*THE LIGHT OF ANDAMANS :: VOL: 33 :: ISSUE: 06 :: 25 Feb 2008*
**
*DISCONNECTED LIVES*

*A neglected 1952 revenue village springs out from the dark ages, with not
even a road that leads to it.*
*Let's take a Quiz…
nName a revenue village in South Andaman, which does not have power
connection since 1952.
nName a village with 36 households without any telephone connections?
nName a health sub centre in a village, which has not seen a doctor for last
two years.
nName a revenue village, where its only primary school was closed for six
months for want of a teacher.
nName a village where children walk 6 km everyday to reach nearest school.
nName a village where there is not a single provision store.*

By *Zubair Ahmed*

On 4 February 2008, Lt Gen Bhopinder Singh laid the foundation stone for a
Multiparametric Geophysical Observatory, just 12 km ahead of the village
that we are talking about.
No prizes for guessing. It is a village without a name and is still called
Shoal Bay 19, a revenue village 40 km from Port Blair, settled in 1952 with
36 Bengali households, refugees from East Pakistan. A 5-km forest stretch
cuts this village off from Shoal Bay 15, a grave mistake committed by our
planners. Though deprived of all welfare measures, they still vote during
elections and are yet to register their protest against the injustice.
"Since November 2007, the Pradhan has not visited our ward. The Zilla
Parishad member came here six months ago. Nobody here remembers the MP to
have paid a visit to us in the past 10 years. The last visit by any doctor
to our village was a couple of years ago. Forget about any higher
authorities coming here, even teachers are hard to find here,"said Noren
Mallick, a resident of Shoal Bay 19, "The only primary school in this ward
was closed down for six months for want of a teacher." Mallick has been a
resident of the village since its establishment in 1952.
This revenue village has been road-less for the last 55 years. One has to
take a 5-km rough jungle trail from Shoal Bay 15 to reach this unnamed
village, which carries the stigma of a number, when many encroachment
villages have been named after leaders like Kamrajnagar, Indira Nagar and
Paschimsagar etc and are fully electrified and 'connected'. The trail
remains cut off for any sort of vehicles during the monsoons. There are
three nallahs on the way that commuters have to cross during the rainy
season. Connectivity has deprived the village of all welfare measures.
Preposterous schemes like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan or Pradhan Mantri Grameen
Sadak Yojana sound hollow for these villagers.
"When the forest department declared the reserves, they should have at least
done their homework and left out the corridor for the road to the village,"
said Sudhanya Sardar, a watchman with electricity department. Now whenever
the issue of road is raised, forest reserve comes as an obstacle. The only
reprieve is that the village is going to get a one-km black-top road within
the village for the first time after 55 years. They are happy about it
though it would not connect them to the outer world.
Villagers need to go out of the village for all their requirements, since
there are no shops or other establishments in the village. Serious patients
have to be carried on sanghas made of gunny bags through the forest and that
too in pitch darkness during the nights.
"It's a nightmare to fall ill here," said the lone ANM Kusum Biswas. "We can
just provide first aid here, nothing more," she added. The sub-centre
building is in dilapidated condition. In the past two years not a single
doctor has visited the village.
Students from the village studying in middle and higher classes have to walk
6-km one-way through the dense forest daily to reach schools in Shoal Bay
14. They leave early in the morning and come back very late and quite
exhausted. In the rainy season they have to brave the muddy stretch and
nallahs on the way.
Another government building in the village is the primary school. It is one
of the four single-teacher schools in the Islands. With 14 children studying
from Class I to V, a daily rated peon and a primary teacher manages the
school. According to villagers, the teacher is irregular. But when
contacted, Mohammed Shahin Yusuf, the PST, who is the all-in-all of the
school said that he needs another teacher. "We cannot avail EL or CL, in any
case, as the school has to be closed or the school should be then run by the
peon. The peon in fact did run the school sometime ago when there was no
teacher for six months," he informed. "How can a single teacher manage 5
classes all together? And the higher authorities always need all the papers
in order, when they visit the school," he complained. "In rainy season, I
have to walk three hours to reach the school and need another three hours to
go back," he reasoned, "I am concerned about the students here, but I need
another teacher urgently to manage the school properly." Mid-day meals are
supplied uninterrupted in the school.
"Single-teacher-school concept is now obsolete," said Dixit, DEO, Wimberly
Gunj, when asked. But, the apathy continues. He also said that there was
another teacher for a brief stint of three months, who is now transferred on
promotion. Whatever the explanations, the students suffer due to the
indifference of the biggies sitting in comfortable places.
This is one of the few villages in South Andaman, without electricity since
1952. In 1994, the houses were electrified using solar power by the
electricity department with two 5-KVA storage. It provided lighting to 26
households for around six years and has been completely off for the last two
years. Due to the negligence by the department and the high cost of lighting
equipments, the village is thrown back into darkness.
The question is why the village cannot be connected through laying proper
electricity lines. "If it was the economics they are concerned, does the
department make profits elsewhere," asks an irate villager.
There is no telephone connection in the village. In case of emergency,
walking 5 km is the only option. However, Venkatraman, Pradhan, Shoal Bay
panchayat contends that nobody demanded telephone connection from the
village. When reminded that there is a health sub-centre and a primary
school in the village, which should have at least a telephone connection, he
was mute.
With just 96 voters, political parties don't care much for this village.
"The Pradhan is not interested in our welfare since he did not get any votes
from the village," quipped a villager.
The lone panchayat member, Susantho Biswas is an illiterate without any
concerns for the village. He keeps complaining without doing anything
concrete for the villagers.
Agriculture and fishing are the only livelihood options for the villagers.
There are 10 fishing dinghies and 20 fishermen in the village. "We grow
vegetables and also go for fishing, but, we have to carry it on our
shoulders through the jungle to transport it to Wimberly Gunj to sell it,"
said Dilip Dutta, a fisherman. Both Agriculture and Fisheries departments
have not reached the village for obvious reasons.
When asked about any income generating schemes by the Panchayat, some of the
youngsters hanging around the pan shop said that the new road coming up in
the village has given a few days of manual work for the unemployed. "It is a
blessing," said Sukumar Mondal. Otherwise, there had been only 8-days of
work provided by the Panchayat.
Without electricity, telephone, road, education and health, Shoal Bay 19 is
a classic case of neglect both by the administration as well as the
politicians.


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