Team Herald
PONDA: A daily wage of Rs 60 does not guarantee three square meals for a family of four! And the life of the Vanarmare tribe is a daily struggle for three time meals as even the meagre sum of Rs 60 is not an assured income. So, it’s no wonder that the Vanarmare people live a primitive life in unhygienic conditions and who, sometimes, are accused of indulging in petty thefts.
A fortnight ago five of their huts at Nirankal were demolished and the respective inhabitants were forced out on the streets. But until the media took up their cause aggressively, the State was unaware of their very existence, hence, didn’t go to their aid. On their part, the Bethora-Nirankal villagers even passed two resolutions in their gram sabhas to erase their very existence from the village. The reason: the people of Vanarmare tribe are living a primitive life and their culture is an affront to their ‘modern’ sensibilities. Besides, the Vanarmare girls were getting married young at 14 or 15 and are siring children too – another affront to the modern sensibilities.
However, the members of the cultured society, who passed the gram sabha resolutions to erase this primitive and supposedly despicable people, never bothered to reason out why the Vanarmare tribe is living a primitive life and is indulging in acts that are supposedly affront to modern sensibilities.
Now, after a sustained media campaign, a steady stream of people visit this primitive tribe, bringing in sweets and other daily necessities. Even the government, on orders from the Goa State Human Rights Commission, has started providing the basic necessities – food and water – to the Vanarmare people who live in abject poverty. In fact, it is an understatement to say that they live in abject poverty.
The road to integrating the Vanarmare people into the modern society is a long one which the government and the society need to walk through. And this long road starts at providing them with a decent shelter – a fervent pleading of Gopal Powar, a leader of the Vanarmare tribe.
Gopal can be seen pleading with every visitor, “Please give us a safe shelter so that our members can lead a civilised life.”
Gopal fears that once the police withdraw from the village and the flow of visitors stops, his people would be evicted from their hutments. However, if a decent shelter is provided to his people, Gopal feels, their eviction would become harder.
Explaining the reason for child marriage among his tribe, Gopal said, “We fall short of matured girls for our males. Further, we can’t afford to bring a girl for marriage from outside Goa by spending around Rs 5000 either from Sawantawadi or other parts of Mahrashtra where our community members reside.” Another reason for the child marriage, he said, is the male-female ratio imbalance. Alluding that appearance could be deceptive, he said, even matured girls look like children due to malnutrition.
The poor economic condition of the Vanarmare tribe is certainly not of their own making. It is the result of years of exploitation by the society and even by the government. The Vanarmare people are paid a paltry sum of Rs 60 as daily wages for an eight-hour and more work in local plantations. However, the minimum wage prescribed by the Goa government for agricultural workers is nearly Rs 400 per day.
Gopal said that even those who are hired for cutting sugar cane on the fields owned by the government-run sugar factory are paid just Rs 60 as daily wage.
“We can’t eat better food with Rs 60. We eat fish only occasionally. Most of the time we eat plain rice mixed with chilli powder,” he complained.
Alluding that the exploitation of his tribe might have begun since ancient times, Gopal said, “We believe that we are the heirs of Eklavya who was believed to be the lowest caste in Mahabaratha.”
