Updated: November 20, 2020 11:43:09 am
These families, who were badly affected by the Covid-19 lockdown, had offered to pay 100 rupees each, but it was not considered.
FOURTEEN FAMILIES from the Gond tribe living in a village in the Balaghat district of Madhya Pradesh had to face a social boycott for more than two weeks, as they could not pay 200 rupees each for the Durga Puja celebration in the village.
These families, who were badly affected by the Covid-19 lockdown, had offered to pay 100 rupees each, but it was not considered.
Deprived of all facilities like buying rations and denied work, the families finally approached the district administration, which solved the problem this week.
On October 14, the local organizers of the Sarwajanik Durga Puja Sanstha puja held a meeting in Lamta village of Balaghat, where it was decided that the 170 families in the village would contribute 200 rupees each for the celebration. But up to 40 families from Gond, many of whom worked as migrant workers and walked for days to get home after the closure, expressed their inability to pay the money.
Under social pressure, 26 of the families finally gave in. The remaining 14 families offered to pay 100 rupees, but were refused.
After Durga Puja, another meeting was held on November 3, when the village representatives unanimously issued a diktat for ‘paani-tanga’: no villagers were allowed to speak or visit the 14 families. They were not allowed to buy rations and even the village doctor, a private doctor, was warned not to treat them.
According to Dhan Singh Parte, a member of one of the affected families, none of the workers at the Lakdi warehouse, where his father worked as a day laborer, could work with him. “No one would go near my father at the warehouse. The logs are heavy and people usually work in groups and carry them, but my father was asked to work alone in a corner, if he did, ”said Parte.
For Lakshmi Wadkhade, 39, who works as a laborer after her husband fell ill to support her family of seven, paying 200 rupees was almost impossible. “I was in Allahabad looking for work when my sick husband and daughter were boycotted at home. I walked six days to get back from Nashik after closing. We had no money for days and we went hungry until they gave us a 5 kg ration, “he said.
She said they offered her 100 rupees, which she was refused. “Even last year my family was boycotted and I had to go back to work in the city and send 500 rupees to my family to pay the Sanghatan to lift the boycott.”
As the boycott continued from 3 to 17 November, the families headed by Radhelal Madsole, Zilla President of Gond Samajh Mahasabha, submitted a memorandum to the police inspector at Lamta police station. As the villagers were unfazed after two rounds of meetings, the families approached the Balaghat Collector along with the Police Superintendent and the Subdivision Magistrate.
Gatherer Deepak Arya told The Indian Express: “These families came to us and we held a meeting with the villagers. They have been warned that if this continues, action will be taken against them. The matter has been resolved and the situation has normalized ”.
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