BARGI DAMBARGI DAM VISTHAPIT SANGHARSH SAMITIMADHYA PRADESH
I will speak about the problems of the Bargi dam. 162 villages lie in the submergence zone of the dam. People have been uprooted from these villages (which cover 3 districts). Till today they have no means of survival, they don’t know where the next meal will come from. Those who can, have taken to fishing. Many have gone to cities for mazdoori (wage labour). Many of these are adivasis, who will go hungry, but won’t beg for food from another house.
When they go for mazdoori, many die. They earn some money. What they can, they bring back home and run their families. Adivasi men spend half the money on daru/ alcohol. Food for children comes from money earned like this.
Of the 162 villages submerged some villages have been displaced 2-3 times and were finally resettled on the edge of the forests. Even here, the area is waterlogged. The water causes their huts to fall, they put their homes up again, to face the same fate.
Women also face problems. They too go for work. There is nothing to eat here. If there is a meal in the morning there is none in the evening.
This is the condition in all 162 villages. Children cannot be educated. People have sold their cattle, they have no food to eat, no clothes to wear. It is very difficult. There are no school teachers, no doctors. Where can they go if they fall ill? Bijadari in Marla district, Ghaasu in Sivni district. In Jabalpur they go to the colony. Some even die on the way to the hospital or while returning back.
They have a minimum of possessions: a thali (plate), a lota (water container). Before submergence many had 60-100 acres of land. They used to have plenty of ghee, milk. Today they don’t even have ashes. Sarkar (Government) does not think of vikas/ development, it thinks only of vinash/destruction. People in submergence areas have to give up their lives for sarkar to reap the benefits. Dalits, adivasis and many others share the same fate.
Some can do fishing. Some cannot. They do mazdoori. Buses are full of people going for mazdoori. They go to nearby places. How do we describe their condition? It is so bad… we do not see any hope… We only have one thing to say: we have seen bad days. The men and women of every ghati/valley should not have to go through this hell. We will take on this fight, the struggle should go on. Sarkar will not understand our language. They think people who have been submerged are not suffering. They fool us. They talk only to the sarpanch/ headmen, leaders, dalals/ middlemen/brokers—all of them want to loot us.
We used to have ornaments covering each part of our bodies. We could not do without ghee and milk. We used to have 36 kinds of grains. Today there is nothing. Forests used to be our mainstay. Till we experienced submergence we had never visited or even seen a hospital. Medicines came from our forests and homes. All our medicines have been drowned now. There are no hospitals either. Where do we go if we fall ill? A serious illness means certain death. If somebody has gone for mazdoori and the children fall ill, that’s the end.
In cities they earn Rs. 10-15. In such trying times how can they manage with such wages? Do they feed themselves and the children? Or buy clothes and masala/ spices? Even the animals of the forests have more izzat/ prestige than the people of submerged villages. Nothing to cover their bodies, nothing on their feet…
…Bargi dam oustees have not been rehabilitated, despite what the sarkar says. What has been done? And will sarkar show us the policies? Where have they put the money? Sarkar says that we have put the money in this, in that. We are expected to be satisfied with such answers, when all we have faced is involuntary sacrifice.
The city does not have a Narmada Maiya/mother. The sarkar has fooled the adivasis. After the construction of the dam the sarkar told us do not go away, you will be resettled. We did not go and when the waters began filling in the dam, the sarkar said, let the waters come, the people will flee like rats.
We did not know what an andolan was. A petty policeman’s entry into the village would send the women of the village scurrying into their homes. We did not know about surveys and all that. When (B.D. Sharma) Sharmaji and Medhaji (Patkar) came here we did not know them. We thought here come the looters. Yes, when Rajkumarbhai (Sinha) came, he looked well fed and we said, people like you have come, looted our area and gone, what can you do for us? I had myself asked him this in Marla district. We understood gradually. And now we have won some victories… though the dam has been constructed.