A day with Baiga Tribal Women

"We tell our parents when we like a person and they approach groom's side to get their nod", say Basanthi, Manthi and Sehmadhuri, baiga tribal women from Garhi village, Balaghat district, Madhya Pradesh. (Kanha Buffer Zone)

Our parents never force us to marry and leave it to our choice. There is no dowry system in our community and women are never harassed for money or monetary items. Girls are treated the same way as they are used in their native place.

We dance to the tribal tunes and enjoy life. We have our own plantations and are content with what we have. We love our forest and take food that is needed for the day.

We encountered tigers and wild animals in the forest, but they never attack us. "We never do anything that disturbs animal kingdom. They only attack if you irritate them". We are happy in the forest and believe in Sun God and parents.

Story: Amoga

Face to Face with a Tiger in Kanha Forest

Kanha National Park, which is amongst the well known tiger reserves worldwide, is located among the Banjar and Halon valleys of Mandla and Balaghat districts of the state of Madhya Pradesh. It is one of the highly Tiger populated reserves in the country. 

To improve the quality of education among the children living in the buffer zone in Kanha Forest, Aide et Action (NGO) initiated “Schooling and Learning Improvement Programme” in December 2014. Divya Bharathi Banjara (19) is one of the project staff who joined Aide et Action initially as an Education volunteer in Saraitola primary school and later became a library coordinator.

She was involved in providing academic support to the volunteers and visit homes of children regularly to enroll them back to schools. She held community and youth meetings to motivate them to learn the importance of education.  

She lives in Saraitola village and takes care of volunteer responsibility of 12-13 villages, out of which, three villages are adjacent to core area of forest where wild life animals roam freely in buffer zone which is the project area. Wolves and foxes are commonly seen in this area. Though the moment of Tigers is not cited regularly, but they do visit once in a while. 

One fine day, Divya was going for a field visit in her village to capacitate volunteers and as well children club meeting and finally ended up having face-to-face with Tiger. “I was returning from Primary School Arandi on a bicycle on that day around 1 pm. It was mid-afternoon during summer without any movement of people and came across a Tiger which was 25 meters away”, she says.  

Trembling with fear and with no time for shouting or asking for help, she started paddling cycle very fast to save herself and was perspiring badly. “It was a narrow escape and felt that it was the last day of my life. There was a thin line between my life and death”, she says.

She narrated the uneventful experience to her parents. “They were very initially scared but my father counseled on dealing with Tigers and advised to choose the longer road”. He motivated me to overcome the fear and encouraged to continue my job as usual.

Though she feels unsafe carrying out activities by visiting schools in the remotest areas close to the core area, she is determined to move ahead. Her parents insist her to continue education at least up to graduation level to compete the fast pacing era. She wants to help her parents economically and educate younger brothers.

Divya was interested in becoming a MBBS doctor, but her economical circumstances did not allow pursuing her goal. She ended up pursuing Bachelor of Sciences in Biology in distance mode. “I have chosen science because it interests me a lot and want to learn about new inventions and discoveries”, she says.

Talking about her stint as a library coordinator with the project, she says, “The deplorable educational condition of the students in this region motivates me to work with the organization as Library coordinator. I feel delighted working with the children. I have not got many degrees and certificates but whatever I have done in my education should be utilized through my work”.

“I dream about heading a good project on a responsible designation after five years of my journey and envision seeing my project area school children doing better in each walks of life and get sustainable education”, ends Divya with a gleam of confidence in her eyes.

Educating youth of Red light area, New Delhi

GB road is one of the largest red light areas in the country famous for sex trade and trafficking. It has a large and strong nexus of pimps and traffickers, forcing innocent and vulnerable girls and women for sex trade. While the women in sex work are into the business, it is their children and growing teens vulnerable for trafficking. 

To stop and prevent the second generation teens from entering sex trade and offer livelihood opportunities to the youth living within and nearby area, Aide et Action, an International NGO with the support of Microsoft initiated iLEAD Youthspark centre that provides livelihood training to the dropout youth in GB Road. The coordinator for the centre is Mrs Neelam Singh, a post graduate in Social Work playing a very key role in motivating youth to enroll in iLEAD. 

 The place where the centre is being operated is unsafe and uncertain for women, as there is risk for uneventful situations, says Neelam. The road from where I enter the lane is usually jam-packed with traffic. Women living nearby the area travel outside only after covering their body with Burqa (clothing that cover the human body except eyes).

 “At the age of 40 plus years, I felt uncomfortable with the looks of men, as they misinterpreted for a sex worker due to the environment in GB Road. This made me wonder how girl students will feel to come to the centre”, she says. 

 Whenever, there was community mobilization drive, parents were interested to enroll their wards in the course, but would taken aback after knowing the name of the location and cancel the admissions. They used to narrate stories of GB Road and the kind of impact it can have on their children, she says.

“Initially I was bold and firm about my decision to work in GB Road, but after facing few experiences, I was unsure if my decision was right”, says Neelam. I spoke to my husband, family who encouraged and supported me to stop worrying about the stigma and work for the betterment of the society, she adds.

“It was around that time, I made a bold decision to keep things aside and seriously work for the society and bring a change in the community”, says Mrs Neelam. I heard many stories where people work in the remotest areas of the country, and kept moving. 

“I visit homes of the youth nearby GB Road, interact with parents and motivate them to send their children to institute. After seeing the confidence and understanding the advantages of the iLEAD centre, parents started sending students to us”, a change that overcomes stigma, she says. 

The real challenge comes in convincing the parents who are into sex trade as they don’t want their children to be identified as children of sex workers. “A lot of counseling was done to parents and children after which they finally realized the advantage of joining in the centre”, she says. This stops the youth from entering second generation sex work and choose a livelihood option that provides them a dignified life, says Neelam with a gleam in her eyes.