ETV Bharat impact: Gurjars surviving on leaves get relief material by UP admin

The members of the Gurjar community - an ethnic agricultural and pastoral community - living along the Uttarakhand - Uttar Pradesh border areas are forced to survive on leaves plucked from trees and milk drawn from their cattle, amid the 21-day nationwide lockdown.

Saharanpur (Uttar Pradesh):The 21-day nationwide lockdown - a measure to flatten the curve of novel coronavirus in the country - has rendered several daily wage labourers and those engaged in the unorganised sector out of work and on the brink of starvation. But ETV Bharat's reportage forced the district administration to come to their rescue.

The members of the Gurjar community - an ethnic agricultural and pastoral community - living along the Uttarakhand - Uttar Pradesh border areas are forced to survive on leaves plucked from trees and milk drawn from their cattle.

A community of around seven families with more than 100 members, the residents of Landi Bada village in Saharanpur, a border district of Uttar Pradesh, do not have a fixed source of income, with most of the men being daily wage workers.

It is the uncertain nature of their work and no social security to fall back on amid a lockdown - when all kinds of work apart from certain essential services have been shut down - that has exposed them to extreme poverty and hunger.

"What do we do, we are running out of fodder for the cattle and food for ourselves. Because of this lockdown, no one can come in and no one can go out. We are lying helpless here...We are daily wage earners, and before the lockdown was announced, we would go to the nearby market area to earn money. Now that the market is shut, where do we go?... We are surviving on milk drawn from the buffaloes, " said an elderly man from the community.

Echoing his statement, an elderly woman from the community, while pointing to a tree, said, "these leaves were consumed by our cattle and now we are eating these because we are running out of food."

Mohammad Suleiman, a member of the community, said, "We are giving milk to the kids and we are eating leaves. We pluck them and boil them before eating them."

Despite tall claims made by the Centre and state governments of providing swift assistance and essential food items to those in need amid the nationwide lockdown, it was only after ETV Bharat visited the village and narrated the ordeal of the members of this community to District Magistrate Akhilesh Kumar that he ordered immediate delivery of relief material to the villagers.