Karnataka   

Many tribal groups clueless about elections, quota

unaware OF RIGHTS: Tribal people at a bus stop at Kanoor in Virajpet taluk of Kodagu district.

KANOOR (KODAGU DISTRICT): Have the government schemes helped the lot of tribal people living in the forests in Kodagu? Or, has it helped them improve socially and economically where they work in plantations for meagre wages? The answer is an emphatic no. Danger of the tribal people passing into the oblivion is not just lurking, but looms large.

Most tribal people belonging to the Panjari Yerava and Pani Yerava tribes do not have any goal in life. When it comes to election, they just remember the symbol of one party right from the days of “amma”.

“We do not know when to vote” was the reply given by Nanja, who was in an inebriated condition, waiting for a bus to go to his landlord’s place at Nalkeri. Except a couple of children, men and women were found drunk.

The plight of the tribal people comes as a blot in a place which boasts a civilised society, high literacy rate and top place in human development index.

“The Government must give us the ration card because we were photographed earlier” was the plea of Nanja’s wife Karte here, who was in a tizzy. It took time to convince that the correspondent was not a government official.

The case of Nanji from Nalkeri was entirely different. She was under the spell of alcohol and walking with her son and daughter-in-law in scorching sun to reach Nalkeri in the afternoon.

Nanji’s innocence was evident when she said, “I will vote only for my husband”, only to invite an instant reaction from her daughter- in-law Pariyamma. She could never understand the concept of election and kept saying, “I am born in Nalkeri and will die in Nalkeri”.

Perhaps, the relocation idea could have crossed her mind where certain non-governmental organisations and forest officials had coaxed tribal people to leave forests for rehabilitation in Hunsur. Her son Kala was candid said he had been voting for a particular party and would continue to do so.

The views of Janu and Bogga, members of the Pani Yerava tribe at Mooteri village in Virajpet taluk was different.

“We will go by whatever avva (the family woman where they worked) says”, Janu said. Bogga endorsed her views. They were apparently unaware that elections were coming. Every tribal person did not know or had heard about the “Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Rights) Act” of 2006.

At the Brahmagiri Colony in Virajpet taluk, the story of Gopala and Bera was different. Although tipsy, Bera would not reveal the secret as to whom he would vote. “You tell us which party to vote”, was his repartee when asked whom he would vote for.

When persisted with the same question Gopala revealed the symbol of the party which most of the tribal people had been voting till the previous elections. Almost all of them did not know that Virajpet segment was earlier reserved for the Scheduled Tribes and nothing happened for their uplift in four decades. It does not make any difference to them now that Virajpet has become a general seat.

At Marapala Hadi, off Balele, Mahesha, a tribal youth said no party candidate had visited the hadi (colony) for votes, which had over 300 members living in huts. Elephants continued to haunt them and they would not venture out at night, he said. The situation in the other hadis was no different. Many did not know what an election was and what would happen to them after casting votes.

Clever political parties identify the names of tribal voters, bring them out of the forests to make them vote and dump them back. Tribal people, inadvertently, fall prey to the small allurements offered by political parties.

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