Kanjar Care

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

The debt trap

The baseline survey in kanjar villages (hamlets) of Patan and Gangdhar block in Jhalawar district is now complete. The data reveals a grim situation: 690 households in 18 villages are reeling under a cumulative debt of over Rs 2.5 crore. Even after assigning a correction factor to the data, assuming a high figure gets quoted by respondants for a possible debt relief, the situation with respect to income versus debt remains skewed. The average income:debt ratio in 8 villages of Gangdhar block is 1: 3.3 whereas the ratio is 1: 1.5 in 10 villages of Patan block. For a tribe that is culturally isolated, socially insecure and resource poor, getting out of debt trap is critical for the kanjar to join the mainstream.

The death ritual, called mauser, wherein each household has to make cash contribution is the prime reason for debt accumulation. Another reason for higher debt, in villages of Gangdhar block, has to do with the legal litigation expenses. Since average monthly incomes range from Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500, repayment rate fails to keep pace with the rate of debt accumulation. The challenge before the project team is to tweak avoidable rituals through behavioural change process as also to develop a financial statement of income-expenditure for selected households for getting a sense of their survival economics. Improving their resource base and developing livelihoods options is crucial to improve their incomes. Enhancing their incomes 3 to 4 fold over the present seems a formidable challenge?

Innovative Initiative: To match a `thief'

WWF and the Madhya Pradesh forest department have embarked on a unique initiative to gentrify the `criminal' Pardhi tribe and stop large-scale tiger poaching. The project has two linked objectives - one, persuading the adults to change their ways and two, giving the community's children a shot at education and a subsequent normal life. Called `residential bridge course', the Pardhi children spend none months away from their families in such `borading schools' before crossing over to conventional schools. By now, nearly 250 children have gone through the bridge course in the last three years.

"Dissuading children who accompany their parents on dangerous hunts for wild boars, leopards and tigers haven't been easy,'' says S S Rajput, Chief Conservator of Forests, Bhopal. The challenge is to show Pardhi tribe that it is profitable to protect wildlife than poach it. The need is to co-opt them in the Indian state rather than fight them. . . .more

The Initiative

Started in Nov 2009, rehabilitating the Kanjar in Jhalawar district of Rajasthan is a joint initiative of IFFDC (http://www.iffdc.org.in) and Rajasthan Mission on Skills & Livelihoods (www.rajasthanlivelihoods.org) with support from UNDP. The project aims to not only develop a comprehensive understanding of the tribe's past but relate to it in devising inclusive livelihoods options for the stigmatised community. The specific objectives of the initiative are:

1. to sensitize and mobilize Kanjar families towards improvement in their living standards.

2. to strengthen the linkages of community groups with other agencies to improve their access to productive resources in Jhalarapatan and Gangdhar blocks of Jhalawar district.

3. to respond to contemporary poverty related issues, including health and primary education, of women and children.

4. to enhance state-civil society-community partnership towards policy advocacy.

Plotting Kundli as an idea to understand social dynamics

Kanjar offer a formidable challenge in ameliorating their plight. There are wide array of inter-related issues that impact their lives - from cultural isolation to social stigma, from resource poverty to low incomes and from official apathy to economic exclusion. Understanding inter-relationships between issues and the manner in which these influence an `intervention' is critical to designing livelihoods programs for them. `Kundli chart' as a `concept' is being piloted to understand how each of the variables impact the outcome and to get a sense of the combination of factors that need to be tweaked to create a tangible impact.

The `co-production' idea

Speaking of the Bhils, the Pindaris and the Thugs, Gandhiji had said: `...all are our own countrymen. To win them over is your and my work. So long as we fear our own brethern, we are unfit to reach the goal.'

In response to Gandhiji's remark, the idea of Co-production is being mooted to bring Kanjar into the mainstream. Co-production is a concept that gives responsibility to people who are regarded as `the problem', and makes them feel useful when they had been condemned as useless - and by so doing transforms their lives. It is not same as `participation' because co-production means `reciprocity'. The point is that practically everybody does have something to give and both they, and the community around them, are better for the giving.