Van Gujjars to vote for the first time in Uttarakhand

NAINITAL: In a first, the Uttarakhand forest department in collaboration with the Election Commission is going to provide polling booths to

Van Gujjars

, a community which lives in forest areas of the state and which has never voted before, mainly due to low awareness levels and unavailability of polling booths in these areas.

During the upcoming assembly elections, more than 1,600 Van Gujjar voters will be able to vote for the first time in the Terai region of Kumaon. Awareness campaigns are already being run by the forest department to motivate them to vote, officials said.

Parag Madhukar Dhakate, conservator of forests, western circle, told TOI, “We are going to provide polling booths at forest rest houses and schools running in the vicinity of the community’s settlements. We are also running awareness campaigns to get them to participate in the electoral process.”

A total of 450 Van Gujjar families reside in the Terai region, which includes three forest divisions — Terai East, Terai West, Terai Central. Van Gujjars have been residing in the forests of the state since the 1950s. A sizable chunk of the Van Gujjar population resides around Rajaji and Corbett national parks and in Haridwar, Nainital, Udham Singh Nagar, Tehri and Pauri districts.

In 2015, the chief minister had announced that the 75,000-strong community in the state would be brought into the mainstream. The state government has formulated a plan with the education and forest departments working together to impart education to the tribe.

In 2009, on the insistence of the then governor Margaret Alva, the process for inclusion of those who were left out began and 1,610 people applied. That process is yet to be completed.

"Van Gujjars do not have birth certificates to support their claims of being 18 by the cut-off date. Medical procedures for age confirmation are not authenticated either," a forest official said, adding that since former chief minister Vijay Bahuguna directed the forest department not to interfere or cross-check the Van Gujjars' entry or exit in the forest area, there is no record of exactly how many of them are living inside Rajaji at present.