Development, a far cry for Paharias

Expressbuzz, Feb 4, 2010
Uma Shankar Kar

BHAWANIPATNA: The fruits of development are yet to reach the inhabitants of Paharia hamlet in Masigaon village of Kalahandi.


A lesser known minority community of the State, Paharias are mostly found in Nuapada and Kalahandi districts of Orissa and adjoining Chhattisgarh. They usually stay near jungles in small groups, far from the civilisation.

The Paharias lost ST status with the formation of Orissa state in 1936 and are officially declared OBCs. As a result of denial of the ST status, they are deprived of the benefits of various government welfare programmes meant for STs.

Today they are extremely poor and marginalised and lag far behind the STs in Orissa. They are highly illiterate and all the Paharia families are found to be below poverty line. Most of them are landless.

For livelihood, they sell bamboo baskets and depend on forest for collection of minor forest produce.

They are experts in archery and love hunting. While women of the community engage in basketmaking, the men go to jungle for collecting bamboo and other forest produce.

Politically, they are voiceless.

Provision of basic services like education and health are mostly absent or extremely poor in the Masigaon villages. There was only an EGS school of DPEP which functioned for just a few years and was closed down. The Paharia people have a distinct culture which has many common features with other tribal groups.

Gunanidhi Paharia, headman of Masigaon village, lamented that despite the fact that they had submitted applications to get forest lands recorded in their names in 2002, it is yet to materialise. He further alleged that despite having job cards they are not provided with work under NREGS. “Our counterparts in Chhattisgarh district enjoy ST status but we are deprived of basic amenities. Men of the community are subjected to harassment by forest officials when they go to forests to collect bamboo and other products,” he added.