Uchamadihi an upcoming model village, a success story

The village Uchamadihi is situated in Banspal block of Phuljhara GP, Keonjhar district, the tribal dominated village consists of 121 Households. With more than 4 years of fruitful intervention by the organization named Prakalpa in the village, has literally made the villagers to get assembled and plan things in organized ways, many villagers feel they are now literate enough to understand the cause for deficit of development in the village. With the onset of the Forest Right Act in the Keonjhar district, the organization has played a crucial role to devise the FRC in the village with the presence of Sarpanch & forester in 2008, the organization has taken a step ahead to educate 15 FRC members to claim the forest right. With the assistance of the trained FRA field coordinator (Ranjan), total 93 claims was made demanding 198.87ac land at the same time community claim was made demanding 303.01 ac land. However, the engagement of project coordinator & field coordinator to each GP and disseminating the FRA process smoothly has made a positive impact on the villagers. Out of 93 individual claims 73 have received individual patta, although there was mistake done by the Government officers in printing the villagers name incorrectly, with the assistance of the field coordinator the pattas were send back to the Government officers to retrieve the actual names & amount of land claimed. The villagers are now waiting to receive the rectified pattas and joint verification for the community rights. One of the noble initiatives undertaken by Prakalpa was documenting micro-plan in the villages for land development activities under NREGA. The field coordinators were trained to prepare micro-plan with consultation with the villagers. This literally gave the villagers a scope to raise issues on water problem for cultivation and resolving it under the micro-plan. A Rain water management plan was then prepare with the help of village map & implemented for the first time in the Uchamadihi village. With full participation of the villagers and support from the Prakalpa staffs the plans are now been implemented successfully which is note worthy to be acknowledged. The villagers are now await to irrigate their agricultural field with the channelized water systems and save their crops during rainy season which is planned under the micro-plan, through this plan many will get benefit to cultivate more cash crops & vegetables.  The villagers have now planned to include other land developmental activities under the micro-plan in the coming days. The villagers appear to be optimistic about their village development & improving the socio-economic condition through the available NTFPs & program under NREGA. If such invariable facilitation is been provided to the village by the Prakalpa then soon the village will be recognized as a model village in the block. The there are now three SHG groups functioning in the village, one village education committee to check & balance the school drop outs, Gaon Kalyan samiti to discuss the village development issues and a Forest right committee to claim forest land. With the support from Prakalpa these committees are now more organized & functioning in regular manner. The intervention of Prakalpa in the village has made a visible impact as many are train to calculate the rain fall density, aware on Government schemes, legal ways to handle land issues & other income generation activities.   

A day spend with Mankirdia primitive tribal group, Odisha..

It was early morning; the winter was almost set in the Jashipur town. After reaching the place on same morning we plan to visit the Durdura village to have interaction with the Mankirdia, PTG community. I have heard about this primitive tribal community  earlier who are popular for their monkey eating habit and nomadic life style. The term Mankirdia was derived from monkey eating habit, the Mankirdia believe that by eating monkey they will be spiritually pure throughout their life. Although the Mankirdia population is the smallest population amongst the rest of the PTGs in Odisha. We came to know from the villagers that these tribal communities are seen in various other parts of the Mayurbhanj district  such as Kendumuidi, Baniabasa, Uthania, Chatani, Malibasa village etc.

After reaching Durdura village on that day we could see some women busy stitching leaf plates, the time spent on stiching the leaf plates should not be going worthless as many earn their livelihood by selling them in the weekly market or hatt. The houses in the colony were seen scattered all over the village, cemented houses with advestor roof which was abundant in the entire village. My conscious mind was wondering, is it Mankirdia people who have built those houses? If so how did they get such an ideas of living pattern? As we walked through the village road we could see pucca road, cemented houses, a community hall, school building, and a small poultry farm house at the backyard of the village which appears to be shut for long time now. Those modern equipments were supposedly provided by the Government, but I could still see the old pattern houses made up of leafs next to every cemented houses known as Khumba.

