The Sabar of East Singhbhum district, huddled in tiny huts, are haunted by hunger and illness.
One may never get to know how the Sabar live unless one looks for them. Even that requires guidance from someone who knows where they stay. We reached their hamlets, or rather their scattered huts, at the end of narrow country paths in a remote corner of Potka Block in East Singhbhum district, Jharkhand. On the way we met a number of Santhal men who were cycling to local markets with loads of wood, piled high on their carriers using ingenious contraptions. They lived in humble but beautifully decorated kaccha houses that seemed, on the way back, like abodes of comfort in comparison with the Sabar hamlets.
The first Sabar "house" we reached was just a tiny hut made of twigs, leaves and sticks. It was hard to believe that anyone could actually live in such a miserable dwelling, not even tall enough for someone to stand in. The hut, inhabited by an elderly couple, was bare of any possessions except a few pots and some sort of thin bedding. Perhaps it was not a permanent dwelling, but one of the shelters the Sabar build from time to time as they move around the forests of Jharkhand. The fact remains that this is all they have.
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