Name of the project
Bikaspur Tribal village
Type of project
Integrated Tribal Development Project.
Location
Bikaspur Village in Ganjam District, Orissa
Scale of intervention
Overall sustainable development of the entire village
Background
The tribal village of Bikaspur lies at the foothills of the Kerandimal mountain range and is the biggest village in Kerandimal.
The inhabitant tribal of the Badiga, Notraput and Sangakoranjai tribes are the indigenous people who were living in the mountains since many generations. With the stringent forest policies imposed by the Government of India after independence, they had to leave their ancestral forestland and come down and settle on the foothills of the mountains.
They settled down in a close community but were soon engulfed in all kinds of social evils such as alcoholism. Having lost their livelihoods they were exploited by the bigger powers in the place. Their lands were mortgaged by the local landlord or ‘ sahookar'. For a long time they were living in abject poverty.
Their chief occupation was small agricultural practices and selling of fire wood. Life in general was very difficult. They practiced the ‘slash and burn' or ‘shifting' cultivation, which involved the unsustainable use of a patch of land for cultivation and harvesting for a few times and then leaving it unproductive and barren. Due to a practice like this, they were facing a shortage of cultivable land within easy access. They had to travel 6 to 7 kilometers to sell their firewood, which was their only chief source of income. There was no access to safe drinking water and no sanitation facilities. All the people were below poverty line and the health and education scenario was very poor.
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