AFTER AN ATTACK SILENCE

The alleged attack on missionaries kicked up a storm in Baidiya. But a week later, the villagers say they have other worries—lack of jobs and water scarcity

The road is dusty and potholed. A rickety state transport bus or a jeep comes tearing down occasionally, kicking up a haze of dust. Once they are gone, it’s all quiet again in Baidiya village—as if nothing happened. The storm over the recent attack on missionaries had kicked up a storm but a week later, all’s quiet—as if nothing happened.

The road is Baidiya’s only connection with the outside world. Every year, Ramesh Rathwa, a B.Ed graduate, takes the state transport bus to Saurashtra, where he works as an agricultural labourer—like many others in his village who work either in Saurashtra’s cotton fields or in Surat’s diamond polishing industry.

It has been 15 years since Don Bosco Education Society has been running a higher secondary school for children in Kwant taluka. Most of the youngsters in Baidiya studied here—they are either graduates or have completed their higher education—but left the village because it had no jobs to offer.

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With very few youth staying back, this village dominated by the Rathwa tribe—Baidiya is around 12 kilometers from the Madhya Pradesh border—wears a deserted look.

Village elder Karsan Rathwa has three sons but stays all by himself. “Both my sons graduated from the nearby Bodeli village. One of them has a B.Ed degree but works as a labourer in Saurashtra’s cotton fields. The other works in a Vadodara company. My elder son earns Rs 100 a day working in the cotton fields but if he had stayed on in Baidiya, he would have barely got Rs 30,” he said.

It was just a week ago that a mob in Baidiya village allegedly attacked missionaries of the Don Bosco Education Society. They were holding a social awareness programme. But strangely, the village prefers to talk about its other worries —the lack of local employment is one and the other is the water problem in this hilly village.

Dudhwal river from neighbouring Madhya Pradesh flows close by and Narmada river too flows south of the village. But the water level in the village has been steadily decreasing with people having to dig 300 ft beneath ground for water. The temporary check dams that were built break down during the rains, complained locals. Kwant tahsildar Rushin Bhatt said, “It is difficult to get water from Narmada since this area is hilly.”

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The villagers do not talk much about the attack on missionaries. Sarpanch Jangu Rathwa, 36, was among the few who did. “These missionaries have been coming for more than 15 years; we never opposed them. But on December 19, the missionaries staged a play and we objected to the second half of it,” he said.

But Don Bosco Education Society’s Fr Monty Rodrigues refutes the allegation. “Our play only talked of jal (water), jeevan (life), zameen (land) and janvar (animals), which are part of the tribal heritage.”

But the sarpanch said all was forgotten and Baidiya now wants to move on. “We do not oppose the missionaries. It was their perception about the tribals that was wrong. Moreover, they had taken no permission to stage the play. Anyway, everything has been forgotten,” said Rathwa.

With that, he got back to talking development. “We are interested in development, a lake should be built at Kaledhra, roads should be good and a college should be built at Kwant,” he said. The health centre, he said, has been under lock since 2004.