Bengal’s tribal belt sees rise of a new outfit as absence of MGNREGA, jobs adds to woes

Near a memorial to Umakanta Mahato in Birihanri village in Jhargram district in West Bengal, a group of farm workers are sitting in blazing sun. Umakanta was a Maoist leader shot dead by security forces in 2010.

“Maoists are gone, then came the TMC, and then the BJP from this region. Maoists got jobs (following their surrender) and the kin of those they killed also got jobs. But little changed for us. Now 100-day work (under MGNREGA) is also stopped for more than two years. The situation has gone from bad to worse,” says Sukamar Mahato, a 47-year-old worker belonging to the Kudmi (Scheduled Caste) community.

Travel through the tribal-dominated Jangalmahal region in South Bengal – which witnessed Maoist insurgency in 2009-11 – shows that employment and water scarcity remain major concerns for its inhabitants, including tribals and other sections like Kudmis.

The Jangalmahal region comprises four Lok Sabha constituencies – Jhargram (ST-reserved), Bankura, Purulia and Bishnupur (SC-reserved) – which are going to polls on May 25.

In the Jhargram, Bankura and Purulia seats, tribals make up about 15%, 11% and 18% of the voters respectively, with Kudmis accounting for nearly 35%, 35% and 10%.

In 2019, the BJP had won all the four seats.

This time, in a bid to emerge as a political player in the region, the Kudmi community has fielded its candidates from the Jhargram, Bankura and Purulia seats as Independents under the aegis of the Adivasi Kudmi Samaj (AKS) — hoping for a fillip to their demand for ST status.

“Free ration and little money from Lakshmir Bhandar (state government’s monthly dole for women) are not enough, nor the solution. The government should set up factories here,” says Bachchu Murmu, 37, in Birihanri village.

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