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BASTAR:
MADHYA PRADESH
Forest
Bounty
Organised
trading helps Bastar tribals earn riches from the jungle
By
N.K. Singh
Ratan
Ram, 28, can't believe his luck. The inhabitant of Balikonta village in
Bastar district of Madhya Pradesh looks at the figures. His share is Rs
18,000. "I've never seen this kind of money in my life," he
whispers. The tribals of the underdeveloped region have subsisted for
ages on meagre weekly incomes from jungle products. That is why Ratan
is incredulous. He and his nine partners, like him all tribal youths,
have just logged a turnover of Rs 15.9 lakh-and a profit of Rs 1.58 lakh-in
buying tamarind from villagers and selling it to a government agency in
the first three months of this year.
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| Taste
Of Success |
With
his earnings, Ratan was able to get back the one and a half acres his
family had mortgaged to moneylenders. For another youth, Raghu Ram, 22,
of Takragura village, a share of Rs 8,000 in the tamarind business meant
he could afford the customary bridal price. He wasted no time in marrying
18-year-old Hiraman last month.
The weekly
haat (marketplace) is no longer a place of ignominy for the tribals. They
know exploitation by traders from the towns is coming to an end. Ratan
and Raghu, and 5,000 other tribals, are beneficiaries of a cooperative
movement. The Madhya Pradesh Government scheme-which gives village panchayats
a monopoly on minor forest produce-generated Rs 40 crore last year. Says
Bastar Collector Pravir Krishn, the man behind the idea: "Tribals
have benefited without the government doling out anything."
Earlier,
after spending almost a week collecting different forest items, the tribals
got only 20 per cent of what their produce was worth from middlemen at
the haat. "The traders' agents used all kind of tricks," recalls
Panesh Ram of Bhatpal village. It was not uncommon to find a green-around-the-ears
tribal bartering chironji (a dry fruit that sells for Rs 60 per kg) for
salt, a kilo to a kilo.
TORA,
HARRA AND MORE: With its rich forests, Bastar presents a bounty for
its inhabitants. There is tora, used in soap-making, and harra, used in
tanning. There are sal seeds, from which oil is extracted, and the seeds
of karkatiya, nirmali and peng, all used in pharmaceuticals. There are
at least 31 similar products the tribals gather from the jungle and sell
at the weekly haats. Tamarind, mahua, mango kernels, silk cocoons, lac,
chironji, wax and gum continue to be the mainstay of the tribal economy.
Lac, used in the production of sealing wax and in bangle-making and electrical
goods, sells for Rs 50,000 per tonne. Chironji, a dry fruit, fetches Rs
60,000 a tonne. Wax and gum fetch Rs 40,000 per tonne.
The government
had already started market intervention in the collection of tendu leaves
(for making bidis), harra and sal seeds. But it had ignored the trade
in other commodities. Till Krishn caught a trader forcing a tribal to
barter his basket of charota seeds, used in making soap, for a sack of
rough salt marked "not for human or animal consumption". The
collector, beset with the problem of exploitation of tribals in his district,
felt the volume of trade in minor forest produce in the Bastar region-worth
Rs 500 crore-could somehow be turned to the tribals' advantage.
That was
how the Van-Dhan Andolan, or forest wealth movement, started. The government
gave village committees absolute control over minor forest produce and
replaced traders with self-help groups. The government fixes the price
of the produce and advances money to the self-help groups which act as
commission agents. The new arrangement has slashed the excessive profit
margins of the traders. Regularisation of the agricultural produce market
also increased the government's tax revenues by Rs 2 crore last year.
The traders
are naturally up in arms against the violation of "free trade".
Says a trader from Jagdalpur: "The government is cheating the tribals.
We would have offered a better price to the tribals." But the tribals
aren't complaining. Says Kala Iqbal, who heads a women's self-help group
in Aasna village: "My group earned Rs 25,000 in just 15 days last
year." Which is more than what they had earned in a long while. Regardless
of what the traders feel, Bastar's tribals at last seem to be on the road
to self-reliance.
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