The Bawarias : Socially and Politically Ignored Community

Every community is bearing its separate social, cultural and economic properties. Castes those are economically poor and socially neglected are included in scheduled castes. The statutory lists of scheduled castes are notified pursuance of articles 341 of the Constitution of India. After special notification for scheduled castes in Constitution of India, these castes are very poor in economic and social condition, than other castes and are poorly developed. In aforesaid reference a community also lives in isolated and outskirts of villages. The living style is very specific than other community and is called Bawaria. They look like nomadic tribes. They are also known as Khogi-Bawaria, Mogia, Bawaria, Baori, Bhora and Van Bawaria. They are mostly distributed in Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. The urban and rural communities dont like Bawarias, because they hunt and are not capable to take bath daily. They have been traditionally depending on forest products and have survived by hunting and gathering non-timber products. The degradation of forests rendered Bawaria critically helpless, landless and homeless. So they have to struggle even for any open habitat of the outskirts of human settlements. These people are away from civilization and depend on primary occupation and having separate life style, dialect and culture. Bawaria are not only illiterate but also shorn of vocational or livelihood skills. They have less drinking water, education, medical facilities and this community is categorized with many evils. They are traditionally backward from social, economical, educational and are very far from cultural development. This community has very low population in all the regions, therefore this community is politically and socially neglected. Hence this community is unable to follow the progress. After seventy years of our independence we must evaluate how far we have succeeded in achieving our goal related to the scheduled castes and nomadic tribal people and their socio-cultural and economic development. It seems that the various plans and programmes and their implementation could not play a catalyst role in the terms of generating the forces within the scheduled castes and tribal communities, which can promote change in the socio-cultural and economic conditions of these communities. In this context it is being realized that in making the attempts for the development of scheduled castes and tribal communities, they have to come forward to take the responsibility of their development themselves. Though their socio-cultural and economic status has not changed much, their attitudes and lifestyles are being affected or influenced by the development interventions. Thus it assumes significance to explore the socio-cultural and economic study of Bawaria community.