If we talk about tribe society, first thing comes to our mind are land, forest, culture, traditions, customs, rituals, and it is part of their life for more than 5000 years, But due to the intervention of non- tribes into the tribal area the base of their life has been destroyed. Through government and its administrative bodies, tribes have been always forced to develop in a way which is not relevant to their life. In a mining village, where I am doing my fieldwork I noticed so many things which are showing how their life and culture has been affected and damaged in a systematic way.
Mining started in this village around the 1980s and all of the owners of the mines were non-tribals as well as outsiders. So due to mines, they lost their land, they started working as a laborer in mines. Mines owners started exploiting them by taking more work, giving fewer wages, and not giving any kind of physical and social securities. So, they started earning daily wages, before that they were not conscious about making money as earlier they were not dependent on anyone, and they were producing most of the things in the village but as now their land has been captured by the outsider's now they have to manage everything by money. Therefore, their life started moving from traditional life to modern life, they started saving money, they started sending their children's to school, started making labor unions to fight against various discrimination or for their rights. So due to all these activities, their discrimination by mine owners reduced at some level. It caused to reduce the surplus of the owners as they have to provide better safety, better wages and limited working hours. Because of this, the mine's owner started recruiting laborers from other places and stopped recruiting local people as they were more empowered, have more knowledge and were united while the non-locals were not united, have limited knowledge of politics of mining and they work more hours then locals without complaining much about wages and safety. Currently, the local people don't have their land as well as they lost their job in mines as more than 70 percent of the laborer in mines in this village are non-locals. The people coming from other places are very poor and don't have any kind of unity as they all come from different places and have different identity, they work more hours and are staying very close to mines, due to Safety Reason many labourers die while working, if local die while working in mines they get compensation around Rs. 12-15 lakh as they are united and they disturb work of the mines, while if non-locals dies they get 1-2 lakh as compensation as they are not that aware of their rights as well as they all come from different places and in very small groups so they keep quiet and take whatever is given by the owners. Mines owner don't want locals as a laborer as they ask for many things and they are less expected to be in compromising position.
Due to the salary (whitewater) coming from mines in farms has destroyed farms productivity, due to heavy blasting in mines many animals died and grassland is declining due to pollution and as wastage of mines were dumped on grassland, the wastage is so much that it made artificial mountain there. So in the consequence of it, people's standard of living declined rapidly, they lose everything land, forest, animals, culture, and traditions. Their children's left school as their parental income decreased as their parents are not working in the mines, so their children's migrated to other places to work. Due to mines many people are facing so many health-related issues but can't do anything. Earlier they had health-related issues which are common diseases, but now due to mines they have a different kind of diseases, and they don't have any traditional solution for it and therefore it is very difficult for them to survive without basic health facilities and limited financial resources.
So, the tribes of the village are facing so many crises, they lost their land which is their identity, their part of life. They lost employment and there are many reasons for it like- many mines are closing, mines owner hires non-local workers and use of machines increased. The workers are not that comfortable doing other work than mine work as they were working in mines for a long time, they have learned only skills of working in mines, therefore, they can't do any other work than what they were doing in mines. Their farm has been destroyed as polluted water from mines comes in their farm, their forest is declining due to mines, their livestock is almost in an ending position. Due to heavy blasting, structures of their homes became very weak, the atmosphere of the village is also polluted, groundwater went to deep. Apart from it, the health of the people of the village is also a serious issue. So the Tribes in this village is facing very serious issues, as due to mines they are losing their cultural heritage and on the other hand, they became economically deprived and dependent.
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