Musahar kids of Paraswa village are equally happy, but for a different reason. They are overjoyed by the fact that farmers leave behind a lot of wheat ears on there farmlands.[break]
“We go to the farmlands to collect the leftover wheat ears,” said eight-year-old Reshma Majhi. “There is more wheat to collect this year than last year,” she added.
The girl takes along her four-year-old brother Sajan to the fields early in the morning. “We are allowed to enter the fields after the farmers are done with harvesting. This time, they left a lot of wheat ears,” she said.
Paramjyoti, another girl in the village, also goes to the field every day for the same purpose. “If we are lucky, we find enough wheat that we can sell to buy new clothes,” Paramjyoti said, adding, “But if we don´t find anything, we would have nothing to eat.” The girl said she extracts even the wheat stored by mice in their holes.
“Digging holes can be doubly rewarding. I might find mice as well as wheat in the holes,” she said. According to Paramjyoti, ´mice curry´ is one of the favorite dishes in her
community. The parents grind the wheat and cook flat bread.
“We don´t have land for farming and this is how we have been feeding our family,” said Hawanti Devi, a mother of six. She explained that the food grain they get in exchange of labor is not enough to feed her family.
The village has many Tharu households along with 100 Musahar and Chamar households.
Related story
Biting cold afflicts Musahar people
_20191222200001.jpg)
