Minimum Support Life

Politicians visiting Madhya Pradesh are making big promises to the people, but for the Adivasis, it's still about Jal, Jungle, Jameen

Abhik Bhattacharya in Bhopal, Chhindwara, Seoni, Balaghat

AFTER passing through the hilly terrains of the Maharashtra-Madhya Pradesh border, as one reaches Saikheda village in Chhindwara district of Madhya Pradesh, a cluster of mud houses covered with dried leaves and ripped tarpaulins take you back in time. The Lok Sabha elections are round the corner, but there is hardly any buzz. For the 80 families belonging to the Gond Adivasi communities living in the cluster, elections or voting rights are nothing but 'political rhetoric'. For them, it is just 'another time' they have to stand in a queue to cast their votes.

"Do we have to vote again? We did a few months back," asks Rani Inwati, in her late 20s. Pointing at the torn roof from where water sometimes drips and keeps them awake at night, she says: "Nothing has changed and nothing will.” Rani is making rotis for her two sons—one is nine, and the other

is five. A few lid-less water buckets are kept beside a rickety plastic chair on which a few ragged clothes are dumped. In that single-room kitchen setup, one could find only a bottle of mustard oil and a small plastic container of salt. While shooing away the cockroach that was approaching the plate full of rotis, Rani asks: “What should I serve him with roti? There is only salt.”

Rani’s husband is standing outside. A severely malnourished Tikuram resembles a skeletal structure. “We get the monthly ration but that is not sufficient,” he says. He is referring to the much-propagated Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana through which 81 crore poor people across the country receive five kgs of food grains every month. The government recently extended the scheme for another five years.