Militants and a woman ...

They came - armed and ruthless. They kidnapped her. Abused and tortured -she had to spend 11 horrible days in their captivity. They wanted to terrorize people of a picturesque valley. They demanded to her to support their heinous acts of violence. 

She was humiliated yet determined not to buckle under pressure exerted by militants. Finally, militants gave up and a triumphant woman - Smt Vrinda Mohini Tripura (47) - resurfaced.

Who Vrinda is …

Smt Vrinda, hails from a poor jhumiya (Shifting cultivators) family of Deo Valley, an picturesque and obscure tribal village of Tripura,India. She, later on, elected as Chairperson of Deo Valley Village Committee under Tripura Tribal Area Autonomous District Council (TTAADC). Once, a hotbed of militancy, intriguing Deo Valley is now hub of developmental activities. Thanks to prolonged struggle by Vrinda and her fellow villagers. That’s why to people of Deo Valley, Vrinda - more a social worker than a politician is.

Deo Valley …

Area under Deo Valley village committee, of which Vrinda is the incumbent Chairperson, is 15 sq.km. It comprises of 12 hamlets. Total population under her village committee stands at 3307. Tribal communities like Tripuri, Reang, Chakma and Darlong constitute the populace of Deo Valley TTAADC village. Most of these tribes are illiterate and poor jhumiyas.

Her struggle:

A cohesive action plan is necessary to break the prevailing social dogmas, said Vrinda. She is working to set up women's self-help groups, involve women in the rural development process, and build up Deo village as model village.

“Developmental policies, neglecting the culture and tradition of communities, will not yield desired result. Community participation is important for perfect blending of modernity with age-old tradition,” she asserted. For community participation, awareness among the people, especially women-folk, is necessary, she said. Vrinda emphasizes women education and proper care of girl children for true development. 

A yet to win fight …

Most of the tribal people, despite repeated attempts, are not interested to avail medical treatment facilities. One Ranati Tripura stated, we depend more on traditional and experience based Ayurvedic treatment. Tribal people form a strong bond with the nature.

Removing the dogma, she wants people to avail ayurvedic or modern treatment as situation demands. She is struggling to make the tribal rational. However, constant interactions with individual families and admirable works by ‘ASHA’ workers are slowly changing the situation.

On her abduction ….

She squirmed, quivered, as she was trying to recount her days in militants’ hideouts. She said, Ultras created anarchy all around the State during more than two decades starting in 1980s. Rampant looting, brutal killing of innocent people cast an atmosphere of utter distrust and insecurity. “It was a horrible experience”, she uttered meekly. Narrating her experience she stated hardnosed mental ordeal, physical torture and starvation in those 11 days took its toll on my physical and mental health. She is now suffering from incurable stomach disorder. Memories of those days still haunt me, paused Vrinda and added that it was people’s love and recognition of her good works among a section of militants that ultimately helped to break away from the clutches of dreaded militants.

Rattled youths set off to become community entrepreneur

Tales of simple, illiterate and semi-literate men of an Indian village are very common reflecting daily grind of life – suffer from eking out two square meals a day, inhuman struggle for survival, get lost and finally make transfusion of the legacy to their heirs. Not surprisingly, these very grassroot people, however, sometimes evince their inherent strength and might beget a change in the traditional living. Take the instance of youths of Mayachhari, inhabited by hundreds of poor families belonging to lower caste in North East India, inflicted by extremist terror for decades. Mayachhari, pitched with an undulated wild sylvan surroundings and used to passing life leisurely leaving her fate to the desire of the almighty, is about to wake up from lots of wounds and burns with a new intuition, awakening and zeal. 

A government sponsored tour, a PROMASS activist was also accommodated to wherein, gave an opportunity to land in a village, Mayachhari under Salema rural development block in Dhalai district of Tripura. There were about 40-45 youths involved in discussion. Someone, perhaps one of the key persons of the community was heard uttering, we should not stop at where we stood today. The discerning change we achieved at present shows the silver line in the cloudy sky – our programs need to be carried forward without hesitation. We are now free from poverty and next challenge, I think, is to make us a successful group-entrepreneur.  It appeared tall talks but proved wrong when the basement of their dream found lying somewhere else - in the adjacent vast farm lands including fisheries, rubber plantation and few acres of barren land purchased for similar purpose.  

Once regarded a vibrant agrarian village Mayachhari had converted into a troubled area few years back. The village had factually become man-less. Huts were gutted down; habitants were repeatedly intimidated by militants having a spree of killing were also resorting to abrupt violence and abduction. People of the locality witnessed the militants killing of a provincial Minister, named Bimal Sinha. Militants’ bullets had pierced heads and hearts of four Bank officials and looted money from the bank. An all-pervasive fear psychosis had gripped in the minds of commons leading them flee away from parental soil. The long span of 1990-2005 people of the area had bluntly encountered with nothing but gory days altogether.

However, Animesh, Secretary of the Loknath Self Help Group, said National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) and Swaragayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojana (SGSY) have been boon to village people. The first has ample scopes to create roads, water bodies, plantations and at the same time jobs. In 2010, most of the families of our village including our group members received 70-80 days jobs earning Rs. 100 a day, he said adding, by SGSY, we could create SHGs or swarojgari groups. The Loknath Self Help Group presently owns 130 Kani land. The group planned to dig out 14 water reservoirs for fisheries and prepare 14 kani land for rubber plantation. The group of 70 youths earned Rs 3-4 lakhs last year from 3 / 4 fisheries spreading two hectors.

                       

Surprisingly, no member has taken out its share or any finance from the group with a dare dream to take it to the pick as much as possible. We have so many plans to reap on integrated agriculture mingling fisheries, animal husbandry, and plantation. Asked about receiving technical knowledge, advisory and necessary inputs, Animesh said departments of agriculture, fisheries and rural development block authority extended all out cooperation and still they are inspiring us to gear venture up. We look forward to stand on our foot as a successful group entrepreneur, confident looking Animesh asserted.