Well begun, half done

Rohit Gupta

Having gone through your blog, I must compliment you on the good work you have done among the community. I agree with your assessment of the problems facing the community and the solutions proposed. In fact, we have been able to make significant inroads in last two-three years. As a first case of its kind in Rajasthan, we have trained 40 kanjars for security guard in police training school in Jhalwar. Some of these security guards have been deployed in local private enterprises, district hospital etc, giving the community much needed entry into mainstream and social recognition. We also recognized that poor education was keeping most of the kanjar youths unemployed. We therefore held three month classes this year in local police thana. 48 kanjar youths have passed class eighth exam as a result this year, some of whom had dropped out of schools 15 years ago. We now are trying to arrange for driving lessons, so that they can obtain the license and get employment as drivers in the local mining industry.

Rohit Gupta, IAS 

District Collector,

Jhalawar, Rajasthan

Task Ahead

Some tribes are `criminal' because a `dated law' defines them to be so, although there might be other groups who may be more consistent in their criminal behaviour. The questions which must be addressed are:

1. Is their a need to redefine their social `identity' to erase the colonial legacy?
2. Are well-entrenched social and administrative prejudices acting as a bottleneck?
3. Can economic development alone prove to be the precursor to their mainstreaming?
4. Are there policy imperatives that can enhance the impact of development engagements?
5. What significant approaches have been adopted elsewhere in the work with criminal tribes?
6. Should not the legislation be revisited in light of the changing situation?

Could certain communities be allowed to live with a social stigma, generation after generation, in an independent country? Could there right for dignified existence not be restored?

A New Beginning

As it moves into its second phase, and an ambitious one, the focus of the Kanjar Project would shift to the following:

1. Grouping and Networking: Kanjar need to be grouped together as a `community' by forging alliances between desparate groups (dera) Each of such groups need to network between themselves to share common lineage and concerns.

2. Lobbying and Advocacy: Organising the kanjar into groups and mobilising them to stake their rightful existence is critical. The community ought to exert its stakes into `welfare programs' of the state by demanding a `Kanjar Development Fund'.

3. Reforming and Recognising: The legal provisions that have continued to stigmatise the community would need to reformed such that the kanjar get rightful recognition as a society.

Under each of these categories, a set of actions with a timeline would need to be developed to make a lasting impact on the lives of the kanjars. De-stigmatisation and search for alternate livelihoods options would ned to be concurrently pursued to uplift the community from the current abyss.

Kanjar Girl Rescued

For 16-year-old Jayanti, a girl from Kanjar tribe of Bhilwara, life has been a nightmare after she was allegedly sold to traffickers by her family and thereafter she was taken to a brothel in Nagpur.

After four months in Nagpur, she has been rescued by joint team of Rajasthan and Maharashtra police and is at present lodged in a reform centre. Nagpur police is investigating the case and she would be allowed to leave for Bhilwara only after a court order.

According to the police, father of the girl and a resident of Hanuman Nagar area in Bhilwara, Laxman Kanjar allegedly sold his daughter to Ishari Dhanawat and Jagmohan Chari for around Rs 5 lakh in front of few villagers. Dhanawat is learnt to have offered Rs 2.50 lakh as an advance to Kanjar nearly four months ago....more

The Times of India, Feb 11, 2010

First Year Lesson

In the year that has gone by (till Nov 2010), diversity of activities were conducted to not only understand the socio-cultural profile of kanjar but to test the impact of the interventions on the life and livelihoods of the stigmatized community in Jhalawar. The activities could be grouped under the following:

Social - group formation, constituting dera committee, children education

Technical - provision of drinking water, well deepening, goatry development, distribution of quality seeds and provision of fish nets

Capacity Building - exposure visits, skill training (electrical, mechanical and carpentary training and a stitching centre.

Needless to say, all the activities listed above could tinker the livelihoods of the kanjar at the periphery without making significant impact on uplifting their social status. However, it has helped build a positive rapport with the marginalised community that can help move to the next stage of engagement with them. The essential lessons emerging from the yearlong engagement have been:

1. The need for a programmatic approach to kanjar livelihoods improvement through convergence of existing welfare programs/schemes into a `Kanjar Development Fund' at the State and at the District level.

2. Need to sensitize the police force and the district administrative machinery to show greater empathy towards the tribe. Sustained interaction with the community is critical for building confidence towards the law enforcement agencies.

3. Review of the Habitual Offenders Act and its implications. A policy dialogue on the subject for amending the act, that may have outlived its relevance, can play an important role in mainstreaming the community.

With the Government of Rajasthan having shown sustained interest and commitment towards the initiative, a second phase of the Kanjar Livelihood Improvement Project is being designed to address the essential lessons of the pilot initiative. The Rajasthan Mission on Skill and Livelihoods (RMoL) has been supportive towards developing a long-term proposal (beginning Jan 2011) for Kanjar Upliftment.

Investing in Future

Jhalawar, July 2010 Going by the time-tested principle which states that `educate mankind if you are planning for hundred years', 25 children of Kanjar families from the Gangdhar block of district Jhalawar were sent to Government-run Boarding School in Mandana in adjoining Kota district. Though some 70 children were examined for their capacity to read and write, only 32 were found eligible to join the classes(Picture shows children leaving for the Boarding School in a bus from the District Secretariat, Jhalawar).

In the presence of several district officials and the project staff, the District Collector presented hostel-related material to each of the selected children. It was further stressed that the families of the selected children will receive support under various government schemes on a priority basis. The District Police Chief commented that education can play an important role in bringing stigmaised section of the society into the mainstream.

It has long been perceived that while the `kanjar' households need specific livelihood interventions to wean them away from criminal activities, the children may need to be segregated from the households to lead a decent life through education and better health care. Till all children are enrolled into boarding school, the task may remain far from finished.

Tanks of collective action

Titarwasa, June 5, 2010: Two of the eight Kanjar hamlets, Narayanpur and Titarwasa, in Patan block have now got 2,000 litres capacity water tank each to augment water supply for household purposes. The tanks are filled with water pumped from wells owned by individuals in each of the hamlets. The tanks are a spinoff effect of well deepening work undertaken by the project in these hamlets. While the deepened well in Titarwasa is owned by an individual, the one in Narayanpur is a community well.

Since handpumps in both the localities have failed to meet the growing demand, the need for tapping additional sources of water supply have been felt for a while. A resolution submitted to the district administration for providing a water pipeline from nearby overhead tank has been pending for consideration. However, the collective actions by the households in each of the kanjar hamlets has eased the situation for now. A monthly fee of between Rs 10 and Rs 15 for each of the households is indeed a bargain for the convenience it offers at the doorsteps.
How indeed the water sharing system gets managed and the source gets protected for sustained supply would need to be closely monitored over time? Of additional interest would be the comparison between individual ownership and community-owned water source. Without doubt, these are early days and there is great enthusiasm amongst 83 households in both the hamlets over the success of their collective action.