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NAC emissaries, Gehlot visit tribal hamlets

JAIPUR: The Adivasi-dominated Shahbad and Kishenganj tehsils in Rajasthan's Baran district are witnessing some positive action finally thanks to the stepped up campaign by activist groups for liberation and rehabilitation of the Adivasi Sahariya labourers. The outcry over the recent rape of two Adivasi sisters too prompted the State and district authorities to act fast.

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot was in the villages of Shahbad and Kishenganj on Monday interacting with the villagers and sharing their problems. Mr. Gehlot, who once spent his Diwali night in Hanotia village of Baran, spent the night at Shahbad this time round. Two years ago Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi too spent a night in village Amroli in the area.

“This time the response from both the political as well as the administrative hierarchy in the State had been very prompt and positive,” said social activist Aruna Roy who highlighted the plight of the Sahariyas at the previous National Advisory Council (NAC) meeting.

A day before Mr. Gehlot's visit, NAC joint secretary K. S.Raju and its chairperson Sonia Gandhi's personal secretary Dheeraj Shrivastava visited the two Baran tehsils. Accompanied by activists of Suchana Eum Raozgar Abhiyan, Jagrut Mahila Sangathan and Sankalp, they tried to get into the root cause of the problem vexing the primitive tribe Sahariyas.

Kalyani Bai, a Sahariya tribal woman who has learnt to speak up, told the Sonia Gandhi emissaries and Mr. Gehlot what she had told Rahul Gandhi—that their huts do not have electricity, there is no health centre in the area and the children are not attending the schools. The people had complained to Mr. Gandhi that the land of the Adivasis was in the possession of influential people. Only 32 of them received “pattas” under the new forest dwellers' legislation enacted by Parliament.

Job request

Mr. Gehlot, who toured Sahrana Bhaman, Boyal and Hanotia villages and Eklera teshil's Tanda, came across requests for 200 days' employment in a year under the job scheme MGNREGS and provision for drinking water. “Mr. Gehlot said he would try to find a way to ensure 200 days' work to the Adivasis as the existing provisions of MGNREGS do not allow it. He also promised rehabilitation of the bonded labourers and action on this front in a week's time,” said Moti Lal of Sankalp.

Moti Lal, who has been working in the Adivasi area for the past two decades, said though on paper the bonded labour stood eliminated, in Rajasthan dozens of families continue to work as forced labour or “begar” in the mines and brick kilns of Jhalalwar, Baran and Kota districts. This time round the activists had highlighted the case of 136 bonded labour families. “The administration has helped to free 14 cases while the applications of 122 are pending,” Moti Lal said.

The rape of two sisters, which took place on January 16 at Alampura village, had led to the fleeing of 40-45 families the area for fear of reprisals. The police at the local Kawai station had refused to register a case on the excuse that the incident took place outside their jurisdiction. When the Nahargarh police station in Kishenganj bloc finally registered the complaint it was under Section 356, a bailable offence. “There was no action thereafter. It was after we complained to the Chief Minister that Nahargarh police station authorities registered the case under Section 376,” Moti Lal explained.

Now three of the accused are in jail while the case is being investigated by an officer of Inspector-General rank, assisted by a woman DSP, Nirmala Vishnoi, as investigating officer.

Mr. Gehlot promised relief to the rape victims.

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