Dr. Mohinder Kumar
Battalkote village is located in Mandi block of Poonch district, 16 km from Mandi town and 70 km from Poonch city of Jammu Division. It is situated in hilly and mountainous area. Top of mountains in Mandi block receive heavy snowfall during winter, which makes it the coldest region of Jammu Division. Topography and climate of Mandi block is different from other areas of Poonch district. In terms of area Battalkote is small village. Its area is 121 acres, of which 21 acres (17%) is common land and 100 acres (83%) is agricultural land. Average size of holding is just 0.17 acre (two ‘Kanal’) per farm household.
Entire population of 3500 persons in 600 households is Muslim and they are engaged in farming. They belong to General Caste category and speak Kashmiri, Urdu, and Gojri languages. None of the households is reported as Scheduled Tribe (ST) or Other Backward Class (OBC) although economic poverty is the distinguishing feature of Battalkote. The influence of Kashmiri and Gojri cultures and way of life is clearly visible in this village, which is close to Kashmir Division (Shopian district). Out of 600 households, 20 households belong to Gujjar ‘Bakarwals’ (shepherds). These 20 Gujjar Bakarwal and 400 Kashmiri speaking Muslim households migrate to upper mountainous forest pastures to live in “Dhoks” (mud and stone huts) during summer season for five-six months. Summer migration of few members with sheep-goats from the village makes feasible storage of dried grass cultivated by them for survival and feeding cattle during winter season. They return to Battalkote before start of winter season. They carry small wood on horse-back from mountain-forests that is used for kitchen-fuel. Even children and old members accompany family to migrate to “Dhoks” in mountainous forest pastures towards Pir-ki-Gali. It is their semi-nomadic/ semi-agricultural/ semi-settled life style of Gujjar Bakarwals carried forward for the past so many generations.
Common (“Makhsoos”) land is used as pasture for cattle-grazing. Common land is allotted among all households in the village. They cultivate grass and maize for three to four months on allotted plots and then leave land open for grazing. Once the crop on allotted plots has been harvested by respective households, entire common land becomes pasture open to all households for common use. Farmers of Battalkote cultivate maize (for subsistence purpose). They would grind maize in “ghrut” (water mill) and use ‘aata’ for consumption. Rajmah (white and red both) is cultivated for selling; wholesale traders from Delhi, Punjab and Jammu visit Battalkote and purchase Rajmah from farmers.
Farmers of Battalkote also cultivate potatoes to sell partly within village, not in all seasons. They cultivate ‘Alpha-Alpha’ grass, sold @Rs.5/- per kg (dried). Grass is weighed in terms of ‘rassi’ and ‘gaddi’. One ‘rassi’ is equal to 24 ‘gaddis’. Each ‘gaddi’ weighs 4 kg. Hence one ‘rassi’ of grass is equal to one quintal. These are weights of green grass. Stem of maize called “krub” in local language is also sold as green fodder. Each household rears at least one or two cows/ buffaloes and 2-3 sheep/ goats for family subsistence. Each household has three-four walnut trees. They sell walnut worth Rs.4000/- per household each year. At rate of 12 kg per tree, total production of around 40 kg is sold @Rs.100/- per kg. Selling price is too low as compared to market price. In this way, each walnut tree gives gross income of Rs.1000/-. One youth from household would put a kg of walnut by guess-weight in old polythene bag and would stand on roadside (Baffliaz-Shopian road) to offer each bag for sale to the travelers in vehicles. Average yield of different crops produced by farmers in Battalkote is reported as under: potatoes 30 kg/’kanal’ (240 kg/acre); rajmah 50 kg/’kanal’ (4 quintal/acre); maize 2.50 quintal/’kanal’ (20 quintal/acre); and green grass 5 rassi/’kanal’ (8 quintal/acre; dry grass 5-6 quintal/acre). This is how farmers survive by growing various crops mainly for family consumption and cattle and partly for selling.
Literacy rate in the village is 10%. Most of the students became drop-outs after class 3rd or 4th. Mutual relations of villagers are reported as “very good and cordial”. Villagers are generally aware about performance and constraints of Gram Panchayat. They reported that Panchayat is transparent in functioning and Sarpanch is helpful. However, he is helpless. This helplessness appears in arranging ration card for all households. Out of 600 households, only 150 households have received ration card. Sarpanch has submitted the list of remaining 450 households to the Tehsil Supply Officer (TSO) Mandi, which raised objection that this list included “chulhas” (separated hearth/ households), not real number of households. There is no ration supply till now for 450 households. Extremely poor, widowed and other eligible households are yet to get ration card. MNREGA is implemented in the village. For 2012-13, Gram Panchayat forwarded a proposal of works with annual plan of Rs.60-70 lakh for Battalkote to the Rural Development Department. Information on the mode of implementation, success of implementation, achievement/ completion/ nature of projects, number of job card holders, wages, number of mandays work created, etc. under MNREGA could not be provided by villagers/ Sarpanch, which raises question mark over its performance.
