Uttarakhand tribe of 600 finds voting an uphill task

PITHORAGARH: One of India's smallest and most endangered tribes has always found it hard to make itself heard. This time, too, it's no different for the last 600 members of Uttarakhand's Van Rawats.

To exercise their franchise, a Van Rawat would first have to undertake a journey of roughly 60kms to get a voter ID card made, which very few have. On polling day, there would be long distances to travel to a booth to cast their vote. And a trek back through forests and tough hill terrain. "It's not worth it," one of them said. "In any case, in a country so large, what weight do we carry?"

The population of the

tribe

, which experts fear is on the brink of extinction, is scattered across a few localities in the remote hills of Pithoragarh, Khirdwari, Dharchula, and Baitadi district of Nepal. Virtually cut off from society, most have no voter cards, Aadhaar cards or even cellphones, and are in abject poverty.

Tribe members who mainly live in areas in and around forests in the hills would have to trek several kms to reach polling booths. Bhaktirva has 24 voters with the nearest polling booth 7 km from the locality. Kantoli has roughly 70 voters with the

voting

station 5 km away. "Those who have turned 18 give us logic. '20 km, no voice', they say. What can we tell them," said Kheema Jethi, an elder.

The tribe was recently hit hard by the Covid outbreak. TOI had earlier reported that sans smartphones and other resources, vaccination centres, almost always far away, were out of bounds for the Van Rawats. The tribe remembers a rare "success story" though. Gagan Singh Rajwar, a Van Rawat, was an MLA for 10 years from the Dharchula constituency in Pithoragarh from 2002 to 2012, fielded by the local population as an independent candidate against the "big" BJP and Congress.

"Local community members were looking for an educated tribal to contest against the others. They found Gagan Singh Rajwar, who had studied till class 9. He was the most educated among the Van Rawats," said Kundal Singh, a local. He added that it took over a week to convince Rajwar to contest the election.

But quite a few among the Van Rawats aren't giving up. "I will go and cast my vote, whatever may be the distance," said Kalyan Singh from Bhaktirva. Basanti Devi of Kimkhola said she will join him. "Voices echo in the forests," Basanti said. "Who knows, ours might too."