Dhauri Mangri/Sagatpura (Udaipur), November 20
Roop Lal of Dhauri Mangri has
no idea what is door-to-door campaigning, or, for that matter, what elections are all about.
Can’t blame him. He was born and raised in a door-less kutcha house before Indpendence. Over 60 years later, he still lives in the same house, still door-less.
He is not the only one, though; almost all houses in this remote tribal belt of Udaipur district do not have doors, only thatched roofs and mud walls.
People are too poor to think about doors when their basic food needs are barely met. Governmental
neglect has been such that they have simply given up. “Actually, we don’t need doors. We have nothing to keep behind the safety of locks”, a tribal elder said.
Nothing holds. Heera Bhai of Sagatpura village nearby scolded Shankar, his son, for returning home early from the school. “The teacher did not come today also,” the boy explained. The school master walks into the school at
11 am, a good three hours late every day. For the last week or so, he has just not shown up. His school sits precariously on the banks of a seasonal rivulet.
Heera Bhai does not know who is contesting from his village. He couldn't care less. “For decades, we have been demanding a pucca road to the village. No one listens. Politicians hold rallies away from our village and make tall promises — good roads, regular power
supply, employment and potable water supply — but no one visits Sagatpura.”
“No one has come to us either,” Roop Lal says. “I hope they come one day and help me with a grant of Rs 15,000 for a well and Rs 32,000 for levelling of fields. Such grants are being given all over the state but not in Dhauri Mangri.”
Governmental help, if it comes, is only in driblets. Shankar was given money to contruct a water channel. A well was also dug but the officials have not installed the water pump to reach for safe drinking water.
These vallages are more than
500 km from Jaipur but the road and rail connection is very poor. An Udaipur-Ahmedabad narrow-gauge train runs here at a speed of less than 20 km per hour. “For decades, we have been promised broad-gauge and a shorter route to Mumbai where many from these villages work.
The narrow-gauge train criss-crossing through the rocky terrain makes for a breathtaking sight, but the journey is most unconfortable with its broken wooden seats.
A grim existence for the tribals but Shankar is hoping that this time around some neta will surely visit them. “I will tell him my wife has become too old to bring water from the well three kilometres away. Forget the doors, Can’t they give us a couple of hand-pumps. At least that?”
