Jharkhand: Government schemes did not reach ‘Mal Paharia’ primitive tribe, middlemen eat money

Dumka / Pakur . Tanyajor Panchayat is located in Gopikandar block of Dumka district of Jharkhand. 75 families of the primitive tribe ‘Mal Paharia’ live in Siddpahari village of this panchayat. The people of this primitive tribal community of this village are completely deprived of the benefits of almost all the welfare schemes of the government. Which mainly includes many schemes like Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana, Primitive Tribe Pension Scheme, Primitive Tribe Postman Food Scheme and MNREGA Scheme.

This information came to light when a meeting was held under the banner of ‘Right to Food Campaign’ in the hostel located in Siddpahari Primary School premises. In the meeting, the information about the ground situation related to the scheme was obtained by discussing these welfare schemes of the government with the villagers.

48 women and 30 men attended the meeting. Villagers from 3 other nearby villages were also present in this meeting. When the people present in the meeting were asked about Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana, they told that they have no information regarding the scheme.

Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) is a maternity benefit scheme offered by the Government of India, under which women are financially supported. Rs 6,000 help is provided to pregnant women and lactating mothers. Incentive is provided for the first surviving child of the family to meet the requirements related to maternal and child health.

The villagers told that they have no information regarding the scheme, nor has any eligible pregnant woman got the benefit of this scheme. Anganwadi workers were also present in the meeting. He said that the main reasons for not getting the benefit of the scheme are the timely correction of the Aadhaar card of the beneficiary and their bank account.

A startling fact emerged in the meeting that due to the fear of operation, the ‘Mal Paharia’ women or their family members are afraid of giving birth in the hospital and do not want to go to the government hospital. On the other hand, there is a lot of difficulty in making applications online.

During the discussion on Tribal Pension Scheme in the meeting, out of the women present only 8 women told that they are getting the benefit of pension.

Pension is given by the District Social Security Cell under the Primitive Tribe Pension Scheme. He gets the benefit of this pension scheme, who does not work in any government, private and public sector and does not get regular monthly income. The main woman of the family is made the beneficiary of this scheme.

It emerged in the meeting that the rest of the people are not getting any benefit of the said pension. When tried to know the reasons for this, it was found that these ‘Mal Paharia’ come from the primitive tribal community, but the men of this community write the title “Dehri” and the women write the title “Maharani”. For this reason, the government officials do not give them the recognition of primitive tribes.

Caste certificate is sought from them along with the application. For this, these women will have to get caste certificate made from their maternal home. Also some government officials have entered wrong titles in their records. Because of this, a lot of effort has to be made in making the caste certificate. An affidavit is sought along with the application for caste certificate, which is very difficult for these communities. Because the oath is issued by the Magistrate, due to which they remain silent. It was also discussed in the meeting that a way to solve their problems will have to be found together.

In the meeting Lakhi Maharani complained about not getting pension for 3 years. When his passbook was observed, it was found that his pension was continuously coming into his account. Money was received in the account on 6th of July also and withdrawal has been done on 12th. This means that they are not being given pension amount by putting thumb impression in CSP. It was suggested to him that whenever he went to withdraw money from the account, he should be accompanied by a sensible person in the village.

During the discussion on the Primitive Tribe Postman Food Scheme, the PDS beneficiaries of Bara Patthar village told that they have to go to Kharouni market, 6-7 km away, to get ration. While the Primitive Tribe Postman Food Scheme (PTG) has been implemented for the protection of primitive tribes. In this scheme, 35 kg of rice is given to each family in a month by the government. Officers associated with the Food and Supplies Department deliver food grains to the homes of the primitive tribes. This process goes on every month.

At the same time, they do not get the benefit of taking these primitive tribal people to their homes. On the other hand, these tribals have to spend Rs.20 for a one-time journey. Sometimes 3-4 days have to come and go for thumb impression. Ration is not given even after getting thumb impression many times. For example, the ration for the month of August was not received till the date of the meeting. While a month and a half back, thumb impression has been made in the posh machine. The villagers also told that here ration is available through the tender holder and not through the supply officer of the block.

In the conversation on MNREGA, it came to light that since the inception of MNREGA in this village, the villagers have no information about seeking work. When any work opens in the village, then the people of the village are made to work through one or the other contractor/middleman. But in return, the wages are not paid properly.

The Modi government has cut the MNREGA budget by 33 percent this year. Along with this, the present government owes Rs 6,366 crore towards MGNREGA wages to 18 states and union territories. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge has disclosed this on social media recently.

Right now all the laborers in the village are waiting for work to open. In this regard, it was suggested to the people here that they can move towards solving the problems of seeking work, payment of wages, job card etc. in MNREGA through Citizen Help Center in Gopikander block.

Similarly other schemes like PM Awas, Birsa Awas, MDM were also discussed. In which the people of Bada Patthar village told that only 2 beneficiaries have got PM housing there. In this meeting, village head, ICDS assistant and Dumka’s social worker Prem Mohli and state convenors of Right to Food Campaign, Ashrafinand Prasad, Balram, Munmun and James Harenz were present.

A meeting was also held at Littipada in Pakur district.

On the second day of the meeting held at Siddpahari in Dumka district, a meeting was held with the Paharia primitive tribe community near the primary school in Bichpahar village under Littipada block of Pakur district. 30 women and 16 men attended the meeting. Here Shankar Paharia and Suraj Paharia are known as the leaders of their community.

People told in the meeting that due to their efforts, the condition of Postman Food Scheme and Primitive Tribe Pension Scheme is much better than that of Siddpahari. The complete 35 kg packet is delivered to the beneficiaries of Antyodaya Yojana in their own village every month by the marketing officer of the block. But the Anganwadi worker comes from a far away area. Because of this, she does not attend the center regularly and women and children are deprived of the money they get for nutrition and maternity rights.

There are 30 children enrolled in the village primary school. But even after the regular presence of the teacher, the children do not come to the school, so the school is in a state of closure. Decision has been taken many times in the Gram Sabha on the issue of sending children to regular schools, but success is not being achieved. Here, when a message is received on the phone of the pension holders about the receipt of pension in their account, they also inform about it to other people or if any one withdraws money, he informs that to other people as well.

For this reason, there is no incident of irregularities in the pension amount here. Shankar Pahadia and Suraj Pahadia told that two incidents had happened in the second village. In one, the CSP person did not give Rs 4000 to the pensioner after getting his thumb impression and in the other Rs 1000. As soon as the organization along with the villagers came to know about the fake withdrawal, they were called in the concerned gram sabhas and a fine of Rs. With these actions, any CSP person dares to embezzle the amount of pension holders.

But the villagers are still ignorant about the procedures of MNREGA. Work has been done in TCB in the village 2 months back. In this, in the first round, names were given in the demand paper by such laborers who do not work in reality. Those people worked in the scheme whose names were not there in the muster rolls. Then the money was sent to the account of those whose names were in the document. Money was given to the actual laborers by withdrawing money from those people, along with those in whose accounts the money was sent, they also kept some money.

The money was sent for the second time as well, but that time the account holders did not withdraw the money and gave it to the actual labourers, due to which the work in MNREGA is hampered. People also told that for the demand of work, the concerned employment servant takes Rs. 100 per laborer, only then the muster roll comes out. In the case of the scheme, the employees/officers of the block accept any work only after taking a minimum bribe of Rs.5000. But there is no guarantee that even after giving money, any scheme will be passed. Due to all these reasons the people of the village do not want to work in MNREGA. In such a situation, people were suggested to take help from the workers of the Civil Help Center.

(Vishad Kumar is a journalist based in Jharkhand.)