Sitting in the balmy winter sun outside her decrepit hut with granddaughter Laghu Jogi, Vaju Jogi says she has been running a temperature for the last two days. She shares the hut on the outskirts of Malawa village of Dhan panchayat in Sirohi district’s Reodar block with her youngest son Ishwar Jogi, the latter’s wife and three children.

The huts around Vaju are equally dilapidated, occupied by her five other sons and her only daughter, all of whom live with their families.

The men of the household, all daily wage earners, are out, hoping to get lucky today and return with enough cash to feed their families in the evening. The children, 10 out of 12, and women, are out as well: some begging and others eyeing menial jobs. Kamlesh and Sona, two of the youngest children, too young to ask for either alms or work, are the only ones around Vaju and Laghu.

A thatched roof supported by four bamboos and without the four walls is the family kitchen. Vaju and Laghu are waiting for the others to return with some food so that the first meal of the day could be cooked.  

Shivering, Vaju suddenly realises the temperature is pretty high, and Laghu soon carries her inside the hut. But why not take her to the government hospital in Reodar just about 5 kilometres away? “She will be fine in a day or two,” Laghu Jogi says hesitantly.

They would not take her to the hospital, one learns later, since that would cost about Rs 100, an amount the family can ill afford.

So who are the Jogis?
Vaju and her extended family’s account could be true for all 1,000 Jogi families in Sirohi district. Living on a small piece of land on outskirts of the village, Vaju’s family members are deemed encroachers on panchayat land, despite living at the same place for nearly two decades.

The plot housing their huts is said to be the panchayat’s pasture land. And since neither Vaju Jogi’s extended family nor the other 1,000 households in the district own land, they cannot partake in any government schemes for the poor. In other words, they are invisible for the panchayat, the block, the district, and the state.

They live, but the administration refuses to acknowledge them.

The Jogis are one of the many nomadic tribes of Rajasthan who have moved from one place to another for centuries to ply their trade as snake charmers, singers or dancers.

For the last two decades, however, they have settled on the outskirts of villages all across Sirohi. Considered untouchables, other villagers keep them out of bounds, and settled on pasture land belonging to different panchayats, the Jogis live perpetually in the fear of eviction.

Returning home after failing to get any work for the day, Boja Jogi, who is married to Vaju’s daughter Suja, says the sarpanch of Dhan panchayat threatens to evict their families every other month. “He says we have usurped panchayat land,” Boja says.

The threats are discreet ways of asking for bribe, which they cannot afford any way, he adds. 

Taunted, rebuked, threatened
As we talk, Vaju’s daughter Suja returns with some food she managed while begging in a nearby village. Kamlesh and Sona run to her to get their share of the food.

One of Vaju’s grandsons, Mukesh, 10, also returns. He works in the fields of local farmers for a lowly daily wage of Rs 70. While he is wearing a blue shirt, part of the primary school uniform, Mukesh does not attend school. He did go to the nearby primary school, for two or three months but was kicked out by “upper caste students”.

“They called him untouchable and refused to eat with him the midday meal provided by the school. He was unable to face the taunts and dropped out,” the boy’s mother, Suja Jogi, says. 

The taunts, rebuke and threats by residents of their village and ones in the vicinity have pushed the Jogis into hiding. Until you belong to the area, or you know a Jogi, it is impossible to locate one.

Typically, five to 10 families live in a small enclosure far from hostile and prying eyes of surrounding villages. They keep dogs to guard themselves.

Officials? Their ‘hands are tied’

Though aware of their plight, senior administration officials express helplessness in doing anything for the community. “The last SDM said they (Jogis) could not be considered for any government scheme if their names are not in 2001 census. His hands were tied,” says Brij Mohan Sharma of the Society for All-Round Development, a local NGO that conducted a survey of Jogi families in Reodar block. 

“The SDM later told us that NGOs need to organise some protest programmes in the state capital to get them heard,” Sharma recalls. 

While the local population has disowned and declared them outcast, the district administration chooses to ignore the Jogis.

When Governance Now visits his office to learn more about the problem, district social welfare officer Mangi Lal Maroo at first cannot recollect who the Jogis are. “Oh, it’s the beggars you are talking about,” he says a little later, a trifle derisively. “But who said they are not taken into account by the state? They are the offshoots of the Kalbelia tribe who are listed as scheduled caste by the Rajasthan government.

“They (Jogis) are thus beneficiaries of welfare schemes meant for SCs.”

But if they are eligible for government benefits under schemes meant for SCs, why are they not receiving any help?

It’s a bit of bureaucratic maze coupled with a unique catch-22 situation. There’s no simple answer to the riddle.

A government official in the district headquarters (name withheld on request) blames their plight on the nomadic nature of the Jogis. “Since they move from place to place, they could not be included in the 2001 census and thus, unfortunately, they went out of the ambit of any welfare scheme,” he explains.

Therefore, even though the community is listed as SC, they have been disowned simply because they do not own a patta for land, or have not been counted in 2001 census. Further, since people from the community do not vote, they are of little consequence for the political class. The Jogis cannot work under MNREGS as well, as they do not have job cards. Why? Because one needs to be the resident of a village to get a job card. It’s a vicious cycle, and one with no end in sight.