Why the Garo tribe of West Bengal’s Alipurduar feels betrayed by the ballot

Nothing much has changed in Uttar Panialguri, Alipurduar, for decades, say the villagers, mostly from the Garo tribal community, except for the Anganwadi Centre that was set up 16 years ago in a hut, where about 50 children come, six days a week.

The roads to Garo Para in Uttar Panialguri village are just layers of mud and pebbles. A part of the predominantly tribal Alipurduar II block, one of six blocks in the district with a population of 70 lakh, the village is in the Buxa Tiger Reserve. With a population of 3,896, the village, in the Dooars, the foothills of the Himalayas, is surrounded by forests with trees as diverse as sal, teak, jackfruit, and mango.

Nothing much has changed here for decades, say the villagers, mostly from the Garo tribal community, except for the Anganwadi Centre that was set up 16 years ago in a hut, where about 50 children come, six days a week.

Caretaker and cook, Mamata Dey Sarkar, has worked here for the past 12 years. “Didimoni (teacher) comes on alternate days as she attends to two centres. Every day we risk cooking in the same hut with children who keep coming close to the firewood. There is no veranda or electricity, and the tin roof leak in the rains,” she says. The rains come every month, besides the regular monsoon.

“During every election campaign we are assured that our request for a properly built centre has reached the head office (the block and district office in Alipurduar; the main office in Kolkata). We now have zero expectation,” says Ms. Sarkar who earns Rs. 6,300 a month.

Earlier this year, before the election campaign began, municipal water taps were installed at every house in Garo Para, but nobody knows when the water connection will be provided.

To reach a high school, children walk 6 km one way as there is no public transport. “To complete his graduation, my son had to walk 10 km daily to catch a bus to Alipurduar town, but now he works in a hotel in Chennai,” says Gagan Sangma, who collects wood from Buxa forest for a living.

Pronoti Marak says she and her husband were one of 150 labourers who worked for 50 days at a stretch in 2021 to construct a bridge across the Cheko river. However, the contractor asked the workers to drop the work unfinished, assuring them payment. “We were promised a wage of Rs. 220 a day. We haven’t seen that contractor since,” alleges Ms. Marak.