A Journey with the Birhors in Hazaribag

An invisible community, shunned by the world around it, becomes the focus of intervention, leading to inclusion for the first time and the beginning of change. Lasting social transformation, however, can only come about with long-term empathic engagement.

B irhor literally means the forest man. The word ‘Birhor’ is derived by combining two Mundari terms— ‘Bir’, meaning forest and ‘Hor’, meaning man. Birhors belong to one of the 75 Primitive Tribal Groups (PTG) Listed by the Government of India. They belong to the Proto-Australoid stock and, linguistically, they originate from the Austro-Asiatic group. The Birhors believe that they are the descendents of the Sun and that they are related to the Kharwar tribe that also descended from the Sun.

According to the 1991 Census, the population of the Birhors in Jharkhand is 8,038 and they live mainly in Palamu, Garhwa, Singhbhum, Giridih, Lohardaga, Ranchi, Hazaribag and Gumla. Only 15 per cent of them are literate. Traditionally, they are a food gathering and hunting community and their economic activities have been closely linked with the forest. Rope making, by collecting the bauhinia creeper has been their major source of income. Their economic activities are, however, undergoing a change. Driven by survival strategies, they are pursuing whatever activities are immediately available. The degradation of forests has affected their traditional economy and has introduced a certain level of instability.

The Birhors are nomads, who move from one jungle to the other, practising shifting cultivation; when the food supply of a particular forest is exhausted, they move to another forest. The Birhor settlement is known as a tanda, which comprises several huts. The huts are conical in shape and are erected with the help of leaves and branches. The houses of the more settled Birhors are made of mud walls, bamboo and wood, thatched with phus (grass and straw) or handmade tiles, which they have learnt to make from their neighbours.