UTTAR PRADESH: Jangal Tinkonia stands some 90 km away from Gorakhpur in a forest. Reaching it by road used to take long hours a few years back, but that has changed lately. And Kalawati, 38, has reasons to smile.
This is an area populated by Vantangiya’s-Kalawati’s tribe, which was re-settled by the British from Myanmar to inhabit the forest tracts and help in afforestation for cheap supply of wood. Settled on the peripheries of civilization, in forests, they had little or no interaction with townsmen or officials since independence. In early 2017, when Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath called his officers and quizzed them about Vantangiya’s, none of them had a clue of what he was calling for. The CM just smiled.
Secret behind change
That the Vantangiya project was a priority became clear when the CM let out his secret that he had been spending Diwali with the Vantangiyas at Tinkonia number 3 since 2007 without a miss. Even now, while helming the state, he takes time out to spend Diwali evenings with tribal children.Adityanath had long vowed the Vantangiyas would be mainstreamed. Their villages, off the revenue map, had made for a deprived existence with no government agencies or welfare projects to support them.
Their villages, spread over Gorakhpur, Gonda and Maharajganj districts, would become revenue villages directed the CM. Thus began a positive initiative which is now pulling back thousands of people lost to society and giving them a life of dignity. The CM declared that the Vantangiyas of Tinkonia number 3, Jungle Ramgarh, Aambagh, Rajhi Tola, Chilbilwa, Ramgarh Sarkar and Azadnagara area in Gorakhpur, who had been deprived of roads, potable water, healthcare, livelihood opportunities, BPL cards, employment guarantee projects, education, electricity connections, pensions, loans and permanent housing-even voting rights-would get them all.
The idea took concrete shape in 2017 with 23 Vantangiya settlements being accorded status of revenue villages, followed by ‘recognition’ to another 47. Working on a gleaming leaf pressing machine, Kalawati is happy. “Maharaj Ji (CM) changed our life. We were trained on this machine. Now we collect leaves, from the forests, as earlier, but press them into plates for sale. We now have money to buy food,” she says. Subhawati, 44, learnt to make pickles from vegetables the Vantangiyas cultivate and villagewomen now make good money from their sale.
Welfare brings sea change
Without revenue village status, the community had faced problems as they were no more allowed to collect forest produce like fruits, honey, wax, wood and leaves to survive. “There has been a sea-change now. With the revenue village status bestowed, welfare projects have been launched, and work is on to formalise the Vantangiya villages in Bahraich and Lakhimpur Kheri,” said a government official.