MBBCDS: Working with ‘India’s forgotten people’
We received the following message from our partner MBBCDS in West Bengal (which we have translated to English):
“MBBCDS in Birbhum district, West Bengal, has been sending food and essential supplies to some remote border villages in the state of Jharkhand. These villages resemble ‘no peoples land’ with hot dusty winds blowing over vast dry lands. The inhabitants of these villages are Adivasis – their houses never have enough food and never did, even when the lockdown had not started. The lockdown intensifies the dire straits even further. The Adivasis will never seek help – even if they don’t have food. They will simply languish and die – no one will ever come to enquire about them. They are truly India’s ‘forgotten’ people.
MBBCDS has been working with the youth in this and other similar villages – Kanchannagar, Bahdohri, Sayer Padh, Shaopara. The last few years have seen several incidents of violence among the youth who are driven by misguided patriotism. MBBCDS has been setting up schools named after the founding people of India, to remind the youth and everyone how great our nation was!
In these villages the elderly people are mostly weak and sick – suffering from years of hunger and physical labor. It will be days before any kind of government relief /ration reaches these people. The ration from the government had not reached them even today – 16 days into the lockdown. The volunteers of MBBCDS are getting essential food supplies to their houses so that they don’t die of starvation and hunger.”
