BIJEPUR : Imagine, the food grain stock in your house is about to exhaust in a couple of days. You will either have to starve or seek alms. Does that sound bizarre? Well, that's exactly how life is for the marginal farmers or agricultural labourers in the rainfed areas of Western Odisha. For them, abject poverty is a constant reality. Despite numerous government welfare schemes being rolled out, many of them are deprived of their benefits. Moreover, a sense of dignity holds them back from seeking benefits under the BPL schemes. The small and marginal farmers are mostly illiterate. They consider poverty as something below their dignity. If they are offered some facility, either they happily accept it or in most cases silently suffer without cribbing. On rare occasions, they make an effort to seek their BPL rights.
In such a scenario, they have turned to alternative means to survive in the face of struggle. And, what are these means? You can figure out these survival strategies on a road trip to these pockets.
As vehicles race past, the travellers often come across paddy stalks scattered on the roads. While its sight gets erased from memory of the passerby, the paddy stalks portray the poor rural economy, comprising small and marginal farmers, who struggle for each grain of rice. Unable to afford machines or tractors, these farmers rely on vehicles to thresh the ripened paddy, scattered on the road. This crop assures them not only of immediate food, but also ensures food security for months to come.
It is no secret that many genuinely economically backward farmers have been denied enrolment under BPL category, the tag that provides food security. Most of the farmers of Balanda village, a rainfed pocket located along Bijepur-Gaiselet road, are small and marginal ones. A woman farmer like Surubali Dansena of this village either migrate with their families to other villages in search of livelihood or depend on small land holdings they own to cultivate paddy. Deprived of irrigation, they till their lands during the first shower. During the next few showers, they sow low-yielding paddy for a shorter duration. This poor quality traditional paddy seeds are locally known as ‘Khardi Buna.’ For them, winter is the best period for harvesting crop. The period between July and October is the worst phase as they pump in all their resources into paddy cultivation and wait with a bated breath, praying for a good yield. As soon as the paddy on first patch of land turns ripe, they harvest it and scatter it on the road for threshing.
Forget tractors, they don't even have the time to wait for bullocks to run over the crop and thresh it. With dwindling rice stock in their homes, they cannot afford to waste time. Such is the urgency that they can't let the paddy go through the complete process to get grains that are actually fit for human consumption. The stunted and broken grains, processed out of low-quality paddy, is good enough to satisfy their hunger. Soon after threshing by moving vehicles is complete, they collect and pound the grains at home using traditional pounder called ‘Dhenki.’
They avoid borrowing rice from bigger farmers or the land owners. Not just that, for one bag of borrowed paddy, they are often asked to return half a bag extra to the lender, making things worse for them.
Although, the scene is changing ever since introduction of BPL, its implementation is yet to be completed and it becomes evident in backward areas of drought-prone pockets in Western Odisha, including Balanda village.