Tuesday, March 08, 2011

tribal sports event

A tribal village, which i was able to visit had a lot to tell.
This small tribal village consisting of 8 families took up the challenge of organizing annual sports meet of about 100 villages from that area.

There are 2 other tribal villages villages nearby, with about altogether 50 families in them, who also helped this village to host this event. So in total 58 families are handling sportsmen/women from about 100 villages. there are about 80 teams of volleyball players (each team has at least 6 players), and there are kabaddi & kho-kho teams consisting of women.

A gathering of 700-900 people, how does just 3 villages, consisting of 58 families manage all the organizing and stay of so many people for 2-3 days during this sports meet?

Of course, their preparations had started early. They had collected rs. 100 from each family for expenses of this event. Rice & vegetables were donated by each family. Of course, all the tribal visitors (sports people) also brought in rice & vegetables etc. Which is their custom, and a very logical one in tribal forest areas where resources are not as plenty as in metro cities.

The villagers also had cleared a large area of field and worked together since months to grow vegetables etc. Which would be used during the 2-3 days of the event.

Prior to the event, these 3 village people decorated an open area, where volleyball court, another smaller but similar court for ring throwing, practide areas, ceremony area, small huts where guests can be seated, and a special shelter where tribal everyday artifacts were displayed. Every decoration was made from locally available material, such as bamboo, leaves, chaff, and colored with plant dyes. Even the bouquets given to guests were made from bamboo and local flowers stuck it.

Where would such cooperative work be seen in India except in tribal areas these days? How many families in a same locality would be willing to give up their meagre resources & human-power to host such an event? How many more years would such tribal villages exist? How long would it be before the CWG (common wealth games, which was a corrupt chaotic event in 2010 in India) style management virus will infect such sincere contributions for the community???

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