As Forest Protection Laws became more stringent in India, the access of local inhabitants into forests became heavily restricted. I was in based in Dewas District of Madhya Pradesh (Central India) for a year in 2016 when I got in touch with Jhabral tribal community, a traditional bamboo weaving community. The tribal community has been living adjacent to the forest areas which were rich in bamboo. As the forests became ‘protected’ the socio-economic and physical mobility of the tribes was curtailed as they lost free access to bamboo in the forests (in the name of ensuring protection to the forests). Ironically, sixty per cent of the bamboo in Madhya Pradesh to paper mills and the rest is auctioned for commercial purpose. In this article I share my personal experience of engaging with the Jhabral community for about a period of 6 months.
I was in the weekly vegetable market when my eyes caught a sight of a lady selling vegetable baskets made of bamboo. The next week she took me to her village, 12 kilometers away from the weekly market. I was amazed to see bamboo sticks and grass lying outside mud huts. It was a hamlet (within a village) inhabited by Jhabral Community and was referred to as ‘Jhabral Mohalla’. It was separated from the rest of the village, maybe because of low caste status of the tribe. It is a traditional bamboo weaving tribe. The entire hamlet was below the poverty line and was largely illiterate.
I was told by the community how Madhya Pradesh Government shut the access of forests to them. They shared how forests had been their home and how they have been dependent on forests for bamboo for generations. However, they are now seen as illegal encroachers and their entry to forests is restricted. I was told that Naakedaar (forest security guard) in the forest keep a check on the entry and the amount of bamboo carried by them. If it is more than a certain limit, then they need to bribe the Naakedaar by per piece of bamboo. Their bamboo weaving is restricted, riskier and has turned out to be a costly affair now.
Once I was stopped in the market by a woman and was asked about my engagement with the bamboo weavers in the hamlet. Being suspicious, I provided her vague answers and left the spot. Later it was revealed to me that the big landlords have a monopoly over the production of the bamboo. ‘Seth’ was the word used by tribes to describe a landlord. It was very much in the discourse in the village community. The ‘Seth’ maintain good ‘relations’ with Naakedaar so that mobility of bamboo weavers in the forest is relatively free. At the same time, ‘Seth’ lends money to the bamboo weavers (at high-interest rates) in times of any household need. Therefore, the bamboo weavers are bound to sell a share of their bamboo items (usually, baskets of different sizes) to their ‘Seth’ at low rates. The price of baskets is at least doubled and sold in the local market by the ‘Seth’ (landlords) and profits, of course, go to the ‘Seth’ only.
Gradually, the number of bamboo weavers in the village is declining. They say, in the last 10 years, the number of village households engaged in bamboo weaving is near to half. The other half of them have migrated to work as wage laborers on farms of nearby cities. Even the ones who are engaged in weaving have become so used to making only baskets of bamboo that their memory of making diverse bamboo products is blurred now. I was amazed to see in their trunk some of the beautiful complicated bamboo weaving which most of them do not remember or do not want to redo it (as they find it very costly and no future in their skill).
Before my engagement with the Jhabral tribal community, I did not realize how a state policy could convolute socio-economic relationships in the areas around the forest. Nevertheless, the burden ends up being on the previously marginalized which get manipulated in the matrix of the power hierarchy.
Niti Deoliya
Sources:
http://www.downtoearth.org.in/coverage/madhya-pradesh-s-call-to-bamboo-investors-reignites-debate-over-forest-access-50506
