In a single yr of the Bharatiya Janata Social gathering (BJP) rule in Odisha, there have been a number of and recurring incidents of atrocities on ladies together with the latest loss of life of 20-year-old school scholar who set herself ablaze as a result of her complaints, accusing her instructor of sexual harassment, weren’t acted upon by authorities.

Then, there was the stunning and distressing information of a 28-day-old lady youngster being offered off by her poor dad and mom from Titlagarh in Bolangir district to an individual in Bargarh district of the state for Rs 20,000. Nila and Kanak, the dad and mom, have kids from their earlier marriages. Whereas Nila has three daughters from his first spouse, Kanak has one from her earlier marriage.

They’re already burdened with tasks of feeding a number of kids and didn’t have any useful resource to lift the toddler. So, they offered her.

The Odisha authorities has rescued her and handed over to the state youngster welfare division.

Sale of a woman youngster

Bolangir is a part of the KBK districts of Odisha – Kalahandi, Balangir and Koraput. It’s not solely essentially the most backward area within the state however one of many poorest and underdeveloped areas within the nation.

The sale of a new child lady in Bolangir is paying homage to an incident from the Eighties, whereas Rajiv Gandhi was the prime minister, when a woman was offered off and starved to loss of life in Kalahandi district. It had brought about nationwide outrage and had prompted Gandhi to go to the area and ship a workforce of economists, headed by Professor Yoginder Okay. Alagh, to check the financial woes of the folks and advocate measures to uplift them.

That workforce steered a bundle for enchancment of the KBK area. These districts lacked irrigation amenities and land was concentrated within the fingers of highly effective communities similar to Rajputs and Brahmins.

As Anima Mishra, a sociologist from Delhi Faculty of Economics, who’s from Bolangir, wrote in her guide, poverty and deprivation is extra ethnic-based as tribals and Dalits endure extra severely than different communities.

That is grimly indicated by the truth that, on a mean, the longevity of the tribals in Tiralgarh, is 30 years.

The latest sale of the lady youngster is indicative of a horrible malaise brought on by the deepening of poverty and deprivation within the area which has already drawn delicate consideration prior to now, the place a main minister’s intervention helped create a particular bundle to mitigate excessive poverty by producing employment alternatives.

A central help of Rs 250 crores was allotted for the event of the area to uplift the poorer inhabitants to larger revenue ranges, higher schooling and entry to well being amenities.

When the Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal was in energy, the Odisha authorities additionally began the Biju KBK plan of help. The district-level annual plan was labored out with the assistance of specialists.

Whereas these developmental works have been efficient throughout Patnaik’s tenure to some extent, they didn’t create a everlasting resolution to the poverty disaster.

BJP authorities’s apathy

A majority of the folks within the KBK area of Odisha needed a continuation of the particular bundle began by the planning fee even after the BJP got here to energy final yr.

Nonetheless, the bundle was deserted by the Mohan Majhi authorities. This adversely affected the folks and those that have been lifted out of their financial adversaries have been once more pushed again to poverty. It resulted in an increase in hunger-related deaths and cases just like the sale of the toddler lady youngster.

Just lately, within the Kandhamal district of the state, the Majhi authorities discontinued for 3 months the provisions folks have been getting underneath the general public district system.

The disruption of meals provide was admitted by the civil provide minister of Odisha within the state meeting.

Chatting with The Wire, Kandhamal district collector Rabinnarayan Sprint stated that it was unhappy that the district administration is dealing with the wrath of the land-holding elite, who need funds for the welfare schemes to get replaced with contracts for developmental tasks for his or her profit.

On one event, in presence of the writer of this text, Sprint was abused and even confronted prison intimidation for refusing to provide contracts to those native elites – who have been backed by BJP leaders of the area – within the division of soil conservation and afforestation works.

After that incident, Sprint bought himself transferred out of the district. He confessed that these elite locals take resort to intimidatory measures for exerting stress to demotivate the officers implementing developmental works of the district.

One other collector of Bolangir, U.P. Singh, who retired because the secretary of water sources, advised The Wire that he confronted challenges because the district collector in implementing developmental works.

The native landlords have turn into extra assertive in disrupting developmental work since BJP chief Singhdeo turned the deputy chief minister within the Mohan Majhi authorities, he stated.

Position of labour contractors

The misery migration is a daily phenomenon. Within the Balangir district, one finds that regardless of the federal government giving larger wage for MGNREGS work, poor folks refuse to simply accept it and migrate to southern states to work in brick kilns, fairly often getting trapped as bonded labourers.

The seasonal migration takes place due to lack of employment amenities. The migrant employees all belong to backward courses and Dalit communities. They migrate as a result of they’ll earn extra as migrant labourers than working of their native locations the place they get indebted to cash lenders.

In a spot like Titlagarh, the place the lady youngster was offered off, MGNREGA isn’t correctly carried out and folks endure from poverty, typically ending up being exploited by labour contractors.

It’s notable that one of many labour contractors who provided labour to brick klin factories of Andhra, who contested in opposition to then chief minister Naveen Patnaik, in Kantabanji Meeting constituency within the 2024 elections, defeated him. It was an enormous setback for Naveen and his get together, BJD.

Since 2024, 146 migrant labourers have died due to exploitation brought on by brick kiln homeowners who pressured them to work for lengthy days and nights.

No accountability by BJP govt

Through the Nineteen Nineties, reported hunger deaths led to resignation of then chief minister of Odisha, J.B. Patnaik. However now, the Mohan Majhi-led BJP authorities isn’t taking any accountability for his acts of omission and fee.

Deputy chief minister Shri Shingdeao, who belongs to Bolangir district, hails from a princely household. He stays stoically unmoved by the sale of the toddler lady youngster or the poverty within the area.

The wilful disregard for accountability of the BJP authorities has multiplied what it owes to the folks of Odisha, and the sale of lady youngster represents the morbid scenario of the area.

[Radha Kant Barik taught as a professor in the Indian Institute of Public Administration. Courtesy: The Wire, an Indian nonprofit news and opinion website. It was founded in 2015 by Siddharth Varadarajan, Sidharth Bhatia, and M. K. Venu.]