Kaliapani: Even as the state government has launched a host of schemes to usher in development in hilltop Nagada village, the resident Juang tribals are reportedly unwilling to shed their traditional style of living and adapt themselves to changing lifestyles.
Nagada is a cluster of villages surrounded by dense forests and hills in Sukinda valley of Jajpur district. The village made headlines after 21 children died of malnutrition, causing a great deal of embarrassment for the district as well as the state.
Later, the state government launched various schemes in the village to usher in development in the Nagada area. However, that has failed to encourage the tribals to adopt a modern and healthy lifestyle as they continue to cling to their traditional way of life with no change in their food habits.
The unwillingness of villagers to adapt to a modern way of living has resulted in the deaths of two more children due to malnutrition, about 10 months after the spate of deaths that rocked the state.
As a result, secretaries and senior officers of various departments visited Nagada at regular intervals and expedited the developmental works undertaken in the villages.
Sources said the lifestyle of Nagada villagers living on the hills is completely different from the rest of the society, in that they survive on a minimalist diet. They eat only to survive and survive only on rice, salt and wild tubers.
They refuse to eat other foods and vegetables provided by the administration. They have started growing various vegetables as taught by the administration but are reluctant to include it in their daily diet, it is learnt.
The villagers are so intertwined with their primitive lifestyle that they ignore their children’s health in order to make time for their weekly ‘haat’.
In such an example, a villager named Asadhu Padhan of Lower Nagada village suddenly left the Jajpur headquarters hospital even as his three-year-old son Daktar was undergoing treatment at the hospital. The hospital’s staffers tried to prevent him from leaving the hospital but he refused to listen and left the hospital in a huff.
Diseases are rampant in Nagada as the villagers drink water collected from drains for drinking and cooking purpose. This is despite the rural water supply and sanitation department (RWSS) installing over 60 standposts in all the three Nagada villages and even supplying water through tankers during the summer season.
Observers have claimed that villagers first need to be sensitised so that they can make use of various provisions provided by the state government.
While the villagers use the tanker water for bathing and washing purpose, they use the nullah water for drinking and cooking. Moreover, the water filters provided by the district administration are lying abandoned in their houses.
The health department is constantly trying to prevent malnutrition among pregnant woman and children and is sending heath workers to vaccinate them. However, the health workers are returning in vain as the pregnant women refused to take injections.
Recently, in a malaria eradication camp, all pregnant women and children were asked to take injections. However, out of fear for injections many of them fled the camp. PNN
