Bikers bring grains of relief to forest-dwellers in B’khand
Today the fear of Covid-19 induced hunger is more palpable than the terror of brigands, most of whom have fallen to police bullets over the years
LUCKNOW: It is early morning and the sun’s rays have just started to filter through the green canopy in a wooded area of Khamora village in Banda district on the Uttar PradeshMadhya Pradesh border.
Not long after, the faces of villagers light up with joy as bikers ride into view with bags of food grains in this remote area where many villagers belong to the drought-prone Bundelkhand region’s Kuchbandiya marginalised community. Till about a decade ago, the area was associated with dacoits who called the shots here. Today the fear of Covid-19induced hunger is more palpable than the terror of brigands, most of whom have fallen to police bullets over the years.
The bikers stop under a banyan tree and unload the sacks.
Leading the bike riders, Raja Bhaiyya directs the villagers, a majority of them women and the elderly, to stand in a queue, maintaining physical distancing. The bikers put the sacks on the ground and start distributing rice, flour and pulses among the villagers, after which, they load leftover grain on the bike and move to the next village. The distribution of grain and edible items has been going on for 44 days in the remote villages in the region.
Raja Bhaiyya, resident of Attara town in Banda, and his team has been on the move since the last week of March when the nationwide Covid-19 lockdown was announced.
They visit villages, distributegrain and other edible items among marginalised communities in the forest area. Although the dacoits have been eliminated, some gang members are still active in the area.
The officers of the district administration rarely visit remote villages in the tough terrain of the Vindhyan range that divides Banda from the neighbouring Panna district in Madhya Pradesh, residents of Khamora village alleged.
Raja Bhaiyya said the villagers used to sell forest products in the nearby ‘mandis’ (markets), but after the lockdown, they have been confined to the villages. Although some villagers had ration cards, they were turned away from the PDS outlet where they were told that ration had not been supplied yet, Raja Bhaiyya said and the villagers seconded him.
A villager, Rukmani, said that the upper caste and backward community members settled in villages outside the forest area called the Kuchbandiyas coronavirus spreaders. “They warned us not to venture outside the villages,” she said.
“We came to know about the villagers’ plight, informed the local administrative officers about the villagers’ problems, but no aid came. I mobilised some youths through the Vidya Dham Samiti, a voluntary organisation working in the area to assist the poor villagers,” Rajya Bhaiyya said.
“Since the road to the village is not motorable, we decided to move on motorcycles. The harvesting of the Rabi crop is over in the district. The samiti members have urged prosperous farmers to donate a portion of their wheat, pulses and rice stock. Grain was transported to the Samiti office in Attara.
Local women cleaned the grain, wheat was sent to flour mill for grinding, edible items were packed in jute bags for distribution,” he said.
“We have given our cell phone number to the local youths so that they can contact us in an emergency. Volunteers have supplied medicines to the villagers, who are unable to visit the local hospitals. We took prescriptions from TB and leprosy patients and got the medicines from retail drug outlets in Banda town,” he said.
The state government had announced the distribution of ration in the last week of April and May, but the residents of Khamora, Kherwa and Dafal villages remained deprived.-But the villagers said they did not receive ration.
With the assistance of volunteers, the villagers lodged a complaint with the district magistrate’s control room and the chief minister helpline 1076. Within two days, a team of officers, visited the villages and noted the names of villagers and distributed grain, Raja Bhaiya said.
A majority of the villagers are poor and cannot afford masks. So, the volunteers contacted the women self-help groups active in villages around Banda town and purchased masks for free distribution among the forest- dwellers. These days, the samiti members are busy assisting the migrant workers arriving from Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi and other states.
“We are checking the facilities in quarantine centres, creating awareness about Covid protocol among the migrants and protecting them from harassment,” he said. A week back, a migrant worker, Brindaban, resident of Banjara village, walked for seven days along with his wife and three children from Noida to Banda.
After arriving in a village in Naraini tehsil of Banda district, the family informed the station house officer of Naraini police station and the gram pradhan. The police team took the family to a junior high school in Pukhathi village. Without serving a meal, they pushed the migrants inside and locked the gate, Brindaban alleged. The family called for help, but the gram pradhan turned down their plea, he claimed.
Once again, it was the volunteers who stepped in and supplied food, water and medicine to the migrants.
A district administration officer, who asked not to be named, said chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday directed all district magistrates to ensure that no one remained hungry in the respective districts.
The chief minister also directed the officers to identify the families that had not received ration or food and supply ration to them on priority.
Teams are being sent to all the villages to prepare a list of the villagers who have not received ration, the officer said.
THESE DAYS, THE SAMITI MEMBERS ARE BUSY ASSISTING THE MIGRANT WORKERS ARRIVING FROM MAHARASHTRA, GUJARAT, DELHI AND OTHER STATES.