Ashwini Kumar Shukla

Sarbajaya Bhattacharya

Editor

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&quot;When they come to
ask for votes, we will tell them, ‘first give us pension’.” Litati Murmu is speaking to PARI seated on a datti (platform) outside her mud house in Burutola, a hamlet in the village of
Kusumdih in Jharkhand’s Dumka district.



“We’ll demand houses and pensions
this time,” chimes in Sharmila Hembram, her neighbour and friend who is sitting
next to her. 



“This is the only time they will
come,” she adds jokingly, referring to the political leaders. When they do show
up before the polls, they usually pay the people in the village. “They
[political parties] give us 1,000 rupees, 500 goes to the gents and 500 to us,”
says Sharmila. 



The money means something to the two women as government schemes and benefits have largely eluded both of them. Litati’s
husband passed away suddenly in 2022 and Sharmila’s husband died in 2023 after
a month’s illness. The grieving women say they have each other when they set
out for work, a matter of comfort to both.



When they lost their husbands, Litati and
Sharmila tried to avail of the widow pension scheme – under the Sarvajan
Pension Yojana <a href="https://cm.jharkhand.gov.in/node/13224">scheme</a>, a widow above the age of 18 is entitled to a
monthly pension of Rs. 1,000. A frustrated Litati says, “We filled out many
forms and even went to the mukhiya [village
head], but got nothing.”

Not just pensions, but even homes
under central schemes houses under PMAY (Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana) elude the
largely (43 per cent) tribal communities of predominantly Santhal, Paharia and
Mahli (Census 2011). “Go around this entire village, sir, and you’ll see no one
has colony [a house under <a href="https://pmaymis.gov.in">PMAY</a>],” Sharmila says, making her point.



Around seven kilometres from
Kusumdih, in the village of Hijla, Niruni Marandi and her husband Rubila Hansda
received a gas cylinder under the Ujjwala Yojana scheme before the Covid-19
lockdown but, “the 400-rupee gas cylinder now costs 1,200 rupees. How will we
fill it?” asks Niruni.



Other government schemes such as Nal
Jal Yojana and Ayushman Bharat Yojana, as well as assured incomes through
MGNREGA, have not reached their village located only two kilometres from Dumka
city, the district headquarters. Many hand pumps in the village have run dry.
One resident of Hijla told this reporter that his family walks to the river, a
kilometre away, to fetch water. 



The job market is running dry as
well. “[Narendra] Modi has been in power for 10 years. How many jobs has he [as
Prime Minister] given to the youth? So many government posts are vacant,” says
Rubila, who is a daily-wage labourer. Their two-acre farm-land, where they used
to grow paddy, wheat and maize, has not been cultivated for three years because
of severe droughts. “We used to buy rice for 10-15 rupees a kilo, now it’s 40
rupees a kilo,” Rubila says.



Rubila has been a polling agent for the
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) for many years. He has seen Electronic Voting
Machines (EVM) fail multiple times. “Sometimes the machine breaks down. If you
cast 10–11 votes, it works fine. But the twelfth vote might print the wrong
paper,” says Rubila. He has a suggestion to make it better. “The process should
be pressing the button, getting the paper, confirming it and putting it in the
box, just like the earlier system,” he says.

The Lok Sabha seat here is reserved
for a person from a Scheduled Tribe. The Dumka seat in Jharkhand was held by
JMM founder Shibu Soren for eight terms until he lost to BJP’s (Bharatiya
Janata Party) Sunil Soren in 2019. Now, BJP’s Sita Soren, Shibu Soren&#39;s eldest
daughter-in-law, who switched from JMM to BJP two months ago, is contesting
against JMM&#39;s Nalin Soren. JMM is part of the INDIA Alliance.



Discontent is also growing in this
region after the arrest of Hemant Soren, the erstwhile chief minister of
Jharkhand, on <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-68163338">January 31, 2024</a>. The Enforcement Directorate arrested him in a money
laundering case linked to an alleged land scam. Subsequently, he resigned from
his post. 



“This time, not a single vote from our village
will go to the BJP,” says Rubila. “Aaj
apka sarkar hai to apne giraftar kar liya. Ye politics hai aur adivasi accha se
samajhta hai [today your government is in power so you have arrested him, this
is politics and the tribal community understands it well].”

In their thirties and from the
Santhal tribal community, Litati and Sharmila do not own any land and work as adhiya (tenant farmers) during the
agricultural season, receiving 50 per cent of the produce. But for the last
three years, Sharmila says, “eko dana
kheti nahi hua hai [not a single field has been cultivated].” She makes do
with her earnings from the five ducks she owns, selling the eggs at the local
weekly haat (market) in Dasoraydih,
five kilometres away.  



