Tea at Mau

Mau is a tiny village settlement at the outskirts of Maihar... It is one of the more than 6 Lakh villages of India. Nonetheless, it is largely dependent on agriculture for livelihood. Many of them either work on their own (less than 3 hectares) land, or opt to work on others' land as daily wage laborer. A large chunk has started working in the nearby cement factories, or one of the many stone quarries as the Baghelkhand region is a rich source of minerals like limestone.

Migration of people to bigger cities, especially in the Northern industrial belt, or towards the west and the south is a burgeoning phenomenon. What is it that might be stopping people to stay at their native place? Poverty, malnutrition, lack of education & health institutions, ideological backwardness, infrastructure gap and so on. Many of them are semi-literates and cog themselves in low paying unorganised sector jobs.

Education for children is a perpetual dilemma even though there are higher aspirations to break the records. There are anganwadi centers in the villages. After school, not many could opt for the college courses. Why not? Ask yourself again! Absense of this crucial institution does not make us wonder why is there a high level poverty in the region and why is that the politics in the region is identity based. Students come to Maihar for courses like Bcom, bba, pgdca, ITIs etc. This region does not yet look forward to generate skilled manpower. The literacy rate for Madhya Pradesh is 69% (M 78%, F 58%). We know that the standard definition for calculating literacy in India is a meagre knowledge of understanding a language and be able to write a few words in it. No doubt that the Indian government is already running several schemes to help the end person in improving their case.

The age of internet is an automatic boon to the young generation, but there is a critical digital divide as not many of us could afford a smart phone. It is to be mentioned that a big chunk of student's suicidal cases go unnoticed and unrecorded. Do you think that the smart phone that cost a nominal middle class person, say 15k bucks, should cost the same to a guy with lower class belonging? 15k would just be their family income for the month and they live hand-to-mouth! A lot of the tax paying population does not want their hard-earned money to be spent in providing subsidies to underprivileged people. The reason is seen from the political angle that it is been misused in catering to vote bank and not helping the most needy!

Yes, at some point, we need to ponder over the solutions that are more permanent in nature. What could be they? I came to Mau from Maihar in motorcycle and it is well connected with roads. Here (picture), I stopped for a cup of tea... Women in the right is carrying a baby while also heating the utensil in the earthen chulha. Why am I mentioning this? Because, it is circa 2021...