A brief introduction of Mineral Spring

a. Geographical location:

Harsing, Dabaipani and Yangkhoo Busties lie on the Lebong Spur of the Darjeeling-Jalapahar Range, one of the great hill ranges radiating northwards towards Darjeeling from the central point, a saddle at Ghoom. Harsing Busty is located 10 Km. away from Darjeeling Town. Yangkhoo and Dabaipani are further away across the valley. The extremity of Dabaipani would be 15 Km. The busties come under Darjeeling Sub-division and Block Development Office, Bijanbari. Harsing Busty is made up of three hamletts; Panighumti Dhura (Panighumti and School Dhura), Gairee Gaon (Gairee Gaon and Bar Botay) and Dara Gaon Yankhoo Busty is made up of two hamlets; Aeghara Number (11 No.). and Yankhoo Busty, Dabainpani Busty is made up of six hamlets; Godown Dhura, Kothi Dhura, Pandhuray Gaon (7 No.), Balbir Dhura, Saila Dhura and Aam Botay- (refer Map and list of farmers)

These Busties(Villages) form the major portion of what constituted the Harrison Tea Estate. The tea garden closed in 1952 because of mismanagement and irresponsible trade unionism. The people, for the next decade, survived by selling tea leaves to the neighbouring estates during the plucking season. At other times, they felled trees in the tea garden reserve forest and sold firewood and charcoal.

Come 1962, the reserve forest had exhausted and the hope of the tea garden re-opening had receded further. The people, then began to uproot the tea bushes to cultivate other crops like maize and millet. The lack of knowledge of cultivation and the high acidity of the soil led to extremely low production. Cultivation of tea over a long period renders the soil acidic. Even after uprooting the tea bushes it takes years before the soil becomes suitable for agriculture.

The people of these busties were mainly daily wage labourers in Harrison Tea Estate. They were engaged throughout the year in the tea estate at various stages of tea production. They depended solely on the tea estate for their livelihood and were not engaged in any other productive economic activity. Thus, agriculture was an alien lifestyle for them in which they failed miserably.

Tea is cultivated in slopes whereas for agriculture to be viable in the hills one has to practise terrace cultivation. It takes expertise to cut terrace in the hills otherwise one has to pay heavy losses due to soil erosion. Terracing was also a new activity for the ex-tea garden labourers and till date many are yet to be convinced of the efficacy of terraced farming.

The people, therefore, had been rendered virtual destitutes in their own land, bonded to the middlemen and resigned to their fate.

The transformation into agricultural communities, unorganised sector with individual initiative and operation has been a difficult proposition leading to various problems.

b. Social:

The people of this community are mostly Rais and Chettris with a

few Mukhias who are all members of the Nepali community with Nepali

being the common and binding language.

The people in these villages can be described as "refugees" in their own land. The loss of traditional occupation has resulted in social disorientation. Agriculture as a way of life has yet to sink into the minds of the people. Given a chance they give up agriculture completely and revert back to wage earning like working as construction labourers however short-lived it may be.

There is a road that is being built through the villages. During the time of survey there was not one family who did not have someone who was working as a construction labourer on the road. Some had even neglected their agriculture completely, even when they knew that this work was very temporary.

In 1985, from 135 families the total milk sold was an average of 600 litres per day. Today, 1996, among 307 families total milk sold is 568 litres per day. A lot of people have stopped keeping cows in the villages today. No doubt, the low price of milk is an important factor but the people fail to see the multitude of benefits of keepipg cattle. In a traditional agricultural community no family is seen without a cow as it gives both milk and manure. Today, the low agricultural productivity in Harsing busties is essentially due to lack of manure.

It is true that other agricultural communities also supplement their income through casual labour but it never becomes their dominant economic activity. Even after years of Harrison Tea Estate closure, the people have yet to become masters of their own destiny as agriculturists and still find wage labour an easier option. They have very low self-esteem and display an attitude of despair. When discussing idea of development for themselves with the people, 30.25% had no idea. No idea had the highest weightage in people’s idea of development.

Literacy rate – 68.17%, female literacy rate – 56.92% and male literacy rate – 77.35% of all the villages is higher than that of the Dazjeeling District (Rural) 1991 figures of 49.17%, 59.96% and 37.53% respectively. But this does not say much as the parameter for literacy taken was the official one which says, a person who can read and write one's name in one's mother tongue is taken as a literate person. The real picture emerges when we look at the educational qualification break up of the different hamlets. Most of the students go up to the secondary level only and only a mere 2 have passed their Higher Secondary (10+2) and 4 have passed their Degree(10+2+2 or 3). The drop out rate is very high with 33 students dropping out before their Secondary Examination and one before the Degree Examination. Higher education is beyond the reach of most people due to their poor economic status. One has to stay away from the village or trek 3-4 hours daily for higher education as facilities are available only in the towels.

