Monkey slayer tribe from Goa to debut as voters in LS polls

A tribe of monkey slayers in Goa would be making their debut as voters in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections for the first time since Independence.

And their expectations from public representatives are simple: construction of toilets and providing them with electricity connections.

Though votes of 40 members, including 20 women, of the 100-member group may not be of a consequence for any political party, the tribals are excited over the sense of empowerment.

This Nomadic Tribe (NT) monkey slayers or "Vanarmare" traditionally inhabited dense forest areas in Goa.

Currently, they live in Nirancal-Dabhal village, around 90 kms away from here, which falls under South Goa Lok Sabha constituency.

All the 40 voters from the tribe had voted for the first time in the 2017 state Assembly elections, recording a 100 per cent turnout.

Activist and agriculturist Sachin Tendulkar, who took the initiative of rehabilitating this tribe that earlier never existed on the demographic map of the country, says it took several years to get the tribe members the ration cards, voter identification cards and the Aadhaar cards.

Cut off from the mainstream, the tribe members now do odd jobs for survival since killing of monkeys is banned under the Wildlife Protection Act.

Gopal Vasant Powar, the head of the tribe, told PTI that they are eager to vote.

"After getting voting cards and Aadhaar cards, we feel as if we are also Indian citizens. It's good to feel one amongst the others," he said.

Powar recalled how the members of his community never heard about voting till recently, as they were disassociated from the mainstream.

Due to their rehabilitation, several children from the tribe have started attending schools and pre-primary institutions.

"When they were taken to schools for admission, the main issue was the birth certificate. Our children were born in jungle and no one remembered their age or the date of birth," Powar said.

Tendulkar said authorities allowed education to the children from the tribe under the Right to Education Act.

"For the convenience of all, each of them was given a single date of birth--January 1," he said, adding that the year of birth of the children is estimated depending on the memory of their parents.

The tragedy of the tribe, which earlier lived in the forests of the Goa, Maharashtra and Karnataka before settling at Nirancal-Dabhal, is the addiction to alcohol.

So much so that the elderly people amongst the tribe members who were skilled in monkey slaying have died due to excessive drinking, Tendulkar said.

No MP or MLA has bothered to visit them so far.

When asked about their expectations from the Central government, Power who is the eldest member of the tribe, said they need toilets and electricity connections.

"We have to defecate in the open due to lack of toilets. We want the government to look into our demand," he added.

BJP's sitting MP Narendra Sawaikar and Francisco Sardinha of Congress are main rivals from South Goa constituency.