WORK AND PLAY IN KAFER VILLAGE IN THE KALIMPONH HILL REGION

Life in The Kalimpong Hill Region.

A pair of oxen and the wooden plough is shared by all the people of the village.


The Kalimpong Hill region has a very underdeveloped infrastructure; it is mountainous and heavily forested.
The land has to be terraced for growing crops; this is done manually and with the help of oxen. The main crops grown are rice, potatoes, corn, dhal, maize, and several varieties of root and green vegetables. Also bananas, guavas, mangos, grapefruit and pineapple.
They also grow a few cash crops: ginger, broom, cardamom, arrowroot and tea, however tea is not grown in the region I was working in as the land is too heavily forested.
The villagers are hard working, their plot of land is often far from their homestead, water has to be carried to the fields and to the home, there are no mod cons.
Fodder has to be gathered in the forest for their animals and wood for their clay cooking ovens.
Their furniture is very basic and made in the village. They do not have chests of drawers or wardrobes or televisions. A few of the villagers have a wireless, but the reception is poor.
However they love music and have their own local musical instruments. They also love to sing. They are a very hospitable people and very generous, even though they have so little.
Education is very important to them as they realise that unless their children get an education the conditions in the villages will not improve. Their plots of land are small and it is not possible for them to acquire more land. In order for their children to gain paid employment outside of the area, they need an education. Many oif the adults are illiterate.

THE HIMALAYAN CHILDREN EDUCATION TRUST

Teachers of St. Mary’s Tribal School
St. Mary’s is a small tribal school situated in the hill village of Nok Dara in the Kalimpong Hill Region of West Bengal in India.

Nok Dara is a very isolated village; there is no hard surfaced road into the village, so no vehicular access. There is also no industry in the hill villages of this Region. The people are poor financially. They practice subsistence farming and exchange excess produce for other products which they need. Saleable produce eg eggs, bananas and some vegetables will be taken to the weekly market in GitDubling, which is a two to three hour walk over very rough, hilly terrain, they carry their goods in a cloth bag strapped around their foreheads. The money paid for this produce will be used to buy items like: salt, oil for cooking, soap and cloth for making clothes.
The children also have to wear school uniforms, this is very important to them.
Nearly all children in India wear school uniforms. The parents will do without many necessities to provide a school uniform for their children.

Some of the teachers and children have to walk a long distance to school every day.
They have school on a Saturday morning as well.
When the children go home from school, they have to help with many chores eg. collecting wood for the clay stove to cook the evening meal, clean the rice, prepare the vegetable and fetch water. These are just a few of the chores they have to do every day.
They work hard and have no time for play.