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Stories from the Field

OUR CHILDREN ARE BEATEN JUST FOR WANTING TO GO TO SCHOOL

A heart touching reality from the Pardhi Community

A boy who fights lymphoma

Story of Sonarika

Shelter Homes for Girls in Delhi

A Support Room in Every Slum

An inquiry into the root of the tribal deprivation

A heart touching reality from the Pardhi Community (*snippets from original article)

We, the Pardhi, assert our identity with pride and continue to fight for our dignity and rights.

From as early as three years old, our lives have been marked by fear and discrimination. Whether at school, in the market, or even at home, we faced violence and abuse simply for being Pardhi. The police regularly raided our neighborhoods without reason, often resulting in tragic losses of friends and family.

Our traditional hunting skills, once respected and vital, have been criminalized, leaving us struggling for survival. We were branded as criminals by the Criminal Tribes Act, alongside other communities like the Kanjars and Sansis, leading to systemic abuse and economic deprivation.

In Rajasthan, a 15-year-old Pardhi girl was taken into custody on the false allegation of stealing a mobile phone. When her pregnant mother Soyna went to the police station to request her release, she was detained and beaten, hung on to the fan by the police, while pregnant, leading to her death. Her daughter, falsely accused of theft, was detained and traumatized.

This systematic hatred has caused us to face relentless violence and discrimination. Police raids, unjust detentions, and extortion is routine. In one incident, a seven-year-old girl, Rihana, was killed by bricks thrown at her while she ate breakfast by the roadside. The police response was indifference, questioning why she was waste-picking instead of investigating her murder.

We, the denotified tribes (DNTs), are unprotected by legal mechanisms available to other marginalized communities. Despite clear evidence of our tribal traits, political will to recognize us as Scheduled Tribes is absent. Our leaders are courted for votes but ignored when it comes to our rights and recognition.

Systemic bias ensures Pardhi men are constantly under threat of arrest, often without cause. Instances of wrongful detention and torture are rampant. In one case, five men from the Wadar community spent years on death row for crimes they didn’t commit, only to be acquitted after a prolonged legal battle. Our women are not allowed in the weekly markets. As children, we were always targeted. We were forced to give up our seats on buses, and school principals called the police when our parents tried to enroll us. This happened again when community members demanded respect for their children in another school. We couldn’t understand if it was our language, clothes, or traditional neckwear that singled us out.

In March 2020, a group of women and children from the Kanjar community ventured to a Holi fair in Berasia town, hoping their numbers would protect them. Instead, the local police detained all 70 of them overnight in a government building, releasing them only after extorting money.

Our struggles are compounded by society’s deep-rooted prejudices, which view us as inherently criminal. This bias fuels police brutality and societal violence against us. The colonial-era Criminal Tribes Act of 1871 entrenched these prejudices, branding us as hereditary criminals—a stigma that persists even after the act’s repeal.

Today, our lives are defined by constant survival against systemic oppression. We face violence, extortion, and displacement from our lands and livelihoods. Despite these challenges, we resist.
We dream of a day when we are recognized as equal citizens, free from violence and discrimination, and our truth is acknowledged and respected.

An inquiry into the root of the tribal deprivation

CTA was enacted in 1871 and it bracketed the tribal communities as ‘Born Criminals’. Under this act the communities who used to live a nomadic lifestyle were restricted, and their movement constantly monitored. Moreover their traditional means of livelihoods were snatched and the communities were put into detention centers-like settlements where they were economically exploited and restricted from all sorts of movement.

They were forced to adapt ‘settled’ way of living, and pushed away from forest resources which were their livelihood. Currently they either reside in their villages and earn through agricultural labor or have settled in bastis of cities with almost no realization of welfare mechanisms that ensure upward socio-economic mobility. Because of their nomadic lifestyle, the issue of documents and entitlements which are of utmost important, stand in a way as a big hurdle. Most community members lack important documents like Aadhar card, Ration card, Ayushman card, Birth certificate, Death certificate, Caste certificate, etc. that facilitate basic survival like food and nutrition through government schemes, schooling and education, healthcare, pension, financial relief, etc. And in case they do have these documents, in most cases they have errors in them. Systems to rectify these errors aren’t easily accessible. This lead to further deprivation. How can a child get admission in a school without a birth certificate or Aadhar card?

It was also realized that there are several reasons for the very frequent drop-outs of children. The community survives amidst the severe realities at their home (institutional violence, discrimination at school, workplace, lack of livelihood opportunities, police brutality etc.) that pushes children to go and collect scrap so that they too can contribute to the income of their family. Daily exploitation by the authorities and the mainstream creates an environment of trauma in these bastis. Because of this institutionalized trauma accompanied by the extremely deprived living conditions, mental health often takes a toll and the suicidal tendencies are seen to be noticeably high.

In several of these communities and more so among the De-notified tribes who carry a stigma of criminality, one can evidently sense extreme vulnerability. There have been several instances of people taking their own lives and almost everyone has been through suicide ideation. This includes everyone irrespective of age (sample size between 10-70 years) and gender.

Notice that in our daily language chamar, bhangi, kanjar are termed as abuses. Guess what, these are the names of these indigenous denotified tribes, which by the way have the original Indian genetic pool, with very less variation. So its ironic how they have been the oldest inhabitants of this land but the most vulnerable, deprived and exploited.

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An inquiry into the root of the tribal deprivation

* The images shown in thumbnails above are for illustrative purposes.

A heart touching reality from the Pardhi Community (*snippets from original article)

A boy who fights lymphoma

A story of Sonarika

Shelter Homes for Girls - Delhi

A Support Room in Every Slum

An inquiry into the root of the tribal deprivation