KENDRAPARA: In today’s world when all types of crimes take place in broad daylight, Sialia is a rare exception of simple living and mutual trust turning the village into a Utopian world.
The villagers, where houses have neither doors nor locks, now befittingly has its anganwadi centre and primary school with no locks and doors! Bowing to the villagers’ religious sentiments, the school and the centre were designed without doors.
Sialia has a population of 1200. The people fix only door frames, but no doors to their homes and their safety lockers are a namesake as these too have locks. Their unflinching faith that village deity Maa Kharakhai guards the village gives them the courage to live in door-less homes. Fearing the Goddess’s wrath are the thieves too who never dared to enter any house.
“There is no lock on the anganwadi centre’s main entrance even as rice, dal, medicines, baby food and other important things are stocked,” said Gita Sahoo, an anganwadi worker of the village.
Absence of doors comes with disadvantages too. Cats and dogs stray into the houses and even cows and buffaloes get a free entry. Occasionally, a small sheet of tin is positioned across the entrance to prevent bigger animals from entering the houses, said a villager, Banshidhar Sethi.