Women from 23 villages were assisted by Kashtakari Sangathan, a social action group, in carrying out the demonstrations. The organization is helping in creating awareness in tribal villages on the importance of voting, the issues on which they should actually vote, registering voters and ensuring paperwork.
Madhubai Dhodi (56), a social activist associated with the group, said free sarees will not ensure ‘development’.
You give us one saree a year which will not bring any development to us. The government has made promises under the ‘Har Ghar Nal’ scheme. You go and see if any house has a tap or not. They built water tanks and wells but there are no pipelines to people’s homes,” Dhodi said.
“They claim Everyone’s Saath Everyone’s Development, where is Development, Therefore, we returned these sarees and bags. We also gave them in writing the reason behind returning them.”
Brian Lobo (61), one of the founding members of the group, said the government needs to spend money on more schemes for the upliftment of tribals.
“So, a lot of money was spent by the Modi government for such advertising. The distribution of the bags happened before the MCC but when will they be used? Even after March 16. This meant that these things would be used before the MCC. And a free publicity campaign will be run for them,” Lobo alleged.
“These things have been distributed without considering what the people actually need. Look, we are saying that there should be schemes. But there are two types of schemes. One in which you take advantage of the schemes for your upliftment. But these kinds of schemes where you are giving out freebies, this is not a development scheme, this is a scheme for beggars, we are human beings, we are not beggars,” Lobo said.
Ladkubai described how most villagers were never able to find proper jobs and had to leave the village for days at a time in search of employment.
“We earn very little from farming. We sometimes have to go to Dahanu to find work. Sometimes we find work on people’s farms. This earns us Rs 150 per day. How will this be enough? Ever -Sometimes we go to Gujarat, Surat, Vapi to find work,” he said.
Ladkubai said, “If the government had given us jobs in the villages, why would we have to go? The government has not given us jobs, but it is giving us sarees.”
