In dark shadow of a powerhouse: tribes who built A.P power project live in darkness Premium

Gutta Jama, a Bagata tribal woman, struggles with daily chores in a village lacking electricity and water supply.

As dusk falls, Gutta Jama competes with the speed of the lone gushing stream, a few meters away from her house, to prepare dinner for her family even as she breastfed her nine-month-old boy, Guru. Her husband Mr. Sukdhar and eldest son Sriram lend her a hand by beginning to chop logs for firewood for their two-stone stove.

The 39-year-old Bagata tribal woman watches as water slides from the tarpaulin covers arranged in her house to collect rainwater to fill the pots while her heart longs for a tryst with the warm sun as incessant rains continued to lash her village over the last three weeks. The rainwater harvest was meant for drinking and cooking purposes.

In Desia language, the lingua franca of the tribes on the AOB, Ms. Jama says, “Power Nay. Paani Nay. Kaita Nay’” (No electricity. No water to drink. We have nothing).

Ms. Jama lives in the Mallavaram village of Mothugudem gram panchayat in the Alluri Sitharama Raju district and her family consists ofnine members:her husband Mr. Sukdar, a 43-year-old autorickshaw driver, their six children including a girl, Roopa. Her husband’s first wife Ms. Sonia also lives with them in the same hut which is partitioned into six rooms.

But, the hustle and bustle at Ms. Jama’s house every evening, is not limited to one evening or only to her house in the village. Every evening, all families in the village rush to finish the kitchen work and daily chores, and put their children to sleep before it gets dark because darkness and misery are all they experience once the sun sets.

Ms. Jama gave birth to eight children and lost two of them to illness. Ms. Sonia also lost one of her two children to health problems while her elder daughter is married and lives with her in-laws in another village.

Located barely four kilometres away from the Lower Sileru Hydroelectric Project, Mallavaram village, formed in the 1970s still awaits an electricity facility. Mallavaram has 13 households and 15 families. It has a population of about 100 belonging to three tribes: Porja (a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group), Goud and Bagata who migrated from Malkangiri and Koraput districts in Odisha.