Tumudibandh: Sralajadi, a nondescript remote village under Tumudibandh block in Kandhamal district, continues to cry for attention with locals struggling for water and surviving on tuber as their staple food throughout the year.
Apart from their forbidding climactic conditions that have left them deprived of water and arable land, the villagers have an indifferent administration to thank for their miseries.
Villagers say they have over the decades come to terms with the systemic negligence and apathy that has marked the administration, as years of pleading has yielded little to no result.
With tube-wells lying defunct for years, ponds and pits are the only source of drinking water. Locals are forced to depend on contaminated pond water and a stream near the village. The stream provides a little water only during the rainy season and dries up within weeks. During summer, the women have to trek for several kilometres for water. They walk back carrying the water pots on their heads.
The dependence on contaminated water has led to the proliferation of several water-borne diseases among children. Almost all of the children in the village are malnourished. No government official or a medical team has put foot in the village till now, it is claimed.
“Neighbouring Gumudimaha village shot to infamy after the gunning down of five tribals by security personnel. The administration in an attempt to reach out to villagers rolled out a host of basic facilities there. However, hardly anyone is aware that there is a village called Sralajadi right next door to Gumudimaha, where the condition of villagers is the same if not worse,” says a villager.
Residents of Sralajadi say they have been deprived of drinking water, electricity, education and healthcare for years. “Our children don’t know what it is like in the outside world, where such things are taken for granted,” said Sadinga Majhi, a villager.
Many have perished due to lack of road connectivity while a wooden cot serves as an ‘ambulance’ with 108 and 102 ambulance services being unheard of in the area.
The village is home to 14 tribal families. Surrounded on all sides by hills, the village has no fertile land thus rendering agriculture out of bounds as a means of livelihood for the villagers.
No government schemes have reached the village, forcing them to depend on minor forest produce for living.
Women collect leaves from forests and make leaf plates. They sit under a tree and stitch the leaf plates which they sell for a living. This is the daily routine of the women in the village.
Later, every Wednesday, the women shoulder the leaf plates and take them to the Kurtumgarh market, a relatively developed area near the village.
Meanwhile, left with no agricultural land for farming, men in the village trek through the forest and collect tuber. The tuber is boiled and consumed as food for survival. Tuber is the staple source of food as they can hardly survive with the rice provided to them under the BPL and NFSA schemes.
Women face an uphill ordeal through their pregnancy, as there is no access to nutritious food.
Locals remain indoors after dark due to lack of electricity. “On several occasions, we have tried to bring the matter to the notice of the administration and local politicians but no one hears our pleas,” say locals, adding that the politicians only come to their village during election time and later disappear until the next election. PNN
