Karnataka   

No freedom from the clutches of misery

patriotic: A Soliga tribal person explaining to children the significance of Independence Day, at Ganigamangala village in Chamarajanagar district

HANUR (Chamarajanagar district): It is more than six decades since the country got Independence, but tribal communities living in forest areas continue to yearn for freedom from inequality, injustice and miserable living conditions.

People of the Soliga tribe living in forest areas along the State’s border with Tamil Nadu are deprived of reservation in education and jobs, and agricultural loans, health facilities and basic amenities such as drinking water and electricity.

As in many other villages situated on the fringes of forest areas of Kollegal in Chamarajanagar district, in the Soliga community-dominated settlement of in Ganigamangala too, people observed 62nd Independence Day. They gathered at the Ashram School to watch children sing the national anthem and stage a march-past.

But they know that Independence has brought about little change in their lives.

“Unfortunately, Independence has not changed our lives much”, said Kariyappa, a member of the Soliga tribe and president of the Village Forest Committee.

“Tribal communities such as those of the Soligas continue to be at the receiving end of injustice. Though the Government has formulated policies for our education and political representation, the benefits are cornered by influential groups. We continue to lead a life of subjugation and oppression”, he said.

“Though the village has more than 300 families, 220 of them Soligas, we still have to trudge eight km to the next village to procure ration. Our plea to open a fair price shop in the village has fallen on deaf ears”, he said.

The nearest primary health centre is eight km away, in Shagya.

“Every time a child or an aged person falls sick, we have to wait for a bus, which is never punctual, to take them to the health centre”, he said.

Several women have given birth to children in the lone bullock cart that ferries them to the nearest maternity home, which is ten km away. The Ashram School opened by the Government in the village provides education up to 5th standard. “Where do we send our children for further studies? We neither have money nor benefactors to help our children study further”, he said.

The Soligas are also allegedly denied agricultural loans by cooperative banks. “Though we support our applications for agricultural loans with land documents, we are simply turned away by the bank officials”, he said.

The bank officials reportedly refuse to give agricultural loans to people of the Soliga tribe on the grounds that they go to forests to fetch minor forest produce and migrate to neighbouring areas in search of livelihood.

Eighty-five-year-old Dodde Gowda, another resident of Ganigamangala, also said that Independence had not made much difference to their lives. Though Cauvery flows at a distance of 2 km from the village, the residents have to depend on rainfall for their crop that includes groundnut and ragi.

Problems such as lack of irrigation, absence of bus facilities and drinking water scarcity had been dogging the residents for long, he added.

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