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    सौर ऊर्जा ने भगाया अंधेरा, झिलमिला उठे आदिवासियों के भविष्य के सपने

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    झारखण्ड के महान विभूतियों की संघर्ष गाथा हमारे लिए प्रेरणास्रोत हैं: मुख्यमंत्री हेमन्त सोरेन

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    ग्रीष्म ऋतु, आदिवासी और महुआ की कहानी

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    झारखण्ड की एक और युवा आदिवासी लेखिका ने साहित्य जगत में लहराया परचम

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    आयोग लाएगा आदिवासी ज़मीन की खरीद-बिक्री पर थाना क्षेत्र की बाध्यता पर स्पष्टता

    झारखंड सरकार के वित्त मंत्री राधा कृष्ण किशोर ने सोमवार को 1 लाख 45 हजार 400 करोड़ रुपये का वार्षिक बजट प्रस्तुत किया।

    झारखंड में बनेगा जनजातीय विश्वविद्यालय 

    The Indian Tribal

    सौर ऊर्जा ने भगाया अंधेरा, झिलमिला उठे आदिवासियों के भविष्य के सपने

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    जनजातीय स्वतंत्रता सेनानियों के गौरव को चित्रों में उकेरने की अनूठी पहल

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    झारखण्ड के महान विभूतियों की संघर्ष गाथा हमारे लिए प्रेरणास्रोत हैं: मुख्यमंत्री हेमन्त सोरेन

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Home » The Indian Tribal / Variety » No End To Miseries Of Perennially-Starved Sabars Of West Bengal

No End To Miseries Of Perennially-Starved Sabars Of West Bengal

Even their deaths due to starvation failed to force successive Governments to effectively come to the rescue of this primitive tribe group. In a two-part series, S. Shrobana takes a closer look at the community, scattered in Purulia, Bankura and West Midnapore PART-1

March 21, 2024
Sabars

A Sabar Settlement

Kolkata

Think of Sabars or Shabars and the name of acclaimed activist Bengali writer Mahasweta Devi, whose works and activism mostly centered around the primitive tribe group, comes to mind.

“Starvation over generations can reduce ordinary-sized human beings to pygmies,” she wrote in her short story Shishu (The Little Ones) in 1979.

Anthropologically linked to the ethnic Munda group, their lives hardly changed and five Sabar people died of hunger at Amlasole, a tiny hamlet in Purulia, in 2004 hitting national headlines. The starvation deaths perforated the claims of the then government of the have-nots and forced the powers that be to take some steady measures.

But the measures that were taken then and being taken now leave a huge gap between what is done and left undone. True, the Amlasole deaths had shocked the world but soon the shock was absorbed and forgotten.

Cut to Fulri village of Bandwan block in Purulia, out of bounds for even the globe-trotting Google Baba (read map). Kalu Sabar (name changed) is a landless labourer who suffers from leprosy and is shy to venture out of his hut. He has been convinced by the Ojha or wizard that he has been carrying the curse of his bad deeds and is destined to die a leper.

When lucky, he earns Rs 150 to Rs 200 a month by doing odd jobs like helping the farmer during harvest. When he earns more than that it is party time, he says, smilingly.

“They go out hunting field rats or Dhamon Saap (a kind of snake) and eat them with rice,” Jaladhar Sabar, a social activist, tells The Indian Tribal.

“They generally eat rats, rat snakes or monitor lizards or rabbits if they find some in the forests and those even poorer often have to survive on tree leaves and roots. They sell ants for the money that these fetch,” says Meghnad Sabar, another activist from Purulia.

Sabar Women Trying To Catch Some Fish Or Snake

“The Sabars are by and large poorest of the poor. They are even poorer than Mundas or Santhals and mostly live on nothing. Sometime they are so poor and government facilities are so scanty that they have to survive on tree leaves and ants which they eat after baking only,” another member of the tribe says adding though that a few Government schemes like Laxmir Bhandar or old-age pension sometimes trickle down. “But that is far and few between”. 

Many villages still live without power. And for those that get power there is no money to foot the bills. “We are poor people who earn our daily bread with meagre wages doing odd jobs. How will we pay electricity bills? The Chief Minister is giving a lot of things to Jangalmahal including rice at Rs 2 a kg, she also can give free electricity to us,” says Jamai Sabar, a villager.

A journalist, who has done considerable field work on this tribe, chips in saying, “The landless tribals who live half-clad in their dilapidated huts seem to be a slapping reality in the face of humanitarian and proudly democratic nation. Providing the fundamental human rights like drinking water, walkable roads, livable houses, health and literacy to these wandering tribes is the first urgency to be felt and heeded by the government.”

Shift scene to Bankura district where about 30 villages have Sabar settlements. They mostly live on forest products because they have nowhere else to go. In the monsoon, they collect red ant eggs, called “korkut”, by the tribesmen. 

Speak to Babla Sabar and one would know how the villagers love to have the venomous ants in food but are forced to sell them to earn some stray money. “Even if we manage to dig out 500 grams on a good day we have to sell them at Rs 70 a kg because that is great money to us,” he shares.  Ant eggs are good for chutneys, a delicacy, but they cannot have them as “our poverty won’t allow us to have them.”

Devoid and deprived of modern cooking means — which are often beyond their reach monetarily — they need three bricks and an iron or earthen pot to cook their food.

“We fall back on the smoky, wood-fired mud hearths because we cannot even have the subsidized gas that comes under the Prime Ministers Ujjwala Yojana,” says Kuku Sabar, adding, “fried meal is a luxury and mostly we have to either boil them with salt or simply roast them dry”.  

Root Woot | Online Puja Samagri Root Woot | Online Puja Samagri Root Woot | Online Puja Samagri

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49.4 %
Female Literacy rate of Scheduled Tribes

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Update

Van Dhan Kendra set up for Andaman’s Onge tribe

In a bid to make the Onge tribe self-sustainable through coconut-based products, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands administration has set up a Van Dhan Vikas Kendra for them at Dugong Creek, in Little Andaman, under the Pradhan Mantri Janjati Adivasi Nyay Maha Abhiyan. Initially, 56 members of the Onge tribe will be part of VDVK and focus on producing value-added coconut-based products, including high-quality copra and cold-pressed coconut oil. The PVTG Onge VDVK members have been trained in copra processing, coconut oil extraction, and the use of specialised machinery that has been set up. Dugong Creek, which is about 93 km from Port Blair, is a reserved area for the Onge tribe and is currently home to only 140 people, including 74 males and 66 females.
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