JHABUA

Jhabua is a district in Madhya Pradesh located to extreme west of the state. It shares its boundary with states of Gujarat and Rajasthan. Most of the people in Jhabua belong to the Scheduled Tribe community. It is considered as backward district as the district is way behind the nation average in parameters of development. One of such is literacy rate. As per 2011 census, the literacy rate of Jhabua is just 44%. 52% males are literates and when it comes to women it is as low as 34%. But this data is aggregate of whole district. 

The literacy rate in villages like Samriya wada  is even less. In our project as per some rough calculations the literacy rate of this villages can be even lesser than 10%. About 91% of the population of district lives in rural areas. This shows how far the district stands in urbanization. 85.60 % of people in Jhabua district belongs to Scheduled Tribe community as mentioned before ST’s grab lions share in terms of population. Sex ratio in Jhabua is 989 girls for every 1000 boys. 

Adivasi slang of Hindi is the most spoken language in Jhabua. Among tribes in Jhabua Bhils are more in number. Jhabua is a highly drought prone area. Though most of the people primary occupation is agriculture in Jhabua, the land in Jhabua district is not suitable for agriculture. In 2006 the Ministry of Panchayati Raj named Jhabua one of the country’s 250 most backward districts of 640 districts. 

Crops like maize are prevalent in Jhabua. Narmada river forms the southern boundary of the district. The terrain is hilly, undulating typically known as Jhabua hills topography. Most of the part of Jhabua is without any forest cover because of low fertility of land and soil erosion even mere existence becomes a hard problem and with the failure of rains the Bhills take to crime.

The area of Jhabua district is 6793 sq kms. There are about 1313 inhabited villages. As per the government statistics 47 % of the people live in below poverty line in this district. But the percentage is even much greater considering the global standards. 

Jhabua is a very poor district in terms of economy. But Jhabua is a great place in terms of nature. There are many scenic places in Jhabua to visit. It is probably the most untouched part in India. When it comes to Jhabua it is more natural than concrete. Even most of the villages in Jhabua have houses made of mud walls. The climate at the time of Monsoon is very good in Jhabua. 

BHIL TRIBE

Bhils or Bheel are primarily an Adivasi people of North West India. They mostly speak a Adivasi dialect of Hindi. Madhya Pradesh has the third most concentration of Bhils. In Bhil community Joint family is more prevalent. Child marriages i.e, marriage before girl reaching 18 years of age is prevalent in this area. 

Though most of the elders in Bhil community have no formal education, they put education as priority for their younger ones. For most of the people of Bhil community agriculture is the primary occupation. They raise crops such as maize etc.., in Jhabua region. 

Most of the people in Bhil community live in extreme poverty. Modernization is not seen in Bhil community as they are very backward. Their progress rate is very slow for which they are far behind the remaining world. 

Bhil villages are generally dispersed, and each village consists of 30-40 families. They worship many Hindu gods. Apart from major gods like SHIVA, GANESHA, KRISHNA they also worship deities. They have some doll like things with turmeric and all sprinkled in it. They have a believe that god takes that form when they pray to god and listen to their odds.  

Bhil dialect consists of Rajasthani, Gujarati, Hindi, Marathi words. Anthropologists believe that the word Bhil is derived from the Dravidian word bil or vil, meaning a bow. Over a period of time, the Bhils have given up hunting, and have taken to agriculture. They use very primitive tools, and even their agricultural style is very simplistic.

The most popular entertainment among the Bhil tribal consists of story-telling combined with dancing music. They address their disputes in panchayats and gets it settled. 

It is believed that Bhils are now doing some robberies, etc. in some areas on Madhya Pradesh like in Jhabua. This is rather expected. As people in Jhabua cannot experience good rains for agriculture their productivity is very less. Due to this even their living becomes difficult so they are opting such odd practices.
Bhils formed community and they show their unity when they are collectively facing odd situations.