Access to natural resources for survival by villagers in Battalkote is reported as under: fuel wood/ fire-wood is collected from forest. There is no joint forest management committee of Battalkote under social forestry. There is large number of ‘chashmas’ (springs) for sourcing “safe” drinking water -though it may not be so safe since used directly. Water for irrigation is sourced by farmers from Trehen
extracted from the owned land. Sand is also extracted from adjoining nallah; households whose house is situated near roadside purchase sand from market suppliers @Rs.6000/- per tipper; sand and crushed stone have same price in the market.
Battalkote has 1200 youth, mostly illiterate; one or two youth from the entire village are employed in government service. Approximately 20-25 youth are handicapped (arm, hand amputated) from birth or by falling from tree in forest or injured by wild bear. A majority of the youth is unemployed and idle as they did not get any job (villagers did not mention the state of implementation of MNREGA which appeared to be having disquieting aspects of execution of works). Illiteracy among village youth is also a factor in their unemployment. Under the currently existing and historical conditions, youth in Gujjar-Bakarwal households prefer semi-nomadic occupation and traditional way of life of keeping herds of sheep and goats. That is the safest bet for survival. Even other Muslim households have got their youth absorbed in goatery occupation, which is an exception since Kashmiri speaking Muslim households generally do not rear goats and sheep but do farming. Livelihood and occupational pattern in the village has changed from traditional farming to wage-labor. Bakarwal households rarely get their children into education despite Poonch district having mobile schools for nomadic children. Teachers are also not prepared to join and move along with them for mobile school facility due to disinterest. Gujjar Bakarwal households prefer to adopt and continue hilly-forest “Dhok” based goatery and semi-nomadic way of life, which is their livelihood and means of survival.
Villagers’ access to rural/ economic infrastructure is reported as under: Battalkote does not have agricultural market. A branch of J&K Bank was set up in the village since visitors coming for Ziarat at Dargah of Battalkote, is the main factor as cash-money is accumulated by donations. Village is now accessible by a new road constructed couple of years back under PMGSY. It has two small bridges/ culverts on nallahs: Kharpa bridge (on Kharpa nallah) and Battalkote bridge (on Battalkote nallah). Down the roadside of second bridge, there are two water-mills (“ghrut”) installed by the villagers on Battalkote nallah. Own farm produced seeds for potato, maize, rajmah cultivation are used by the farmers and not purchased from market. They never received help on seeds from KVK or Agriculture Office (Mandi/ Poonch). Chemical fertilizers are the only inputs purchased from market, i.e. nearby Kharpa village; when not available here then they approach Loran Mandi town where rate is cheaper by Rs.10 per bag. Pesticides and insecticides are never used by farmers despite that crops get destroyed even as they never get to know crop diseases. They say they remain too busy in exploring wage-employment opportunities rather than exploring diagnosis of crop diseases. There is no veterinary center despite the village being predominantly a Bakarwal village which rears thousands of goats and sheep. Patwari office of the village is situated in BDO office compound in Mandi town.
One NGO is working in Battalkote though villagers could not report about its details or activities. No cooperative society or SHG is formed in Battalkote. Under Indira Awas Yojna (IAY) 40 houses have been provided financial assistance -mostly partial (Rs.15000 each) and hardly two or three houses were given full assistance (Rs.50000 each). Some people started construction but had to stop mid way due to no release of money. Two installments were released normally under IAY -first for plain-roofing and second for tin-sloped-roofing above plain roof to safeguard the structure from snow. The village receives heavy snowfall during winter. Damage to houses is also more reported from this region/ village due to greater snowfall, which requires more money expenditure for house repair and maintenance.
Pathetic condition of basic amenities in Battalkote is reported as under: street lanes are kutcha; no sanitation/ community toilet/ ‘pucca’ drainage existed. The condition of link road is also bad. Streetlights are also not installed. Drinking water for consumption is sourced directly from chashma and nallahs (called “katthas”) which remain open and flowing for 12 months in a year. Those who live in “Dhoks” on high mountains in sloppy forest pastures also consume water from chashmas and nallahs directly, which is considered by villagers as “clean”. Village has one primary health centre (PHC) but it has no other function than giving polio drops on the 10th day of each month. There is no private doctor shop/ clinic or medical shop in the village. Battalkote has 10 grocery shops and one ration store. Instead of 35 kg food grains, ration store holder provides 34 kg food grains (17 kg each of rice and wheat) per month. Quantity of food grains supplied to the villagers is not written in the prescribed ration supply register. Thumb impression on register is taken from illiterate villagers. Villagers allege that food grains are siphoned-off to the open market. For transport, private Tata Sumo vehicles ply between Battalkote and Mandi, but fare is very high (Rs.40 for one way from Battalkote to Mandi). Villagers, particularly those who desire to visit town for wage-labor or official task in block/tehsil headquarter Mandi, have to face a great problem in spending Rs.80 for onward and return travel.
