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Journalism of Courage
The only time most villagers of Sonkupui,Hirapur or Natundi in Purulia have ever seen an election candidate is when they have been bundled to a rally.
The day before the election,villagers say a run-up has yet again gone without a visit by any leader. The elderly Basuni Singh Sardar of Natundi,for instance,says she has never seen a candidate or an MLA in her lifetime. I have voted many times. Another election will come but no politician will ever visit us, she says.
Natundi,part of Balarampur seat,is as much wracked by poverty and neglect as other villages in this belt. Joydev Mahuchiar,an Advasi of Hirapur,part of Baghmundi seat,says they have been struggling with a water crisis for two months,the absence of NREGA jobs for six months. Of the villages 18 families,each living below the poverty line,16 have job cards.
Jobs are even scarcer in Sonkupui village close to Ayodhya Hills,from where several youths have left their homes in the last six months.
Mangal Singh Manki,who was working with the Matha forest range office in Baghmundi,lost his job card to a Maoist attack. Maoists had set the office on fire last October,destroying in the process 100-odd job cards deposited there by villagers. With the forest office yet to replace these,most youths have gone looking for jobs elsewhere.
Manki,one of the few who stayed back,says most wells have dried up but no leader has ever come to address the crisis,jobs or water. Yet all villagers will vote,he says.
Drought is a feature almost every year of Balarampur-Bagmundi,one of the most backward blocks of a backward district.
In a district of 29 lakh people,only 2.02 lakh families got NREGA jobs for 32 days in 2010-11 and 10,087 families for 100 days,according to the NREGA website. Of Balarampurs 1.18 lakh people and Baghmundis 1.12 lakh,16,602 and 29,000 persons got NREGA jobs that lasted an average 16 days. The district administration lists 57.5 and 41.86 per cent of the population in Balarampur and Baghmundi as living below the poverty line.
Candidates from both sides agree the region is backward,the Left tempering the admission with examples of some progress and the Trinamool Congress using the backwardness as a poll plank.
Shantiram Mahato,the Trinamool candidate in Balarampur,says 2 lakh people have left the district for want of work and this is his main issue. He admits it has not been possible for him to cover all villages in his campaign.
Baghmundis Forward Bloc candidate Mangal Mahato says the poverty cannot be denied but adds the Left Front has improved the situation in its 34 years in power.
Maheswar Kuiri,the districts saha-sabhadhitipati,admits youths have been leaving but guesses the count cannot be more than a lakh.
The district,which has traditionally voted Left,is one of the few where the Trinamool-led alliance could not make a dent in the last general polls.
