Khairwas not getting free food
The members of the impoverished Khairwa community in Baran are still waiting the government to provide free food packet like that is given to tribes people in the region.
More than 850 Khairwa families falling under the other backward classes category who live in the Peenjana village the district and who have been demanding for free food packets to the community like one provided to the Sahariya tribes people before a budget announcement by chief minister Vasundhara Raje in February.
Lalaram Khairwa, 40, a resident of Peenjana village says that the Khairwa community is only getting a maximum 35 kg of wheat every month at the rate of ₹ 2 for every kg and not the monthly free food packets distributed to each family member of the Sahariya tribes people, which consists of 500 ml of cooking oil, 250 gm of desi ghee and 500 grams of pulses and 5 kg of wheat.
Another community member from Khairuni village, Bishanlal Khairwa ,50, says that the state government has made an announcement in the budget for distributing of free food packets to the Khairwa community like Sahariya. “The government should immediately provide food packets to us as soon as possible,” he says. Firoz Khan, a rights activist working among the Sahariya tribes people and other impoverished communities, says that since the Khairwa are as impoverished a community as the Sahariya tribes people, the state government should start distributing of the free food packets to the community on the lines of the Sahariya tribes people. Asked about the implementing of the scheme, Baran district civil supply officer Harlal Meena says that until now the department has received sanction for distributing 35 kg of free wheat to each Khairwa family, after which distribution of free wheat for the community was started.
“Distributing of free food packets to the Khairwa community was announced in the state budget so it will be distributed as soon the department receives the sanction from the government,” he says.
The impoverished communities, including the Khairwa and Kaithodi generally live in Baran and Udaipur and earn their livelihood by making catechu from the Khair trees. While the Kaithodi community falls under the scheduled tribe category, the Khairwa come under the OBC category.
Social organisations working with the Sahariya tribes people in Baran have been demanding that the government accord similar facilities and status to the Khairwa community, who coexists with the Sahariyas and are also related to the Kaithodi tribe people, who live in Udaipur, says Khan.
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