

Kantabai Dhude, 56, of Chandwad tehsil’s Kundanasheri village in Nashik had reached the premises of Mahamarg bus stand at around 2 pm. She was accompanied by her husband and several other villagers. Dhude is a labourer and earns Rs 150 per day. “I work in the farms of other people, but this work is available only for six months. For the remainder of the period, we don’t have any work to survive on in our village. In the summer season, there are days when we have to sleep empty stomach. But what to do, we are helpless as we don’t have any other source of income,” the 56-year-old told Newslaundry.

Kantabai who is a tribal from Mahadeo Koli community has been fighting to get land under the Forest Rights Act, 2006, for the last 8 years. She said, “We are tribals and have been living in our area since the last fifty years. Still, we haven’t been allowed land under the Act. Most of the tribal men and women in our village work as labourers. However, women are paid less than men. Men are paid Rs 200 per day whereas women are paid Rs 150 a day.”



There are several other problems, she says. “There is a huge scarcity of water in our area. We bathe once in two days or else we will not have sufficient water to drink. The government has provided us gas but they have stopped distributing kerosene oil. The problem is that we don’t have electricity in our village and we require kerosene oil to light lamps in our homes. Unavailability of kerosene has become a huge problem, it is very difficult to cook food in the dark.”

As per government rules, Kantabai said, they are supposed to get ration—8 kg rice and 10 kg wheat—once a month, but many times their share is denied if thumbprints don’t match in the biometric machines at ration shops. “Situation really becomes grave sometimes,” she says.

72-year-old Hiraman Dhude was one of the early arrivers. He has come from Dindori Tehsil’s Sawarpada village in Nashik. He was sitting there with a few of his fellow tribal farmers. He told Newslaundry, “I have been working as a labourer since I was 10 years old. I have spent my whole life in poverty. With the implementation of the Forest Rights Act, I thought things would change for tribals like me. But nothing has happened. I am still struggling to get a piece of land.” Dhude was part of last year’s march as well. “The government promised to meet our demands but they didn’t. So we are here again to take part in the protest,” he says.

Maruti Pimpare, 71, is short and frail looking. He has the flag of All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) on his shoulder and can be seen roaming around the premises of Mahamarg bus stand. Pimpare, who hails from Pangarashinde village of Hingoli district in Marathwada, says, “I have been cultivating 20 gunthas (around 20,000 square feet or half an acre) of land for more than four decades now. In 1983, two cases were registered against me for cultivating that piece of land by the forest department. I was booked for cutting trees and was incarcerated for a period of one month. But I continued cultivating the land even after coming out of jail because my parents had been living there for about 40 years. But now I have rented that land to my cousin brother for Rs 1,000 a year because I don’t have any money to continue farming. Marathwada has been facing drought for more than five years so there is no chance that poor people like me can continue as farmers. To earn my livelihood, I work as a guard. I look after people’s farm and cattle for Rs 100.”