The rest of the year they mostly
work at construction sites in Dumka town, around four kilometres from their
village, paying Rs. 20 for the roundtrip on a toto (electric rickshaw). “We
earn 350 rupees a day,” Sharmila tells this reporter. “Everything has become
expensive. We have to manage somehow.” 



Litati agrees, “we earn a little and eat a
little,” she adds, gesturing with her hands. “If there is no work, we’ll have
to eat maadh-bhat [rice and starch].”
In any case, there is no work available in their tola, the women say.

Here in Dumka district, the livelihood of the tribal communities is dependent on cultivation or related work, or government
schemes. The only government scheme the families benefit from is five kilograms
of ration through the public distribution system.



The women don’t have labour cards in
their name. “Last year, people came to make the card [labour card], but we
weren&#39;t home; we had gone to work. No one came back after that,” says Sharmila.
Without a card, they cannot work at Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee
(MNREGA) sites. 



“We do whatever work we get,” says
Litati and adds, “jyada dhone ka kam
milta hai, kahi ghar ban raha hai, to eata dho diye, balu dho diye [we
mostly get work carrying things; if a house is being constructed, we carry
bricks and sand].” 



But there is no guarantee as
Sharmila says. “Some days you get work, some days you don’t. Sometimes, you
might not get work for two or three days in a week.” She got her last job four
days ago. Like Litati, Sharmila is also the sole earning member in her house
where she lives with her in-laws and three children. 



The women’s work begins early when they set out
to collect water from the only functional handpump in the tola which serves over 50 houses. Then they cook and do other
household chores before setting off with their spades and plastic baskets to
find work. They also bring along their nettho
– a small cushion made from cement sacks that they put on their heads
before placing a weight on it.

When the women go to Dumka to look
for work, their children are taken care of by their grandparents who live with
them. 



“If there’s no work, there’s nothing
at home. The days we earn, we can manage to buy a few vegetables,” says Litati,
a mother of three. In the first week of May, when she went to the market to buy
vegetables, the price of potatoes was 30 rupees a kilo. “Daam dekh kar matha kharab ho gaya [the price made my head spin],”
she says, turning to Sharmila.



“Give us some work like jhadu-pocha [sweeping or mopping],”
Litati says to this PARI reporter, “so we don’t have to wander around every
day; we’ll get work in one place.” She also mentions that most people in their
village are in the same situation, only a few have government jobs.



Sharmila agrees: “Neta log vote ke liye aata hai, aur chala jata hai, hamlog oisehi jas
ka tas [politicians come for votes and then leave; our situation stays the
same]...”

‘Politicians come for votes…and then they leave’

’نیتا لوگ ووٹ کے لیے آتا ہے…اور چلا جاتا ہے‘

‘அரசியல்வாதிகள் வாக்கு கேட்க வருவதோடு சரி... அதன் பின் வருவதில்லை’

‘ਗਧੇ ਦੇ ਸਿਰ ਤੋਂ ਸਿੰਙਾਂ ਵਾਂਗ ਗਾਇਬ ਹੋਣ ਨੇਤਾ ਵੀ'

‘ନେତାମାନେ ଭୋଟ ପାଇଁ ଆସନ୍ତି... ଆଉ ତା’ପରେ ସେମାନେ ଚାଲି ଯାଆନ୍ତି’

‘मतं मागायला येतात... आणि मग निघून जातात’

‘രാഷ്ട്രീയക്കാർ വോട്ട് ചോദിച്ച് വരും...പിന്നെ അവർ പോകും’

ʼರಾಜಕಾರಣಿಗಳು ವೋಟು ಕೇಳಲು ಬರುತ್ತಾರೆ… ಮತ್ತೆ ಇತ್ತ ತಲೆ ಹಾಕುವುದಿಲ್ಲʼ

'રાજકારણીઓ મત માગવા આવે છે...અને પછી મોઢુંય બતાવતા નથી'

‘नेता मन वोट मिले के बाद लहूंट के नइ देखंय’

‘নেতারা ভোট চাইতে আসে…তারপর হাওয়া হয়ে যায়’

‘নেতাবোৰে ভোট বিচাৰি আহে আৰু গুছি যায়’

‘नेता वोट मांगने आते हैं, फिर पलटकर देखते भी नहीं’

‘नेता लोग भोट मांगे आवेला... फेरु बिला जाला’

Dumka, Dumka District, Jharkhand, 814101, India

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‘Politicians come for votes…and then they leave’

Government schemes and jobs have eluded the predominantly tribal villages in Dumka, Jharkhand. In the run-up to the last phase of the General Elections 2024, there is palpable dissatisfaction

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