Garo Para’s roads in North Paniyalguri village are just layers of mud and pebbles. Part of the predominantly tribal Alipurduar II block, one of the six blocks in the district with a population of 70 lakh, the village is in the Baksa Tiger Reserve. The village, with a population of 3,896, is surrounded by forests with a variety of trees such as sal, teak, jackfruit and mango, in the Dooars foothills of the Himalayas.
West Bengal Panchayat Election 2023 | Unrelenting violence and political muscle power
Mamta Dey Sarkar has been working in this Anganwadi center for the last 12 years. , Photo Credit: Poornima Sah
Not much has changed here for decades, say the villagers, mostly from the Garo tribal community, except for an anganwadi center set up in a hut 16 years ago, where about 50 children come six days a week .
The caretaker and cook, Mamta De Sarkar, has been working here for the last 12 years. ,didimony (The teacher) comes on alternate days as she attends two centres. Every day we risk cooking in the same hut with the children, who keep coming closer to the firewood. There’s no verandah or electricity, and the tin roof leaks when it rains,” she says. Rain falls every month except for the regular monsoon.
Anganwadi Center in Garo Para, Uttar Panialguri. , Photo Credit: Purnima Sah
“During every election campaign we are assured that our request for a properly constructed center has reached the head office (block and district office at Alipurduar; main office at Kolkata). We have no hope now,” says Ms. Sarkar, who is paying Rs. She earns 6,300 per month.
Municipal water taps were installed in every house before the election campaign started. , Photo Credit: Poornima Sah
Earlier this year, before the election campaign began, municipal water taps were installed in every household in Garo Para, but no one knows when the water connection will be given.
To reach the high school, children walk 6 km one way as there is no public transport. Gagan Sangma, who collects wood from the Buxa forest for a living, says, “To complete his graduation, my son had to walk 10 km daily to catch a bus to Alipurduar town, but now he lives in a forest in Chennai. Works in a hotel.”
Lalasan Sangma | Photo Credit: Poornima Sah
Pronoti Marak says she and her husband were among 150 laborers who worked for 50 consecutive days in 2021 to build a bridge over the Cheko River. However, the contractor asked the laborers to leave the work incomplete after assuring them of payment. “We were promised wages of Rs. 220 per day. We haven’t seen that contractor since then,” Ms Marak alleges.
The villagers say that the construction of this bridge is important for the people of Garo Para to strengthen the embankment. Lalasan Sangma and Sarojini Marak had 15 acres of land next to Checo, but now they are left with 6 acres. Floods take away pieces of land every year.
‘We lost everything’
“We used to grow paddy and vegetables. We had coconut, palm and banana farms but we lost everything. Panchayat was held three years ago Chieftain Released 15 bamboos to build a temporary dam, but when the river was full, the bamboos were drowned,” says Mr. Sangma, sitting outside the couple’s bamboo-mud hut, with forest on one side and river on the other .
Rahul Marak of Garo Para tells how much flood the Cheko river brings every year. , Photo Credit: Poornima Sah
Two years ago, the Block Development Officer (BDO) asked him to collect signatures of the villagers in support of the pucca bridge. “Everyone in the village gave their thumb impressions and signatures. But nothing happened,” says Mr. Sangma, who drives a boat to a nearby picnic spot and earns Rs. Let’s earn 1,750 per month. There is no income in the rainy season.
Ms. Sarojini Marak says, “Most expectant mothers give birth at home, as an ambulance never comes here.”
The Garo are one of the few matrilineal tribes in the world. After marriage, the groom starts living with the bride’s family. Inheritance comes through the mother, and children take on their mother’s surname. “The Garo community believes in protecting women, and this can only be done by making them the head of the household. The system also reduces the chances of women facing social injustice and violence,” explains Nibha Marak, a social worker from the village.
Gagan Sangma | Photo Credit: Poornima Sah
tribal certificate
Bina Marak, whose husband works in a nearby brick kiln, says, “There are 27 Garo families in our village. BDO officials say that mother’s surname is not accepted in any government document. No one in our family could get an Adivasi certificate and we missed many opportunities because of this hurdle.”
The people of Garo Para say that they have participated in all the Duare Sarkar camps launched by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in 2020 to deliver services at the doorsteps of people. Mr. Sangma produces receipts from the BDO office and Duare Sarkari camps as proof that he has submitted all the documents asked for. “It has been more than a decade since we tried for our tribal certificates,” he says, adding that he was now unsure whom to approach.
(Left to Right) Tochiron Marak, Baijanti Marak and Chiranjit Sangma have been striving for tribal certificates for years. , Photo Credit: Poornima Sah
BDO Chiranjit Sarkar says, “After this panchayat election all the schemes run by the state will reach every part of Bengal; there’s no doubt about it. We cannot comment on the government’s plans for North Paniyalguri at this point, and why the plans have not reached here for so many years.