Sahariyas: Not afraid, not hungry
Freshly showered and hair neatly oiled, ten-year-old Uttam Sahariya is keen to set off for school in Shankargarh village of Shivpuri district in Madhya Pradesh, a large state in the geographic heart of India. Outside his small mud home, he joins other youngsters looking smart in their white and maroon uniforms.
Uttam's eagerness for school was not always there. He and his friends are the first generation Sahariyas to go to school. Like other primitive tribes in India, Sahariyas are characterised by stagnant populations, remote abodes, few economic opportunities and low levels of literacy.
"Earlier we didn't get food at school, so I didn't feel like going there. Now I go everyday," says Uttam.
India has some of the worst indicators of child welfare in the world. Almost 50% of all Indian children are underfed. Midday meals were introduced after a nation-wide campaign so that schools could retain students, rather than lose them to hunger and wage earning.
The Supreme Court order on midday meals was passed in 2001. They reached Shankargarh village school in 2004 and the number of Sahariya children attending classes increased from 61 to 75 as a result.
"We get brinjal with tomatoes, cabbage, moong dal, arhar dal, tur dal , chapattis and sometimes rice as midday meal at school. I like to eat everything. But it would be nice to have rice more often and may be even kadhi (a curd and gram flour dish) sometimes," says Uttam revealing his favourite foods.
Right to food
The landmark Supreme Court ruling that made midday meals mandatory in government-run primary schools was one of the first achievements of India's right to food campaign. This momentous movement began when a group of lawyers, economists, ex-civil servants, academics and grassroots organisations got together in 2001 with the belief that everyone has a right to be free from hunger.
ActionAid through local partner NGOs extended its support by conducting surveys across seven states locating cases of hunger and malnutrition. This led to filing of 1500 testimonies of hungry persons in the form of affidavits in the Supreme Court.
The Rajasthan-based People's Union for Civil Liberties submitted a written petition to the apex court, demanding that the country's mammoth food stocks be used straight away to save people from hunger. As a result, the Supreme Court has issued interim orders at crucial moments to address problems of food security among the most disadvantaged communities such as the Sahariyas.
Manav Adhikar Forum (Human Rights Forum), a network of five organisations including ActionAid and Centre for Integrated Development (CID) was set up in 2003 to raise awareness among Sahariyas about their rights and legal entitlements.
Challenges ahead
"Don't ask us about the past," is a common refrain in Gopalpura, Shankargarh and Gugvaara, the three Sahariya villages we visited.
Shankargarh houses sixty Sahariya families. Spread over eleven districts in neighbouring states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, this nearly 700,000-strong community has seen abject poverty, exploitation and starvation for generations.
There are still many more hurdles. There are still reasons for not sending children to school all through the year – whole families migrate during the harvest season to work as hired help on farmlands of higher caste landowners in other districts.
The government's National Rural Employment Guarantee Act of 2005 (NREGA) offers landless labourers 100 days of work, mostly labour work – digging ponds, breaking stones, constructing roads.
"Most Sahariyas are anaemic. Many are even malnourished. They don't have the money to buy iron-rich vegetables and fruits. They don't have the stamina to do this kind of hard manual labour but without fertile land to their names they have no option. Does the government's job end at NREGA? Our finance minister in Budget 2007 announced that only 25% of funds allocated for NREGA were used in 2006. Why?" asks Umesh Vashist, a social worker with CID.
Collective strength and knowledge have earned the Sahariyas freedom from hunger. With support from organisations like ActionAid and CID, they are constantly striving to make their situation still less precarious. They know first hand that right to food can only be ensured by sustainable livelihood.