The village appears to be quite on that day not many people were seen roaming around, when we enquired from the villagers we revealed that most villagers are gone out for the hunting & gathering popularly known as ‘Basa’. I stopped at a house where a women was busy stitching leaf plates, as I start enquiring the money she make out of these plates, to this she replied ‘muie 100 patra dele 10 tanka mile’ (I get Rs 10 per selling 100 pieces) as we start walking little further we saw some more women either busy drying up the sala leafs on the floor or stitching 2-3 leafs together. There were many trees in the colony bearing Ambeda, the Ambeda fruits were seen boiled in a big container by most villagers, I was wondering why a large container full with Ambeda fruit is boiled by the villagers, latter I came to know from the villagers that those fruits apart from eating, the seeds are used for making cork & sold to middle man which is another source of livelihood for the villagers in Durdura. The Khadia & Mankedia development agency have provided cemented houses, mend the roads of the village, provided goats to each household, poultry farm for livelihood. The Mankirdia of Durdura who used to have their temporary shelter near Durdura hata (Durdura Market) 25 years back has now been provided with a settled colony, the Government wanted to settle this nomadic community at one place. A colony was constructed by the Government with basic facilities of tube well, school building, community hall etc. now the colony is popularly known as ‘Mankedia sahi’ the Mankedia colony now have 25 household, as per villagers some changes were seen amongst the Mankirdia people like having intercommunity marriage, manual labor work, change in dressing, cultivation. However, the age old practice of collecting Siali bark for making tupa (small basket) & eating monkey still persist amongst the Mankirdia people. 

We all waited for the villagers to come back from the forest but due to late hour we started to make our way back to the town, on our way we could see few Mankirdia tribals returning back from the forest, on their hand we saw a sack carrying dead monkey's for the night feast. The net which they use for catching monkey's were seen used & hanging on their arms. Although they were hesitating to reveal the fact that they have hunted animals but we could easily guess from their tired eyes & sweating body. The experience I had spending few hours in the Mankirdia colony was noteworthy. The innovative way of living & making best use of the available resources for generating livelihood  by the Mankirdia's should be acknowledged by Anthropologist and social scientist in the course of their research

Story of Mankirdia primitive tribal group..

Mankedia colony at Kendumundi

To explore the impact of the provision of rights under various Government schemes to the villagers, it was decided to visit Kendumundi Mankedia settlement colony at Karanjia block of Mayurbhanj district. The colony is located 10-15km from the Karanjia town. The Mankedia community people were brought to the Kendumundi colony 20-25 years back. The Mankedia colony has total 31 households, along with 3 khadia household who had built their own houses in the colony. The colony is provided with 31 cemented houses, school building, aganwadi, tube well,  Job & BPL card to each Mankedia family.

Social & cultural system & traditional practices

Though the Mankedia people have started living in the cemented houses provided by Government under Mon Kudia scheme but the pity condition of the houses has compel the Mankedia to construct Khumba next to each houses, many villagers confessed that the modern houses do not give enough shelter to the family during summer they prefer to sleep inside the Khumba. To many women Khumba has still remained a sacred sign of giving birth to the baby inside it. At the time of labour pain the women is taken to Khumba for the delivery, once the baby is born the umbilical cord is cut with sharp snail. The Khumba where the umbilical cord is cut is then burn, a stone with a long thread is tied in front of the new born baby house which symbolizes the outsiders are barred from visiting the house due to some rituals. The ritual last for months, it is believe that a couple having children enjoy a higher status than a childless counterpart in the Brihor society. The Mankedia believe that when a baby is born in a household one of the ancestors has taken rebirth and therefore the family fortune and well-being have come back with greater potency and vitality (Patnaik, 2005)

The Mankedia people are spiritual in nature, they believe in various god & goddess. According to them malevolent who create trouble and cause illness and death. The practice is such that at the time of catching the monkey the Mankedias do some sort of rituals inside the forest, where the monkey’s come automatically to the net trap for the sacrifice as narrated by the Mankedia tribes at Kendumundi. The net trap to catch the money was woven with jute or Siali creepers by the Mankedia’s. The practice of collecting Siali bark still persist somewhere amongst the mankedia community, the Siali bark is used to make ‘Tupa’ a small basket used for pressing oil seeds. Except the baskets and the ropes used for tying the buffaloes which cannot be prepared by women, all other types of rope are made by both men & women.

