LIFE IN A BHUMIJ VILLAGE DURING LOCKDOWN: AN EXPLORATIVE STUDY

Abstract

Since midnight of March 25, 2020, India's 1.3 billion people had gone under total lockdown to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and this prolonged countrywide lockdown has a serious impact on the life of the Indian tribes like their income, occupation, social life, personal life etc., as they are the most vulnerable and poor marginalized people of India, having neglected through the ages in every aspect of their life and livelihood. Bhumij tribe is one of them. They mainly reside in the Indian state of Odisha, Jharkhand, and West Bengal. Lutia is a typical Bhumij concentrated village in the area of Simlabandh under Hirbandh community development block of Khatra sub-division in the district of Bankura of the Indian state of West Bengal. By maintaining proper social distance and wearing face mask we have taken in-depth interview of 25 villagers of different age group and gender belong to Bhumij tribal community in this village on the various aspects of their day to day life, their education, their health awareness especially about the awareness regarding COVID-19, their culture, religious and supernatural beliefs, etc. by adopting purposive sampling technique method along with tried to know their opinion and views regarding the impact of countrywide lockdown to their daily life. Therefore, in this paper, an attempt has been made to explore their life during the lockdown. KEY WORDS: Bhumij tribe, Life of Bhumij, Lockdown, Covid-19, Lutia Village of Bankura district.