The government primary school and health services do not reach all the villages or do not function properly. There is a general lack of social awareness and social organisation to address such issues. in a Samaj(informal social organisation), there is a group of elders, who are either elected or selected by the community, called the Panchas, who take charge of marriages, deaths, births and minor disputes amongst villagers but they do not address issues beyond it.

The lack of communication has produced a sense of isolation. This is further compounded by the geographical isolation for these villages under the jurisdiction of the Block Development Office, Bijanbari which are not contiguous to the other villages under the same block.

c. Economic:

Today all the people of Harsing, Dabaipani and Yangkhoo Busties practise subsistence agriculture for a living. When available they do shift over to wage labour as construction or agricultural labourers but this work is very short lived and temporary. Most of the people have small and uneconomic land holding, the average of all the villages being a mere 1.48 acres. They derive very low income, the average per family income(annual) being Rs. 11822.76. The people lack expertise in adopting new means of livelihood through agricultural and related pursuits. The land though small have not been properly utilised.

The people grow a variety of crops, the most common being corn, and millet in the lower elevations. A variety of vegetables are also grown. These crops are basically for consumption within the household. When possible, vegetables are taken to the market but this is rather seldom. The most important cash crop is ginger, places which is marshy it is cardamom and in lower elevations, oranges. Today, none of the cash crops are faring well and their productivity is very law. As is normally the case, cash crops are highly capital intensive and when the inputs are not sufficient, yields are drastically reduced. This is what is happening here, today. The people cannot bear the expenses of the necessary inputs, so, the yield has reduced drastically. In the first year of planting ginger, the yield can be as high as 18 fold, but within 3 years it reduces to a steady 3 fold and stays at that. Cultivating it for too long makes the soil, unfit for other crops too. All the three cash crops are infected with pests too.

Almost all the families have amliso. Amliso (Thysanolaena maxima.(Roxb.) 0. Kuntze) is a multi-purpose plant, its leaves serve as fodder, its older stem as firewood and its blossom is used to make broomsticks. Most people of Dabaipani, a few in Yangkhoo have tea bushes bordering their fields. From February to November they pluck tea leaves and produce hand made tea at home.

Almost all the families have cattle but the number is reducing due to lack of proper remuneration for their milk. But, this has serious long term fallouts as reduction in cattle means reduction in manure and ultimately agricultural productivity. Depending on the community they belong to, the people rear pigs or goats. Traditionally Rais rear pigs only while Chettris rear goats only. Everyone has a few chicken for domestic consumption.

The inaccessibility to market due to lack of communication facilities reduce the earning capacity of the people. For all marketing purpose the villagers rely on middlemen either from the village or outside. Most of these middlemen are also shop owners. The people take credit from these middlemen and pay off by giving them their agricultural produce at the middlemen's rate. Thus, the people are completely under the mercy of these middlemen who dictate rates of interest and price of agricultural produce. Thus, when the market value of milk is Rs. 8-10 per litre, the rate in the villages ranges from Rs. 3-5. Total milk sold per day is 502 litres which fetches the villagers Rs.1,781.88 only. The same milk fetches Rs.4518.00 in the market. There exists a gap of Rs.2736.12 between the price the milk fetches in the village and the market per day which is siphoned off by the middlemen. Tea leaves is sold for Rs.130-150 per Kg. in Darjeeling when it fetches a maximum of Rs. 65 per Kg. in the village. Total tea sold per year is 3771Kg. which fetches the villagers Rs.246415.00. The same tea fetches Rs.565650.00 in the market, the difference being Rs.319235.00 which again goes to the middlemen. This disparity is true for every commodity. So, a major part of the profit is creamed off by the middlemen leaving the people high and dry.

The village lack economic organisations and there is a genera1 lack of awareness of government facilities. As mentioned earlier, Harsing busties came under the perview of the Plantation Labour Act, 1951. They have come under the perview of the Panchayat System only since 1983. Gram Panchayat is the lower most village level elected body of the three tier system of local self government . This elected body looks after the Government Development and Welfare Schemes at the village level. Harsing, Dabaipani and Yangkhoo came under Harsing Hatta I and II of the Block Development Office, Bijanbari.

To add woe to misery Bijanbari, Block Office is not easily accessible to the people of Harsing as it is quite far away. It takes three days for a person to go to the Block Office and back. Reaching the Block office is not enough as one has to know and be able to comprehend the formalities regarding various schemes.

After years, the land reforms department are finally conducting a survey and measuring individual land holding size of Harsing busties.