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** <http://www.jharkhand.org.in/contact.htm> <http://www.jharkhand.org.in/forum> How the adivasi became a bonded labourer This is the story of Khaliya Sabar who once lived happily in the forest village of Kiribiri in Ganjam district, Orissa. And of what happened to him and 300 other families when they were evicted from the village by forest rangers The orange light of dawn makes a valiant attempt to break through the thin mist as Khaliya Sabar prepares for a new day. A transistor radio in the corner blasts out Oriya songs as Khaliya goes about his daily chores: making tea, bundling his mattress made from rice chaff, and looking through a bag bursting with papers and notes. A few young boys who come in late at night busy themselves making breakfast and providing Khaliya with a non-stop commentary of the previous day's events. Nestled amidst dense forests, the approach to Kiribiri village in Polosar block, Ganjam district, Orissa, is via a rough track carved into the hillside. The village is surrounded by picturesque forests and bubbling streams, though to the uninitiated the greenery also hides the stark poverty of the adivasis who make it their home. *"Jungle hai to jivan hai; jivan hai to jungle hai"* (If there is forest there is life; if there is life there is forest)says 39-year-old Khaliya. "*Jal, jungle aur zameen hamare liye jeevan hain. Inke bina hamara astitva nahin hai"* (Water, forests and land are our life. Without them we have no existence). As we wait for the sun to break through the morning mist, Khaliya, an adivasi, says there is a deep sense of neglect in large swathes of the district. "The growing youth population, set against the backdrop of an economic growth rate of 8% or thereabouts, has aspirations that do not match the ground reality. While government functionaries, ostensibly here for our welfare, make merry by making money from anyone doing business in the forest -- from bamboo merchants to road construction companies -- the adivasis have at best menial labour as their only survival option." Khaliya's father Mangala, mother Sombai, and two brothers and a sister were all born in Kiribiri village, Malatentuliya panchayat, and lived here for almost 20 years before moving to Gopiya Pali village, where they have been for the past 19-odd years. "Kiribiri was a jungle village, and though life was never easy we got everything from the forest. The forest department 'shifted' the entire village when they began plantation work there. When the village was 'shifted' there were 300 families -- all adivasis. In the melee and confusion that followed no one knows who went where," Khaliya says. "I know that 18 families settled in Gopiya Pali, including us. Originally we were gatherers and farmers who lived off the forests and forest produce. At that time Kiribiri had no school and I used to look after our four goats, three cows and a pair of bulls. I was the family shepherd, and never had a worry in the world; my routine was either to go to the forest to play, or graze the family cattle." "Father looked after the needs of the family. We had no problems in Kiribiri. But in Gopiya Pali we went through very hard times because we had no land. In fact, when my father died 20 years ago we had to sell off our precious cattle because now there was no one to till the land. There was no money and we were always worried about where the next meal would come from. Then we lost our village…" says Khaliya. Khaliya had no option but to become a bonded labourer with the local zamindar, working his fields for 8-10 hours a day and always on call whenever he needed them. The landlord paid him three *navti* of rice a month (one *navti* is equal to seven kilos). Only 20 kilos of rice came into the house because his brother was too young to work. Since this was not enough, his mother tried to gather food from the jungle to make ends meet. But the weather would play foul -- if it rained for eight to 10 days at a stretch they found it hard to find food and work. "The villagers told us to leave Gopiya Pali as soon as we moved here because they did not like outsiders. But the landlord wanted people to work on his land, so he asked us to settle there. That is where we finally made our home, a little away from the village," says Khaliya. The adivasis make a living selling items of value from whatever is found in the forest: bamboo, leaves to make hand-rolled *beedis*, *mahua* to distil into country liquor. They have some of the country's worst rates of poverty, health and malnutrition. Ironically, this poverty is in the midst of riches. "Industries are vying with each other to get a toe-hold in the state to exploit the riches below our feet. Private Indian and foreign companies, mostly in mining and forest resources, are already breaking down the doors of our government to be allowed in first, which the people violently oppose. Thick forests of valuable sal trees and bamboo beckon… it is relentless, and how much can we oppose? All this is spawning a new kind of terror in our state -- the terror of money power working in collusion with politicians, bureaucrats and industry," he says. Nearby, a dozen young men and women practise song-and-dance routines for an afternoon rally. A young boy in bright clothes, no older than 12, horses around with flags and bunting. By late-afternoon, with the rally about to get under way, long rows of villagers came up the dirt paths, accompanied by children of all ages and old men and women barely able to keep up with the frenetic pace. But keep up they do… Under the wide arms of a mango tree, the men dance about with bells around their ankles while the women, for the most part, sit still, occasionally breaking into giggles as someone cracks a joke at the government's expense! "When I was young my brothers and I would discuss how long we were going to live as bonded labourers. We wanted to own our own farmland. We practised *g **udiya* (shifting cultivation) and cleared some of the forest to carve out our fields on around two acres of land. This allowed us to cultivate a small quantity of rice, *bajra*, maize and vegetables." Between March and May every year (the slow season in agriculture), the adivasis here depend almost entirely on forest produce to earn a livelihood. Early each morning, groups of women set out for the forests, collecting non-timber produce like *tendu patta*, *char* and sal seeds, *mahua/dori*, * harra*, *kusum*, *sisal*, bamboo, *chhind*, mango, *jamu *and *ber*. The heat and humidity, lack of water, thorns and cuts to the hands, and snakes make the work hard but at least the effort results in an income at the end of the day. From the products they collect, the women obtain fruit, oil and medicines. Some of the produce is used as raw material to make items for the home, such as *beedi*s, brooms, baskets, mats, rope, home-made toothbrushes and *dona-patta* (leaf plates). Some of these products, like *char*, lac, * dataoon*, leaf plates and fruits, are sold for a small cash income, which is sometimes used to buy clothes, oil or spices. Or to pay the local doctor for medicines. But, says Khaliya, "because the forest department has always maintained that we are encroaching on revenue land they constantly threaten us with cases of encroachment and the cutting of trees. For both we face a police case and a fine. The landlords treat us like dirt… my landlord, Bishoi, claimed that the land we were cultivating was actually his. There was an implied threat of using guns and *lathis*. So we abandoned our land and cleared another patch. Now the landlord has laid claim to this patch of land as well…" One day, Khaliya attended a meeting of the Bhoomi Suraksha Sangathan in Bhata Pada village. He returned and with his friends went from village to village getting support for a collective that they called Singhasini Jana Ekta Sangatha. Some NGOs supported them. "Today, because of the sangathan, harassment by forest department officials has reduced considerably. A case was also filed against the forest guard who was harassing us, leading to his eventual suspension. And when the DFO/ranger resorted to forcible teak plantation over 40 acres of our land by digging up our crops and planting teak saplings instead, we got together 40 pairs of buffaloes and re-tilled the land. When we protested, the forest department retorted: 'Will you now throw stones at the 'mountain'? (mountain was a euphemism for the landlord). We said: 'No, we will do it like rats; we will burrow through the land!'" 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