There are seven schools set up in the village -one high school, two middle schools, and four primary schools. However, children mostly join their parents to migrate to “Dhok” (‘kutcha’ huts) in forest pastures for six months each year. School infrastructure largely remains unutilized and useless. No school inspector has ever paid visit to any of the seven schools for inspection. Villagers reported that false attendance is marked in schools; mid-day-meal materials are siphoned-off to the market. Forest bears destroy maize crops and entire fields in the village.
Poor condition of economic base of private assets is reported as under. The village does not have any tractor or power tiller. All 600 farm households own 60 bullocks for land-plough operations. Those which do not own bullocks hire tractor from other village or Mandi town @Rs.500 per day. It is difficult to rear bullocks. Therefore, one in 10 farm households rears bullocks. Each pair of bullock would require minimum 1 ‘rassi’ (1 quintal) of grass each day for fodder. Each household owns 10-12 poultry birds, one or two cows/ buffaloes and three-four goats/ sheep for subsistence of family. As per DRDC list, 400 households out of total 600 households, i.e. 67% are ‘Below Poverty Line’ (BPL) even though all 600 households own land. All houses are mud & stone kutcha structures which remained cool during summer and warm during winter; housing structure remained for 100 years after regular repair and maintenance.
First difficulty faced by villagers is related to official hassles in district/ block offices. Normally they needed to obtain these certificates/ documents from offices: (i) State Subject Certificate; (ii) Other Backward Class (OBC) Certificate; (iii) mistake in invoice/ accounts under MNREGA; and (iv) copy of land record. They are expected to make repeated rounds of offices, which they do gracefully and get disgraced by virtue of that. In order to get tasks completed from offices, people -whether they are prepared or not to make rounds after rounds -do incur expenditure of Rs.400 to 500 on transportation. This is how they cope with the existing reality and survive.
Problem of indebtedness is second major problem faced by villagers. As many as 350 households out of 600 households are reeling under indebtedness. They live strongly as long as they are not made to feel that it’s immoral and unpalatable to not to repay. Remaining 250 households are not anyway fit and strong to survive economically. Each indebted household has average debt of Rs.20000 to 35000 for the past so many years. A few of them are indebted under bank loan also. Debt amount keeps fluctuating even as they try to repay part of debt in installments by earning income from wage-labor. However, households which are not indebted, they survive somehow by engaging in small business activities, contractor-work, and as “maits” (labor-contractors).
Third problem of Battalkote village is related to forest bears. Entire Mandi block is afflicted with this problem of wild bear. Forest hilly areas in Mandi block reportedly have hundreds of forest bears. These wild animals would come down the hill in groups of four-five bears (entire bear family) and attack the village any time -sometimes early in the morning. These bears would cause extensive damage to the standing maize crops in fields on hilly slopes and attack villagers. They would also attack nomads living in “Dhok” on hilly forests with their cattle and small ruminants. Bear animal is so strong in attack that it keeps the dead body of victim/ animal on its back and can walk up to the hide-out place in the interior of forest. The area around Battalkote village has experienced five-six incidences of death and 20-25 cases of injured each year due to bear attacks.
Fourth problem faced by the villagers pertains to water for irrigation as hills are lined with “kools” (drains) but it is not possible to cultivate rice because upper surface of hills-soils has stones. Villagers are content with maize though they wish to cultivate paddy which would also solve their problem of bear attack to some extent since bear does not attack paddy fields.
Fifth major problem is related to the solution sought for school education of children. There are no functional mobile schools for children of nomad ‘Bhaleys’ (who rear sheep) living six months in ‘Dhoks’ in forest hills. Nomad ‘Bhaleys’ view their children as carriers of hereditary practices of rearing small ruminants instead of thinking about education. Therefore, their children move with family and cattle to the forest hills instead of joining schools. This socio-economic issue of education of nomadic ‘Bakarwal’ and ‘Bhalay’ children needs urgent attention of district authorities.
(Author works for NABARD; views expressed are personal
Feed to the author : mohinder1966@gmail.com)
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