Government intervention

It appears that the Government has put every small effort to provide livelihood options to the Mankedia people that will enable the tribals from nomadic to settlement life; the concept might be appearing splendid but the evolution for such kind of nomadic people was not an easy state of affairs. Although the Government took initiative to provide livelihood training on honey brewing, jute rope making, leaf plate stitching, poultry farm, goats for gotary but putting it into practice by the nomadic people like Mankedia have never had happened till yet. The villagers seems not using the skills been provided to them, the poultry farm has remained unused, the honey brewing boxes were rolling empty on the floor at the Mankedia colony. The young women appears to be less nostalgic, however, the older people still catch monkey as their dietary habit. The young boys prefer to work on the field to earn their livelihood for which they demanded plough & bullock to be provided by the Government. One can say that the settled life amongst the Mankedia has started prevailing, the crave for land for agriculture purpose, plough for cultivation, pond for fishing, electricity for the houses was insisted by the villagers in the meeting. Although inter community conflict with the Santals is present, where the Santal in the Kendumundi and Durdura are creating disturbances but the Mankedia are strong enough to tolerate them & trying their best for peaceful life, the Government also trying to bring harmony in those villages.

FRA in Mankedia colony

FRA in Mankedia has been a tragic, many are not aware of the provision getting rights under FRA. Because the Mankedia’s are nomadic in nature they can not avail individual rights under FRA. However, the community rights claim has remained a pathetic. Apparently the Mankedia tribes were called in a meeting at SCSTRI institute, Bhubaneswar in 2008 after few hours of discussion with the Mankedia’s it was revealed that they had not applied for the community rights. To this the officers at SCSTRI tried to fill the claim forms hurriedly without following the proper process as narrated by the Hemram Mankedia. Not all the villagers had given their consent for the claim, the CFR title under Gosti jungle adhikar section it says ‘hemram makedia & Kendumundi grama basi’ which is wrong as per the act. Hemram Mankedia is graduate and a local representative of men group in the Kendumundi colony. The amount of land given under FRA is 42.76 HA in CFR. Many villagers are not aware of the CFR title given to them.

It is revealed that about 7 villages i.e. 182 individual rights covering have been given where total 200.83 Ac land has been allotted. However, 18 villages have received the CFR rights. The process follow obtaining the rights was pretty much same as the process followed in Kendumundi. In most Khadia & Mankedia villages the development agency has facilitated the process to obtain the rights where people are less oriented on FRA & its process.

Conclusion

The Brihor (Mankedia’s) might have stepped to modern civilization but they still long for their traditional practices somewhere within their heart. The freedom of free access to the forest to collect Siali bark, catching monkey for food & leading a nomadic life has always given them immense pleasure. The life in Kendumundi colony is literally suffocating the older Mankedia’s who always desire to go to the forest. Although the government has injected settled life but due for the sake of livelihood many young boys & girls are becoming seasonal migrants to travel to the nearby city in search of work. The Government should provide such livelihood options which will suit their existing skills and reciprocating to their culture & traditional practices.

Due to lack of awareness on FRA many Mankedia’s are unable to have access to the CFR title given to them. Initiative to educate and creating awareness on Government provisions has to be taken by the existing worker like Multi Purpose Coordinator popularly known as MPC in each Mankedia resettlement colony. Although some try their best to equip the villagers & train them but a constant effort & cooperation from the line department along with the existing civil society will bring some changes in the colonies.