Taps now, water later: Tribals slam politicians for half-baked sops

Bengaluru, NT Bureau: Crammed into a tiny room and learning for about five to six hours may not be what children look forward to.

But it's obvious that the seven-odd children, aged between 3 and 10, are really happy to be sitting inside the spanking new anganwadi at the Nagarhole Gadde Hadi, a settlement consisting of about 60 families of the Jenu Kuruba tribe in the forests of Nagarhole in Karnataka.

The children are aware that it's a privilege that no one before them had enjoyed – the anganwadi is the only pucca construction in that forest settlement.

The 12x12 room suddenly popped up in July last year, after years of cajoling, possibly because the election is round the corner, said anganwadi worker J K Bhagya.

"We even got a toilet. Before this we were operating from a shed," she added, pointing to a bamboo structure with a tarpaulin for the roof next door.

These few and far between ‘sops for votes' are the reason why the Jenu Kuruba community, which is fighting the government for decades for even the basic amenities – like land rights, access to water and electricity – bother to cast their votes, said J K Thimma, head of the settlement as well as the president of Nagarhole Budakattu Jamma Paley Hakkustapana Samiti, the banner under which the community often holds protests demanding their basic rights.

According to the official website of Nagarhole Tiger Reserve, the forest is home to 45 tribal settlements or ‘hadis' – 1,703 families belonging to Jenu Kurubas, Betta Kurubas, Yeravas and Soliga communities.