For hundreds of years baazigars were entertainers. Today they live in abject poverty,
without any state protection. They are no longer into traditional occupation,
and are engaged in petty jobs, reports Ashutosh Sharma from Jammu

Baazigiri has died a tragic death at the hands of modernity, and baazigars have turned into paupers over the years. For hundreds of years they were entertainers. They made people laugh through comedy, inspired awe with breathtaking stunts and enthralled them with their daredevil gymnastics.

Life has always been a tight ropewalk for them. Earlier, they used to put their life at stake for their livelihood. Today they live without state protection of any kind, as the government does not consider them state subjects.

The community is no longer into traditional occupation, and does not hold any land to cultivate. Consequently, its work has also changed, and has become menial. They are engaged in petty jobs like rag picking or begging. Chak Bhagan — a small village in Kathua having 50 households — portrays a tragic picture of Baazigiri.

Education for their children is a distant dream as earning a meal or two for survival is a daily challenge. They are desperate to make ends meet. Even their children are forced into work at a tender age. While school students are cheerful because of summer vacations, a class seven student, Raj Kumar, of this community, is compelled to plant paddy in the fields of Rajput farmers under hot and humid conditions.

Labour laws and child rights don’t matter here. He is wearing half pants as the only piece of cloth on his skeletal body. His legs are in knee-deep waterlogged fields, while beads of sweat keep falling from the upper half of his body. He works daily in the scorching sun for eight hours for just Rs 50, or sometimes even less, if he is caught taking a nap under a shady tree by his employer.

Kumar lives in a dilapidated kutcha house along with his father. His father, Darshan Lal, is suffering from multiple ailments, and is unable to do any work. Neighbours say that his mother, fed with the family’s extreme poverty, eloped with her paramour.

Students of any convent school belonging to Kumar’s age group are adept in handling computers. But Kumar, like other school-going children of the baazigar community, cannot read English, or even write the names of his friends correctly.

Kumar is not the lone case. It is a common phenomenon for the children of baazigars to work as cheap labourers in fields of the upper caste affluent people of villages.

Traditionally, baazigars lived like nomads and never had any land of their own. They speak Dogri with a different accent, and maintain that their ancestors belonged to Jammu. Later they started settling but acquired land only as much as a hut could occupy. In this hamlet of baazigars, there are only a couple of concrete houses equally in dilapidated condition. There is hardly any house that remains unaffected during rains.

Except a couple of household members, no one from the community has a state subject certificate. This deprives them from getting any government job. They don’t fall in any SC, ST or OBC category. In any of the households, one would not find more than 1 kg of ration. A few of them who have been classified as BPL families, do not avail the benefit as they prefer begging to governmental privileges.

Why are they no longer into traditional occupation? A youth, Himmat Kumar, puts in: "It was not possible for us to earn much to keep hunger at bay. Now the men folk are either rag pickers, or they paddle bicycles in lanes to collect scrap from households."

In the village during the afternoons, one would see that the place has been inhabited by men only. However, that is not the case. The women, irrespective of age, go out in the morning to work as domestic servants in the upper caste neighboring villages, and return back in the evening only.

Des Raj is the only student in the village who made it to higher secondary. His father died sometime ago and his mother is a mendicant. His sister had to abandon studies while she was in the fifth standard. Today she is 14 and works as a domestic help in a nearby village like other females of her community.

When asked about his future plans, Raj smiled and replied: "I want to go to college and see city life." About career prospects, he keeps mum. However, community leader Dhian Chand is quick to add: "He does not know what he wants to do. He would do whatever job comes across him. He would even sweep floors, provided he gets a permanent job in a government office."

Earlier, the men folk would blow up their daily earnings on hooch. They had only two businesses — either beating up wives and children, or going to sleep after having their fill of alcohol. "Now every one is a follower of the Radha Soami sect. They have said no to alcohol and other bad habits for the past some years," remarked Dhian Chand.

On the flip side, an official in the DC office maintains that the government does not treat them as subjects of J&K as the state enjoys special constitutional status. "They are supposed to have come from Haryana after 1947. So they were not classified as separate community in Census 2001," he said, and added: "Their exact population is not known but they are scattered all over the region and live in clusters called baazigar bastis."

"They are entitled to the basic amenities of life only and have been debarred from enjoying privileges as availed by other disadvantaged sections treated as state subjects by the government," he added.

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