Karnataka   

Their struggle for livelihood continues

— Photo: R. Eswarraj

FACING HARDSHIP: A family of Koraga community in a village of Belthangady taluk.

BELTHANGADY: Maanku has spent the whole of his 90 years in trying to shake off the disadvantage of being a Koraga tribal man.

He had set out from his forest dwelling near Kasargod (Kerala), when he was 25, in search of a brighter future. But he has not been able to shake off the burden of his lineage. He tried and failed in everything, from farming to grazing and running a petty business of hawking forest produce.

“I could not succeed in anything. Wherever I went, I could not hide my identity of being a tribal man,” he says in a dialect that sounds like Tulu but alien to this place. The 110 Koraga families spread across 20 gram panchyats in Belthangady are marked as a tribal community. Caste-based exclusion of the Koragas happens silently, imperceptible to outsiders but deeply engrained in the cultural ethos of this region.

A Koraga cannot run a business establishment here. People interact very little with them. A Koraga is seldom employed as a helper in a hotel, shop or a house, says Mundappa (34), a leader of the community.

Shopkeepers, who spoke to The Hindu in Belthangady, deny that there is any decree that isolates the tribe and say that the Koragas keep to themselves and so do they. Tahsildar K.T. Kaveriappa says: “There is no social boycott of this tribe. They are shy and reclusive and do not join the mainstream”.

Officials of the Social Welfare Department here claim to have initiated several schemes for tribal people, particularly the Koragas. Yet, records available with the department reveal that there has been no noteworthy improvement in the status of the Koragas. Mr. Kaveriappa says that their primary occupation is weaving baskets from a type of creeper that grows in the nearby forest area.

But this is happens to be a vocational occupation as it is becoming tougher to pursue, according to Mr. Maanku’s grandson Betya (37). The creepers are becoming scarce in the region.Over the years, the Government has granted agricultural lands, from half an acre to four acres, to about 50 per cent of the 110 families here.

“These are traditionally forest dwellers, not farmers,” says Venkappa Naik, president of the “Large-scale Adivasi Multipurpose Society (LAMPS)”. Mr. Naik alleges that the Government is not doing enough to train the Koragas in farming. As a result, many agricultural lands allotted to them are either lying fallow or encroached upon.

Mr. Kaveriappa, who agrees with these facts, says that the administration is trying hard to resolve the issue.

The Social Welfare Department grants Rs. 5000 to tribal people for the cultivation of jasmine and provides them with 50 jasmine saplings. They can also borrow up to Rs. 10,000 on a venture in animal husbandry. “This money doesn’t cover half the cost,” says Mr. Naik. As regards another loan of Rs. 20,000 which they can avail of as seed money for business ventures, Mr. Mundappa says that only two or three people have got this loan.

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