February 24,2019/ Orogaon, Nayagarh : It was a typical sunny winter morning in Orogaon as we started for ‘Nuttharpalli’ - A small Tribal Village in Orogaon. As we carved our way through the boulevards, lined with lush green trees on both sides of the road, I had an array of thoughts crossing my mind. I was nervous and excited, after all, that would be my first time experiencing a hamlet.
Dusty roads, dry paddy fields and a bunch of young toddlers running along with our van, we reached Nuttharpalli. Men, women and kids came running and greeted us. Ah! Such a warm place to be in! Within seconds I found myself being grabbed and fed ‘Pokhalo’ by one of the villagers. Not even for once, I felt like I was an outsider, they made me feel like home, a familiar place, which I’ve known forever.
None the less, I started talking to them in broken Odia and found out some very interesting facts about their village and their lifestyle.
The first thing I noticed, that the area was relatively dry. There were only 2 underground tube wells in the village and a single pond which was around a couple of kilometres away from the residences. Also, due to excess of iron in the underground water-level, one of the tube wells render dark coloured water which the villagers cannot consume and is only used for washing clothes and dishes.
Around 35 families reside in the village. Single storied, pakka houses built by the Government, with little to no electricity, encompass the area. Even the richest of the lot didn’t have toilets in their houses, 2-3 of them have managed to build one but cannot use it because of snakes coming out of the holes and therefore having to close it completely. Villagers prefer to go to the fields for defaecating rather than using toilets. Also, some of them complained that the money given by the Government to build homes, was not enough to build toilets along with it, therefore they had cut off this basic hygiene necessity from their lives.
As I started walking towards the pond accompanied by Tikina (18, Villager), who climbs huge trees within seconds wearing a saree, plucked plums and tamarinds for me. She told me about the sad reality of menstruation in their village. Women and girls are not allowed in the pond to take a bath. They have to take out water from the pond in a bucket and bath in that. They use torn tattered bits of cloth during their periods instead of clean sanitary napkins. They wash these small pieces of cloth and dry them hidden from everybody, mostly in dark dingy places where not even a spark of sunlight can enter. You can imagine how unhygienic this can be! Women are not allowed to enter their houses during menstruation, they eat and sleep in the verandas of their houses.
When asked why they don’t use pads, a 13-year-old replied, “It’s uncomfortable!” I explained how sanitary napkins are extremely important for their health and how they can be prone to so many diseases because it, but their major concern seemed to be the price and availability of pads. There weren’t any shops where they could buy pads. Some of them got pads from their schools some time back and that was it, the only provision left was to use old rugged cloth.
Surprisingly enough I found, that women are the major food earners of the family. Most of the men were househusbands and looked after the family, while women work in the fields and make leaf plates and sell them in the market.
We walked through each and every home in the scorching heat and tried to gather bits and pieces of stories. Nuttharpalli is a gold mine for every journalist. Starting from women empowerment, child marriage to the ceasing of their cashew fields, you’ll find a bunch of stories here. Wherever you are going to Odisha, make it a point to visit a Tribal village. You'll love the warmth and the loving grassroots culture.
The villagers were so sweet that they even prepared lunch for us. Loving, caring and so benevolent that my heart ached to leave them. I never imagined my first field experience would be so great. I learnt so much and aspired to learn a lot more. I'm returning back to Nuttharpalli soon for sure!
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