CHENNAI: A ccording to World Bank estimates, India is one of the highest ranking countries with children suffering from malnutrition. To restart a long-pending discourse on acute malnutrition and poverty within the tribal regions, the activist collective Ek Potlee Ret Ki will be screening the documentary film, Life and Freedom, directed by filmmaker Anurag Singh, today in the city today.
“Madhya Pradesh has the worst rate of malnutrition in India,” says Anurag. “I wanted to compare two primitive societies from the state — the Sahariyas and the Baigas — and depict how their situation differs with respect to access to the forest and natural resources, which is an important part of their living conditions.”
Life and Freedom juxtaposes the struggle of the Sahariyas of the Chambal Valley of Madhya Pradesh, who were internally displaced from their lands and forests and are in a state of poverty, as opposed to the Baigas in the south, who primarily live in the forest, and through mobilisation have managed to retain the rights to their forests. “While the Sahariyas were forced out of their village by development programmes of the government, it’s merely a stroke of luck that the Baigas’ lands have not been encroached,” explains Anurag.
The film depicts the stark situation of the Sahariyas, whose living conditions exacerbate the malnutrition levels among the tribe’s children. It also explores the flaws in government mechanisms such as the anganwadis that deliver low-calorie food, the Public Distribution System, through which the villagers get only 10% of the grain, and also the lack of diverse foods rich in proteins, fibre and calories. This is in contrast to the Baigas, who are shown to depend on natural produce from the forest.
Anurag (a native of Madhya Pradesh) has long been associated with groups working in the region, having worked on films such as Manibeli (1992), his first film, on the people’s struggle in a village submerged by the Sardar Sarovar Dam, Kaise Jeebo Re (1997), on the protest against the Narmada dam, and Right to Information (2000). He has also worked closely with the Narmada Bachao Andolan, Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha and Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan.
He believes that even after the film was released in 2014, it did not have the intended effect. “As filmmakers, we did the best we could to portray the conditions and levels of malnutrition in the state. However, since promotion and distribution of a film also affected its reach, we failed miserably in that regard,” says Anurag.
The screening is part of the Ek Potlee Ret’s Parallel Realities series, a multilateral discourse on malnutrition triggered by induced poverty. “There is an organisation called Vikas Samvaad that works at the grassroots level. It’s imperative that there is a discussion on the issue and more people realise the gravity of malnutrition,” avers Anurag.
‘Life and Freedom’ will be screened at the Roja Muthiah Research Library, Taramani, at 5.30 pm today, followed by a discussion with Anurag Singh