Darkness visible

Even as India shines elsewhere, gloom rules in the mountainous Tanta area of Doda district, Jammu and Kashmir. In the half-light, some Urdu ...

Even as India shines elsewhere, gloom rules in the mountainous Tanta area of Doda district, Jammu and Kashmir. In the half-light, some Urdu signboards Urdu stand out: 8220;Zanpha died here of labour pains while being carried to hospital8221;. Another board nearby laments the death of one Shakar Din after a long battle with asthma. The Bhaderwah tehsil, of which Tanta is a part, has given birth to some eminent personalities including senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad. But to all intents and purposes, they have turned a blind eye to the dark realities of the failed system back home.

The Tanta area, infamous for maternity deaths, juvenile deaths, malnutrition and illiteracy, comprises 16 hamlets and villages of some 6,000 people. After almost 60 years of liberal democracy, Tanta is yet to see a primary healthcare centre. A shabby dispensary is manned by an ISM Indian System of Medicines medical assistant, who turns up once a month to sign the register and collect his salary. His nursing orderly enjoys the status of a doctor among villagers.

This is the area from which state health and medical education minister Choudhary Lal Singh is seeking election to the Lok Sabha. Tanta was not part of his recent tour of the district. It wasn8217;t on the itinerary of senior BJP leader and Union minister of state for defence Chaman Lal Gupta 8212; seeking re-election for the third consecutive time 8212; either. Neither of them, though, are the pride of Tanta. That privilege belongs to five youths who graduated from the local primary school 8212; sanctioned in 1950 by the Sheikh Abdullah government and still awaiting upgradation 8212; and travelled to the government middle school, 14 km away, and another 5 km to the higher secondary school to complete their education. Now two of them are teachers under the GoI8217;s Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, one is a guard in the forest department, a fourth a lineman in the public health engineering department and the fifth is a chowkidaar.

Power is an alien concept in Tanta. In 2001, panchayat elections were conducted in J038;K after 23 years. But Tanta was excluded because of 8216;8216;security reasons8217;8217;. Locals dispute that there is any militant threat in the area 8212; and the absence of policenmen seems to bear them out. Tanta, then, is a vote bank waiting to be looted. Ignorant of media-powered political campaigns, unaware of the real faces of leaders, their votes can be pocketed on a first-come-first-served basis. That is, of course, if any one has the courage to reach out to Tanta.