Outcast, 50 Nishad families count days, penalty

Ostracised by higher caste landholders, some 50-odd families belonging to a backward caste in Chhattisgarh’s Koma village have been liv...

Ostracised by higher caste landholders, some 50-odd families belonging to a backward caste in Chhattisgarh’s Koma village have been living for the past six months without any access to local shops, medical facilities and even the local bathing pond.

The Chandrakars, the dominant community in the village, not far from the district headquarters, boycotted the Nishads six months ago through a pronouncement by the village panchayat, apparently to punish them for defying the majority community’s stand on the grant of fishing rights to a society backed by them. For the boycott to be lifted, the Nishads have been told to pay a sum of Rs 56,000. ‘‘We have been asked to pay Rs 56,000 as penalty,’’ says Dhanu Ram Nishad.

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Annoyed with the Nishads after they formed their own society and applied for fishing rights, the Chandrakars decided to throw the Nishads out of their land, thus depriving them of their chief means of livelihood, and imposed a ban on their interaction with the higher caste community. They have also been denied access to local shops, medical facilities and bathing ponds and forced to look for work and medical treatment outside the village in adjoining villages.

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‘‘Anyone violating the ban is made to pay a fine of Rs 1,001 and anyone who provides information about any such violations to the village panchayat is rewarded a sum of Rs 100,’’ says Dhanu Ram Nishad.

Radha Bai, an elderly woman, died two months ago after she was denied medical treatment. Jati Ram Nishad, who used to work as a farm labourer for a higher caste family, has been thrown out of work. ‘‘I begged them to at least pay my wages for previous months but my pleas fell on deaf ears,’’ he says.

The Nishad children have been banned from interaction or playing with higher caste kids, and if they are found doing so, they are abused. ‘‘(Chandrakar) women don’t speak to us. Earlier, we even used to bathe together in the ponds,’’ says Munna Bai. The Nishads say they pooled in a sum of Rs 3,000 to set up a shop for their daily household needs only to be shot down by the Chandrakars.

Collector, Mahasaund, Maninder Kaur Diwedi has this to offer: ‘‘The boycott is the result of petty village politics. We are trying to bring about a rapprochement between the two sections by involving senior community leaders. Our officials have visited the village and recorded statements.”

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