Two contrasting worlds, six-hour gruelling walk apart

Nagpur: Last week, when his 12-year-old daughter Muri had high fever and swelling, Pandru Pungati of Metawada village in Chhattisgarh decided to rush her to a hospital. The nearest was a primary health centre (PHC) at Laheri village, 30km away in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district. The only means to reach there was on foot.
Pandru made a rudimentary stretcher with bamboo sticks. The family set out for the six-hour journey on foot, with his wife also cradling their five-month-old daughter in her arms.
“They started at 10 in the morning and reached by 4 in the afternoon,” says Dinesh Timma, Pandru’s relative in Laheri. Even others come the same way, as there is no road between the two villages.
There is no hospital close to Metawada and nearby villages. “People there requiring medical help have to walk down to Maharashtra,” says Timma.
Pandru’s village is in Narayanpur district in the Abujhmadh pocket, known to be a Maoist stronghold and an area cut off from the rest off the world. He can only speak Madiya, a local tribal language, and Timma translates his answers.
Timma, at Laheri, was able to quickly send the family’s pictures on WhatsApp and also made a video call. “Yes, I have an Android phone,” he says.
Just 30km away, his kin Pandru, around 40 years old, lives in a different world. He does not have even a basic phone. For many like him coming to Laheri, a remote area even by Vidarbha standards, means reaching the modern world.
Narayanpur district collector Dharmesh Sahoo admitted that the area remains largely inaccessible due to the Maoist presence. “A 30km highway connecting the area with Gadchiroli in Maharashtra was planned long ago, but the work could never take off. Even the survey has not been done yet,” he says.
“The presence of Maoists keeps the government machinery away, due to which none of the facilities like a hospital could be built over the years. The ground reality cannot be denied,” says Sahoo.
The nearest hospital on the Chhattisgarh side for the villages here is 46km away. This makes Gadchiroli closer and people walk through a forested patch. “Even entering the area needs permission from the collector,” says Sahoo.
Metawada is a village of 5 to 6 homesteads. The families cultivate their land for a living but they don’t even have bullocks. They simply dig the fields with hand and sow the seeds. “There is no power either nor a school close by,” says Timma, translating Pandru’s answers. Homes are lit with solar lamps.
Pandru, however, has an Aadhaar card and knows who is the state’s chief minister. Timma adds that another woman had also come down to Laheri for treatment.
With Muri quite healthy now, the family plans to return soon. “We will walk down. Muri too can walk down the road,” say Pandru and adds there are wild animals on the way, they were lucky to have only come across snakes while reaching Laheri.
Muri has never been to a school. “There were plans to send her to one but it was shut due to Covid,” says Timma. The collector says there is an Ashram Shala for a group of villages but not a government school.
The primary health centre (PHC) at Laheri, which is a lifeline for Chhattisgarh villages, also caters to a population of over 10,200 from 42 villages in Gadchiroli itself. For most of the year, the PHC remains cut off by a rivulet, Gunder nullah, over 1.5km from the clinic. “During rains, the PHC can only be reached by boats. Thankfully this year, it’s not the situation. In winters, a makeshift bridge is made on which vehicles cannot ply. Only in summers can we crossed on a bike,” says Dr Mahendra Jamdade of Laheri PHC.
Even after crossing the nullah, patients and even health workers have to reach villages after walking as much as 10-15km in some cases. “On humanitarian grounds, even villagers from Chhattisgarh are attended,” says Jamdade.