Vanarmares vote to gain govt attention

MARGAO: Politely declining to avail offers of free transport to ferry them to their polling booth, they trudged 2km on foot through the woods of Nirankal in Bethoda near Ponda, to cast their vote for the simultaneous elections for Lok Sabha and Shiroda bypolls. Significantly, the 40 members of the Vanarmare tribe are voting for the first time to elect their MP.

“They are always like that,” a panchayat member says. “We had sent a vehicle to bring them to the polling station, but they preferred to take the pathway through the forest. Being forest dwellers, they prefer walking to any mode of modern transport.”

The Vanarmares, having their settlement in Nirankal, voted for the first time in the 2017 assembly elections, after attempts by social workers to get them enfranchised bore fruits.

“We have no preferences,” Gopal Pawar, the headman of the tribe says. “What does it matter for us who wins or loses? But we voted, as we know, only then we will be heard by the powers that be.”

Vanarmares pleased after casting votes

Having exercised their right to vote, the Vanarmares appear pleased over participating in the country’s largest festival of democracy. Not for anything else, but for the fact that candidates came knocking at their door steps asking for their votes. Following a TOI report on April 13 highlighting the aspirations of the Vanarmares as they looked forward to cast their franchise, all the candidates in the fray rushed to the tribals and heard their grievances.

“All of them have promised to help. We only hope they do,” Gopal says. Their immediate need is a roof over their heads, and an electricity connection to help their children study at night.

Stepping out of the polling booth, one among the Vanarmares appears shaken and literally trembling.

Pawar puts the puzzled onlookers at ease. “Don’t worry, the two dry days have deprived him of his daily intake of liquor,” he Pawar, adding that just two among the 100 Vanarmares staying in Nirankal consume alcohol. The rest are teetotallers, but many are addicted to tobacco, he says.

The 20-odd families live in 17 thatched huts, the roofs of which get blown away or destroyed during heavy rains. Pawar says it will do them a world of good if they were provided with adequate material for erecting roof truss for 20 sheds and some asbestos cement sheets for roofing.

The Vanarmares are also deprived of any of the government welfare schemes meant for the underprivileged class of society as they don’t possess any documents — birth certificate, domicile certificates et al — to establish their identity.