Gotul, in which kids stay, grow up and they can even get married. 

CGnet yatra was held there to spread awareness about the work they do to help the underprivileged or the people whose basic needs are not seen.

Photo Courtesy: Aditi Kelshekar

But when we reached the place and started asking them about the needs they wanted, to my surprise they didn't wanted anything from us. Instead they were much happy in the state they were living. When we interviewed them, they were quite happy with the way of life they were having.

Their village consists of 36 houses and is deep in the forest area of Bijapur District. Without internet, Wi-Fi or range life could be lived under a starry sky.

LONG GONE GOOD OLD DAYS…

Living in towns and urban cities, we almost forget our roots. The culture we belong to, the traditions which defines us, the patriotism which we had. Today a small village girl sings in her Chhattisgarhi language, a Patriotic song. She sings about the culture she belongs to, the economic conditions which are below poverty line but still believes in her mind and soul for the upcoming peace.

The faith that her days will change and good days are just around. Living in village which has water problem, ration problems but she has a faith to hold on to. We living in metropolitan cities are so engrossed in our problems, like didn't have a new dress for wedding or missed a concert, and such things we do consider important. Is that our real problem? Or are we too selfish to think about others?

Click here for the song

Written by Beryl Xavier, intern at CGNet Swara: Photo Courtesy Harshit Albert Charles