“We will continue to give birth until we get a male child.” This is the commitment of Banjara community families in the 17 thandas and 11 villages of Konchavaram gram panchayat limits in Chincholi taluk.
On the one hand these families are living in an abject poverty without a piece of land or a permanent job, on the other no government schemes have reached them properly. What is forcing them to make an attempt to kill or sell the female babies is the struggle to survive in life and lack of proper schemes meant for these people.
Kavita wife of Tarasing of Onti Gudsi thanda and Kavita wife of Vithal Rathod of Onti Chinta thanda who have four daughters each have expressed their unwillingness to undergo family planning surgery until they get a baby boy.
Interesting thing is that they did not attempt to sell or kill their first two female babies thanks to the Bhagya Lakshmi Scheme.
They also showed their mercy towards their third baby girl thinking the girl would get the benefits of the scheme. But, when they both gave births to their fourth baby girls, they had no way but to agree to their husbands and their family members to sell or kill the girls. Fortunately, the intervention of police has saved the lives of the girls.
When such incident were reported in 2002, the government announced a special package of `10 crore, opening of three residential schools, works to the family members of Banjara community and providing bore wells under the Ganga Kalyana Scheme. But it has opened only one residential school at Onti Chinta thanda giving food facility to 120 children for all the three times. -No works are given to the people of these thandas under the MGNREGS and no efforts are made to provide loan for milch animals. Apart from this, the Forest Department has forcibly made these poverty-stricken families to vacate the encroached forest land.
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