‘Who will compensate me?’: For West Bengal’s smallest tribe, SIR hearings come at a cost

“I have four sisters and a brother. I had to rush back from Sikkim, where I work as a daily-wage labourer,” says Dilim. “I get paid Rs 600 a day, and it costs the same amount for a one-way trip to my village. Returning home means a loss of around Rs 5,000 — precious money for me.”

“My brother is working in Sikkim, too, and will arrive for the hearings,” he adds.

The Totos are Bengal’s — and one of India’s — smallest tribes who live in the remote Totopara village in Alipurduar district. On the edge of North Bengal near the Indo-Bhutan border, it is surrounded by the Torsa River to the East. Numbering just around 1,700, the Totos have been earmarked as ‘Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups’ by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.

Padma Shri award winner Dhaniram Toto a TOTO. (Express photo by Partha Paul)

Over the past few weeks, many community members have had to make the long journey home, at the cost of their daily wages, to ensure their names are added to the final voter list.

In a reply filed in the Supreme Court on January 18, the Election Commission of India had defended its actions to issue notices to those electors flagged for “logical discrepancies” in the ongoing SIR of electoral rolls, saying there were 2.06 lakh electors in West Bengal who had been linked to six or more children, cases which required “greater scrutiny” to ensure mapping was correct.

It added that the Electoral Registration Officers (ERO) of Assembly constituencies had “generated notices for verification” of five types of “identified discrepancies”. These categories comprise the name of the elector in the current electoral roll not matching with the name in the last intensive revision roll; less than 15 year age gap between elector and parent; more than 50 year age gap between elector and parent; less than 40 year age gap between elector and grandparents; and, six or more electors mapped as progeny of one person.

Families such as Dilim’s fall in the fifth category. And Pradhan is tasked with preparing them for the hearing.

“Most cases that come up for hearing are of logical discrepancies or spelling errors in the names of parents. We are trying to help them,” says a busy Pradhan, surrounded by piles and piles of papers in his kitchen.

Toto Para in Alipurduar district. (Express photo by Partha Paul)

Out of 844 enumeration forms submitted in the first phase, Pradhan says 59 hearings have taken place. In the second phase, over 70 are scheduled.

“When the SIR started, I bought a Xerox machine… There are almost no photocopy centres in the village,” says Pradhan. “I even converted my kitchen into an office.”

A five-minute walk from his house is the Tribal Welfare Committee’s guest house, where the hearings are taking place. A queue of people has been outside since morning.

Among them is Dikman Toto (38), who has also got a notice — he has seven brothers and sisters.

“The BLO said I have been called for the hearing as we are more than six children. I came here with my Aadhaar, PAN and ST certificate. Whichever will be applicable, I will submit to the Election Commission,” he tells The Indian Express.

Dikman works as a daily-wage labourer in Gangtok. “I had to take leave to come here… I will lose my wages…”

Next to him is Bishant Toto (31), also a daily-wage labourer in Gangtok. “The government has said we are Adivasi — that means we are the original people of this country. But we still have to prove our identity. We don’t have a job here, we have to go to Sikkim and other states for work… I have to sacrifice my wage to be here. Who will compensate for my loss?” he fumes.

Another BLO, Sevarani Murmu Toto, says they are helping every elector prepare for the hearing. “We are facing two types of issues. One involves voters with six or more siblings. Another is spelling errors… All are genuine; nobody’s name will be excluded from the voter list,” adds Sevarani.

25 year old Dilim Toto sits on the floor with others at the kitchen turned office of Prakash Pradhan in one corner of Totopara village in Alipurduar district with his enumeration form.

Broken promises

In the village, it’s not just the discontent over losing wages for the SIR hearings that dominates talk. The Totos also point to issues such as unemployment and poor connectivity. With no jobs in the village, several youth have left to find work as migrant labourers, while others take up betel nut farming.

They also allege the state government has broken its promises — including one to build a bridge across the Torsa.

“Every monsoon, life in the village becomes difficult. The Torsa river, which is dry in winters, starts flowing and makes commuting difficult… We just have one private bus… there was once a government bus, but it stopped running,” says Dhaniram Toto.

Residents say the only way to reach the village is by crossing the river. Small vehicles cannot make the journey, so people sometimes rely on jeeps or the lone private bus. When the water rises further, even that becomes impossible. The nearest town, Madarihat, is 23 km away.

Dhaniram is a celebrity in his village. In 2023, he won a Padma Shri in the field of Literature and Education for developing the Toto language script and preserving it.

His son, Dhananjay Toto, is the first graduate and one of two postgraduates in the village. But the 36-year-old is yet to find a job.

Sitting in the front yard of his one-storey house with his father, Dhananjay, who completed his Master’s degree (Library Science) in 2016, says, “We tried everything… I even met the state library minister, but I did not get a job. Now, I’ve lost hope and started a betel nut business. If I don’t get a job, why would other youngsters in Totopara even study?”

Totopara has two government primary schools and a higher secondary school.

Bharat Toto, the second in the community to do his Master’s in History from Jadavpur University, says, “What is the point of studying hard and getting degrees when we don’t get jobs? I’ve now opened a small initiative where I give tuition to children and teach music.”

Some residents have opened homestays for tourists, hoping it would bring income. “However, we get only a handful of researchers as guests and that too, during the winter,” says Dhananjay.

“This government promised to give us jobs,” adds Dhaniram, “but only one person from our community has got a job in the state government in the last 14 years. They promised to build a bridge on the river, but that was not built.”

“We had earlier demanded a survey in Totopara to identify and segregate how much land belongs to the Toto and non-Toto community. The survey was done, but the report publication has been stalled for an indefinite period,” he claims.