For 13 years now, the families in relief camps in Dantewada have been waiting for a bridge, one that will take them back home and usher in hope, peace and development. They fled their villages in Bijapur district, one of the worst affected by Naxalite violence in Chhattisgarh, in 2005, crossing the Indravati river to escape the crossfire between security forces and naxals.
“They [State administration] say the bridge has been approved, but funds are yet to be sanctioned. They are fooling us again,” Mangluram Mandvi, a Moria tribesman, says. His family and 52 others have been living in a camp at Bangapala village.
Salwa Judum days
From 2005 to 2007, Salwa Judum, a militia of villagers supported by the government, was fighting along with the security forces against the Naxalites.
The people fled more out of fear of retribution by the troops.
The paddy crop standing in the fields reminds Dhan Singh Puyam of those days. Just a few days from harvest, he fled with his mother, wife, one-year-old daughter and two brothers to Bangapala on the boundary of Bijapur and Dantewada. They had rice for just two meals. “There were no boats. We waded through the river, with water reaching up to our chests. It was around 5 p.m. when we reached here,” he recalls.
The next day, the police served them food at the station. But only men were called. He had 15 acres of land back in his village. “Now we work on other people’s lands to earn a living,” he says.
Camp life
The people say they have become inured to life in camps. Back home, there are no hospitals, schools or angandwadis. To go to weekly markets, they have to cross the river on boats, a next-to-impossible task during rain. The camp is dotted with dish antennas, and every third person has a mobile phone. Outside, solar power runs borewells all day long.
“We have no enmity with the naxals, but if the bridge is constructed, we are sure they will have to leave,” Mr. Puyam says.
About a kilometre away on another camp site, a few people, especially those who could not find viable employment, have started trickling back.
“My father’s elder brother and his wife, they are old and had nothing here. About a year ago, they returned to their village across the river,” says Kalicharan pointing at the direction of the village.
He was five when his family fled Belanar village, and now he just completed his 12th standard. He does not want to go back.
This time of the year, the river is thin and its banks are being hollowed out with truck after truck carrying away sand.
The camp residents are politically vocal. They want change. For the past 15 years, the Raman Singh government has been minting money; now someone else should get a chance, they say.
There are 23 relief camps in Dantewada.