3Ms herald prosperity in troubled Bastar

The Bastar region in Chhattisgarh has been home to some of the most “typical” tribal communities, difficult-to-reach places and wondrous forests. Abujhmad is the mysterious fortress of Naxal forces. This plateau lies in the Narayanpur and Bijapur districts that were carved out of the old Bastar district in 2007. 

I had an occasion to visit Bastar areas in Kanker, (the new and smaller) Bastar, Kondagaon and Naraynpur districts a few times earlier too. I also visited Abujhmad once. I distinctly remember that in my last visit in 2012 to Bhanupratappur, Antagarh, Narayanpur and Orchha, I was deeply impressed with the atmosphere of an utterly disquieting and eerie peace with a strong undercurrent of fear that pervaded the region. 

For long stretches of the roads connecting these towns, I saw no vehicle. The only human beings I saw on the connecting roads then were gun-toting security personnel patrolling the roads. I was warned about the need for adopting an “appropriate behaviour” if strangers interacted with me, as some of them could be Naxal cadres. My recent visit was very different and quite cheerful.

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The Madia Gonds of Bastar

The Madia Gond tribes of these districts of Bastar division live in resource abundance. These districts are sparsely populated – the population density being 100 to 150 persons per square kilometre. The Gonds are more numerous in the region compared to some Other Backward Communities (OBCs) living here. 

The Madia Gonds appear very close to the classical “immediate return system” mode of life described by anthropologist Georg Pfeffer. Nature is abundant and able to meet most of the tribes’ needs as and when they arise, so they have not internalised the more “peasant-like” habits of systematic planning for crops or other economic activities. 

Collection economy used to be prevalent earlier. My interaction with a few villagers revealed that it still contributes about 40 percent of their simple livelihood needs. The road network within the region was terrible for a long time and improved only in the recent years, except perhaps in Abujhmad, the supposed “core” of Bastar. 

Popular narrative suggests that the villagers’ simplicity has been exploited by rapacious, crafty traders and insensitive officers of the forest and revenue departments. The remoteness of their habitat, poor infrastructure, presence of deep jungles and less than fair attention to their needs had made them cannon fodder for the Naxal forces who established their dominion over Bastar. This in turn discouraged any private investment and commerce. 

Towards a paradigm shift? 

A series of changes are being made towards improving livelihoods and wellbeing in the region for the last five years or so. Easy food delivery under the public distribution system (PDS) has been becoming progressively more effective in obviating hunger. People in most districts now have wage employment under the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS), in addition to proper and prompt payment made to them through direct benefit transfer (DBT). 

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While the central government has given guarantee for 100 days of work, the state government has added 50 days of its own. Further, families which have been given land on individual forest right (IFR) are given additional 50 days. I met several families which claimed that they had worked for over 120 days and received the due payments through DBT.  

During the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequently until now, free grain supply has been going on. Banking correspondents called bank sakhis have helped households get cash from their accounts so that they can manage their expenses. 

The state government has announced a minimum support price (MSP) for 51 non-timber forest produce (NTFP) and is actively engaged in collection of tendu leaves and sarai seeds. Income from NTFP – tendu leaves, mahua flowers and seeds, tamarind, char and raw mango in particular – among families in Bastar tends to be quite sizeable, often in the range of Rs 30,000-40,000 a year. 

Thus, through the MGNREGS work, NTFP income and subsidised food supply, the survival needs of the tribal communities are reasonably addressed. While in theory this could have happened earlier, the responsiveness and fidelity of the governance mechanism appears to have become more reliable of late. 

A slow shift for the better

The result is remarkable. I travelled through the area again in March 2023. The contrast was dramatic. While there still is a mention of the occasional outburst of Naxal violence, one now sees “near-normal” traffic on these roads. 

I witnessed the usual rural scenes of groups of girls going to or returning from schools on bicycles or on foot. The urban commerce and activities and commercial prosperity in the towns makes you think that these townships are in any other “normal” place and not in a violently contested terrain.     

What really surprised me was the sight of a very “modern” looking plot of land in Kange village of Kondagaon. This measured half an acre. Plastic mulch covered about 30 furrows. There were trellises standing on the farm and I was told that they supported tomato plants. 

Frankly, nothing especially innovative here. I have seen this at many places, most recently in another tribal pocket in Umarpada block of Gujarat. What surprised me was this effort to demonstrate, encourage and enable tribes living in the “immediate return system” to adopt what is currently considered nearly the top of the line in profitable farming for poor farmers. Agreed that this was only one plot and the rest of the villagers continued to talk about pretty low yields of paddy and dependence on collecting mahua, etc, but a beginning has been made.

Green revolution through 3Ms

I also learnt of the government schemes in which tribal families are being coached and enabled to grow nutritious vegetables in the homesteads. A large number of moringa trees are being planted, including some in the remotest districts of Bastar division of the state. The Chhattisgarh government also announced a mission to introduce millets back in this region to break mono cropping of paddy and ensure nutritional diversity in the food habits of the tribes. 

The collaborative efforts of the state with credible NGOs are making a considerable difference in bringing prosperity on the back of millets, which is fashionable now among the diet conscious super-rich!  The increase of millet seed demand, cultivation of millets and opening of millet cafes in cities in the state are all signs of this positive shift.

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I also saw that MGNREGS is being used to create farm ponds to harvest water. This water can be used to provide lifesaving irrigation to paddy or to grow vegetables. The efforts to help tribal farmers make the huge shift from traditional agriculture to something that more closely approaches how their brother farmers live elsewhere are very visible. 

All these changes are occurring with functional and fruitful collaboration between the state machinery and a number of dedicated NGOs whom I visited.

“I hope to see a green revolution through these 3Ms – millets, MGNREGS and moringa – in the life of tribes in this so-called red corridor,” said Kuntal Mukherjee, an experienced development professional who has engaged with tribes here for over a decade.

I do not assert that all the factors that led to the strong domination of the Naxals have been controlled. I have observed that salutary changes are occurring in the way the government and peace-loving entities (NGOs like PRADAN, etc) are engaging with the tribes. 

Their actions are much broader and meaningful than playing a mere “steam valve” role. This role was assigned to civil society organisation (CSOs) earlier to reduce the intense alienation of the tribes which was considered the “root cause of Naxalism”. Whether these and similar changes herald a peaceful, non-violent end to Naxal violence in Bastar remains to be seen. 

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The lead image at the top  shows tribal women in Sambalpur digging pits to make trellises in their fields (Photo courtesy PRADAN) 

Sanjiv Phansalkar is the director of VikasAnvesh Foundation, Pune. He was earlier a faculty member at the Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA). Phansalkar is a fellow of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad.