By Team
More than 180 Christian families in 32 villages across Chhattisgarh’s Kanker district in India have reportedly been denied access to communal water sources and livelihood opportunities for the past three weeks as punishment for refusing to leave their Christian faith.
Many Christian families in the Antagarh region of the district have been barred from using community rivers, ponds, taps, and hand pumps. At the same time, individuals have been denied work under a government employment scheme, and families have been prevented from collecting and selling forest produce.
Denial of Natural Resources
The Kanker district of central India’s Chhattisgarh state is tribal dominated with vast areas of deciduous forests. The primary sources of livelihood for such tribal communities, also known as Adivasis, are subsistence agriculture and the collection of Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs).
These two activities are deeply intertwined, with the forests acting as a vital economic safety net for food security and supplemental cash income for the Adivasis.
Tribals use the state’s abundant forest resources to gather produce for direct consumption and sell surpluses in local weekly markets, known as “haat-bazars.”
For example, Tendu leaves used for rolling bidis, or local cigarettes, are a massive source of income, heavily supported by state minimum support price (MSP) schemes. Other products include mahua flowers and seeds collected for food, oil extraction, and brewing traditional liquor, as well as chironji, amla, tamarind, honey, and bamboo.
Now this forest produce itself is being denied to the Adivasi Christians along with water, a vital need especially during this year’s sizzling summer season.
This story was originally published in persecution.org. Read the full story here.