After Gehlot, it’s Digvijay: hungry, dying village children spoil his CV

Consider the case of Chharch, the worst-affected village of the panchayat where four people have reportedly died of hunger. Two are said to have died in the neighbouring Gadla village. Two other deaths have been reported from Jigni village, just across the riverbed from Chharch.

As in Baran, Rajasthan, the dead include Jatav Scheduled Castes and Sahariya tribals. In September, when the Mahila Bal Vikas Department conducted a survey, it found 6,785 children in 43 blocks of Shivpuri severely malnourished—an average of 160 a block. But the block in Chharch panchayat falls alone reports 784 cases. Anganbaris, which are supposed to provide nutrition to children, do not exist in Jigni, Gwaliyapura or Gadla.

If Digvijay’s grand panchayat scheme was actually working, this shouldn’t be happening. Consider it:

a) ‘‘Under Gram Swaraj (self-rule by villages), each village will have a Gram Sabha, which will meet at least once a month. The date and time for the meeting will be decided as per the convenience of the people. The presence of women (at least one-third of the Sabha) and SC/STs (in proportion to their strength) will be compulsory.’’

Reality check: Those affected most by malnutrition and hunger have almost no direct interaction with the panchayat institutions. No more than one or two of the Jatav tribals, from among the 70 working on a recently started drought-relief project, from Gadla are aware that their presence or at least assent is required at the Sabha. This is also true of the Sahariya tribals of Jigni, or of Gwaliyapura (where one Sahariya death has been reported).

b) ‘‘Under Gram Swaraj, there will be a fund which will be called Gram Kosh. It will have four components—Anna Kosh; Shram Kosh; Vastu Kosh; Nagad Kosh. Gram Kosh will include donations in cash and kind, and income from other sources.’’

Reality check: The Anna Kosh (food fund) should have been an ideal answer for people who have no food to eat but, again, it remains on paper. Chharch upsarpanch Laxminarayan Bhargav admits: ‘‘No one contributes. And how can we force people to give money when the government contributes nothing?’’ Gwaliyapura Panch Mahesh Sharma is even more candid: ‘‘We have no idea about this Anna Kosh.’’

Shivpuri Chief Executive Officer Akhilesh Srivastava, who is in-charge of all local programmes in the district, adds: ‘‘The way it works is that people are supposed to donate surplus food, clothing, labour or money and pool them as community resources. It is a very good idea, but we are not receiving a good response in the villages.’’

c) Gram Sabhas are supposed to compile a list of below poverty line (BPL) families. Accordingly, these families get ration cards which provide wheat for Rs 2 per kg.

Reality check: Almost none of the affected tribals have BPL cards. While Srivastava passes the buck to the Gram Sabhas, Seema Sharma, Zila Mahila Bal Vikas Adhikari, admits: ‘‘There may have been irregularities. It seems many such families have been left out.’’

As a result, the Sahariyas and Jatavs have also lost out on a programme to provide Rs 500 to pregnant mothers shortly before delivery under the National Maternity Benefit Scheme. A random survey of 50 or so Sahariya and Jatav women in Chharch, Gadla, Jigni and Gwaliyapura, with children under one, showed only one had been paid the amount.

d) The MP Government also boasts of the Rajiv Gandhi Food Security Mission. Launched in 2,650 villages of 17 districts, it was to create grain banks in all tribal villages of the state by October.

Reality check: No grain banks exist, for example, anywhere in the largely tribal Pohari tehsil. Srivastava promises no grain still, only patience. ‘‘It takes a few weeks before the money and wheat reach the Gram Sabhas. An amount of Rs 2.5 crore had been despatched before October 31, which was the cut-off date for establishing these banks.’’

Even after the drought-relief works started, nothing has gone as per ‘‘plan’’. Unlike Baran in Rajasthan or Ganj Basoda tehsil, where the government was late responding to the drought, Shivpuri was sanctioned projects beginning September. Again, work was to be implemented through Gram Sabhas.

But the Jatavs and Sahariyas of the three affected villages got no work before October 26, when the government was finally stirred into action by local BJP MLA Narendra Birthare’s dharna over the deaths. And then the work was not enough. Chharch upsarpanch Bhargav says the Rs 4 lakh worth of work sanctioned in his village didn’t cover everyone.

SDM Pohari B.V. Khare sees a political conspiracy and mismanagement. ‘‘We assumed each family would require 3 kg of wheat a day, in other words 10 days of government labour a month would suffice. We gave wheat and drought-relief projects to the Gram Sabhas on this basis. The calculation is correct but if malnutrition is being alleged perhaps someone is making political mileage or things may not have been quite right at the local level,’’ he says.