A Conservative Rebel

PALAMAU, Dhanbad, Ranchi, Singbbhum and Santhal Parganas are the six districts which constitute the tribal region in south Bihar. The major Women Headloaders tribes are Munda, Oraon, Ho, Kharia and Santhal. The largest tribal population is in Ranchi district, where it is 64.39 of the In Tribal Bihar total population. These tribals are also called aboriginal because they are the original This article is condensed from reports by N. G. Basu, T. Bhaduri, V. inhabitants of this country. They live Surin and Victoria Soreng. The reports were based on a survey either deep inside or in the vicinity of conducted bj Xavier Institute of Social Science, Ranchi. the forest area. Their social, economic, cultural, and religious practices are closely interwoven with the forest life Tatiailwai to Ranchi. They occupied the or ten hours, is spent on absolute cycle. reserved and unreserved second class necessities for their families. At present, Bihar has only 17.7 compartments in the trais.The train was Dependent On Forests percent of land under forest, whereas packed with wood and headloaders. We also visited and surveyed seven national forest policy has suggested that Women carrying babies experienced villages in Bero block and three villages the economy requires 33 percent of land more inconvenience. It was the middle in Ormanjhi block, Ranchi district, to to be under forest. In India, the amount of summer, and the babies were crying study the living conditions of these of wood cut annually for burning as fuel from hunger and thirst. One 16 year old women. It was difficult to get the women is so great that it equals the country’s girl fainted due to lack of air. to tell us their names because they realize annual consumption of oil, coal and As the train neared Ranchi the women that their occupation is considered electricity put together. Forest dwellers got busy preparing to unload the wood. illegal, and are afraid, having often been not only use wood to cook their own Their minds and hearts were focused subjected to harassment. We conducted food, but also sell it as fuel, this being only on their wood. On reaching the a house to house individual one of their few sources of cash income. railway station, they started counting investigation in 170 households. In some They consume vast quantities of wood the bundles. They were very cooperative villages we found that about half the for constructing huts, shelters, bullock to each other in unloading and counting households are engaged in headloading. carts, ploughs, ploughshares, tools and the bundles. Then they spread out In a majority of villages, more than 20 agricultural implements. cloths on the platform and spent the percent of households have headloading The Daily Journey night there. Some went off to sleep while as their primary occupation. These Anybody passing through Ranchi others sat together, chatting or singing. households either have insufficient land railway station or important road They have to clear the platform at 5.30 or have upland and waste land where crossings in the early hours of the a.m. Carrying their loads, they roam cultivation is hardly remuncl rative or morning would come across columns of about the town. After selling the wood, certain. Most of these households women with loads of fuelwood on their they return to the station and go back belong to the scheduled tribes or heads, going to the market to sell wood home at 9.30 a.m. by the Burdwan backward communities. either to middlemen or to consumers. passenger train. A majority of the households have These women are popularly known as Another group of about 60 women been engaged in this occupation only headloaders. Three girl students, Manju come to Ranchi in the morning by the for the last five to 18 years. This shows Bara, Irish Ekka and Victoria Soreng, Howrah and Kharagpur trains. Women that the occupation has its origin in undertook a study of the working also come by bus or truck from Jonha, recent years but is now attracting more conditions of these women. Taimara and Gangahat. Some of them do people. About 20 percent of headloaders Every evening about 250 head- not go to the forest to cut wood. They have headloading as a primary loaders come from nearby villages to buy it from other women in the village at occupation but also perform day labour Ranchi by the Burdwan passenger train Re 1 or 1.50 a bundle, and sell it for Rs 2 as a secondary occupation and cultivate at about 7.30 p.m. The women bring or 2.50 a bundle in the town. Since they their own land as a tertiary occupation. bundles of fuelwood and also other pay a bus fare of Rs 1.50 and a freight Another 50 percent are primarily engaged forest products such as donas made from charge of 25 paise per bundle, their net in cultivation, but engage in headloading sal leaves, datun, vegetables. On one income is not more than Rs 4 or 5 a day. as a secondary occupation.The occasion we travelled with them from This money, earned by the labour of eight headloader households depend heavily 14 MANUSHI on the forest, not only for the wood they need firewood to cook and some food to forest guards. cut and sell but also for their own food give the children. If there is no money While pursuing this occupation, and other domestic necessities. They where are they to get rice, oil and salt ? women are exploited and harassed by all have to depend completely on forest Also, relatively more employment is sorts of people. At each stage of their food for three to four months of the year. available to men as day labourers. journey from the village to the market, Cutting and selling of wood go Women, day labourers are paid less than they have to bribes to various people at through seasonal fluctuations. Two men, for doing the same work. According a regular rate ranging from 10 to 25 paise weeks before a tribal festival called sarhul to tribal tradition and practice, women per bundle. The railway staff on the and a fortnight after it, tribals generally do not enter the forest to gather wood and other products. However, when there is no alternative means of survival, economic compulsion does overrule this custom. During the rainy season, headloading goes through a lean period. We found a difference of life style between headloaders of Bero and Kuchu. In Bero women getup early in the morning at about 4 a.m. and set out to cut wood in the forest. They return in the afternoon, and go to sell the wood the following day. The marketplaces are at Bero, Kuchu and Dih. In Kuchu the people are relatively better off. There are only four or five households in Jirabar who depend on headloading as a primary source of livelihood. The people sell only wood and keep the other forest products for their own consumption. Most of them also cultivate and sell vegetables. In this area, both men and women bring wood from the forest. In Kuchu women get up at about 4 a.m. and go to sell the wood at Barja, Chanday or Kanke which are at a distance of about six kilometres. They come back around -Surjeet Jaiswal noon, have lunch and go to the forest have better marketing, accounting and train, and at the station, and the police around 1.30 p.m. They cut wood there bargaining capacity than men. Women constables, get a share of these and return home around 6 p.m. Thus they can wait for hours to get a better bargain payments. In certain villages a “kautilya are busy all day long in cutting and while men get impatient in a few minutes’ tax” system is practised. Each headloader selling wood. We could find them at time. Women cannot always depend on household pays Rs 2.50 a week to the home only at noon and in the late men to feed the family. Even if the men village headman, who distributes the evening. earn some money, they are quite likely to money to the proper points, so as to Women’s Work spend it all on drink. Headloading thus ensure a carefree collection of fuelwood We found that a majority of the provides an independent cash income from the forests. headloaders are women. If a man is to the women even though the returns The women said that up to about unemployed he may go along with the are very meagre for so many hours of eight years ago, they could collect wood women to the forest to cut wood. But strenuous toil. for consumption land for sale within an men hardly ever go on their own or in The headloaders generally work in a easy distance, but now they have to trek groups ho cut wood, while women often group whether in the forest or in the a distance of eight to 10 kilometres every go in groups to the forest. Why is this market. Though illiterate and apparently day. Previously the distance was such so? Maybe because women are docile, they realize their group strength. that they could make two trips a ‘day to responsible for feeding the family. They When in a group, they are not afraid of the forest but now even to make one trip NUMBER SEVENTEEN, AUG-SEPT 1983 15 a day they have to start from home before dawn. They have to be up before 2 a.m.

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