Development and Tribes of Rajasthan

There are many examples that wherever government took initiative for the development it ruins the life of tribes in most of cases in the state like Rajasthan.

Kanti Bai and her son in her house located alongside highway in Budhpura Village.

We can not imagine a life of tribal people in Rajasthan where women like Kanti Bai live in a small hut for many years with her husband and one son and one widow daughter. She belongs to Meena(tribal) community. When we asked about the housing schemes of government she said ‘government schemes not meant for people like us, nobody cares about us’. As her house situated on NH 76. She told us that her more than half land went into the highway and she got very less compensation. Government making highways for the better transportation it's good that now small villages also connecting to the cities which help people to get good educational, health and job facility but when it comes to tribe, it's not like that as they don’t want development which in spite of making their life better, but destroy. Kanti bai said that ‘ we never went to nearby cities in our life like Bundi and Kota which is just 50 km away from our place’.

Highway passing through Kanti Bai's house in Budhpura Village of Bundi District in Rajasthan.

Budhpura place is full of grey sandstone mines where most people engage in this sector with no facility and full of risk. Kanti Bai shared her experience that one day her husband got injured and they don’t have money for the treatment, so they applied the home remedy.  We can imagine that one side we are progressing in every sector and achieving big goals but on the other hand half of the rural population mostly Dalit and tribes living in the utter worst situation and deprived of basic human needs. Government allocating a huge amount for the tribes' welfare but in reality, it does not reach to the needy. Recently two years back government launched a scheme named PMKKKY (Pradhan Mantri Khanij Kshetra Kalyan Yojana) to develop the affected area in terms of better health facility, plantation, transportation, better housing condition, pure drinking water facility, access to education. But money is not being used in these areas. People living condition is getting worse day by day.

By- Neeraj Bunkar