The Report - North 24 Parganas

30. MAHENDRA SARDAR HALDERNREGA has stabilised the life of poor villagers fulfilling some of their basicneeds of food and waterMahendra Sardar Halder os 40 years old and his wife Purnima sardar have a jointmonthly income of Rs. 900. They are residents of the village Bailani Ghoratobla.The son of Ajit Halder, this forty year old biri maker was born here. He says thatwhen he was around four or five years old, Bailani used to be a jungle. Therewere four or five tribal families who lived there. Later other families came to settlethere and together they cleared the jungle and made a village out of it. Halder’sgrandfather told him that their ancestors used to live in a place called Koraghat.They sold the land there and came here to settle. Mahendra was born here. TheDasha River changed its course a long time ago, before Mahendra was bornand the previous course has now turned into a canal (khaal). That is why onementions this place as Bispur, Chorpar. It is said, a long time ago a lot of horsesused to be found in this region and that is why the region where MahendraSardar lives is called ‘Ghoratobla’.Mahendra’s monthly income is around nine hundred rupees. He gets thirtyrupees for every thousand biris made. Mahendra Sardar had a card issued tohim for biri making around 1988-89 by the Hingalgunj Sadar. But due to anunfortunate fire in the house, he lost it and though he had been to theHingalgunj many times after that, the card was not issued to him again on thepretext that the Sadar does not have the jurisdiction to issue it anymore. “I havebeen to Barasat on the first of this month with my wife and asked at the DMoffice,” he says, “but they could not tell me and asked me to speak to someonecalled Bhaskar. We met him and he too said that he would not be able to sayanything about the card but that he does pass the loans that are given forstarting a biri making business.” The card had a medical facility attached to it.The biri maker would get some money from the government if he suffers fromTuberculosis or any other ailment. It had been promised that biri card holderswould get quarters from the government. But as Sardar has lost the card, he isunable to get these facilties.The Sardars are a family of four – husband, wife and two sons. He got married atthe age of twenty eight or twenty nine and the eldest son is around eleven yearsold. Sardar claims that nine hundred rupees a month is certainly not enough torun four stomachs properly. He had been given a form from the Block Office toopen a grocer’s store. He had filled the form and had appeared for an interviewin Barasat. But till date nothing has been done about it. It is a hand to mouthsituation for them. He has started the grocery store and gets materials from the