The field observation was conducted by me in Pratappur for two days. On 5th to 6th January 2026, between 10:00 AM and 4:30 PM. The purpose of my observation was to understand the social life, living conditions, occupational patterns, and basic amenities of Pratappur. For observation, I conducted non-participant, informal, in-depth interviews with villagers to understand their daily lives.
Physical Setting of Village:
Pratappur is organised into several paras (Mohalla), including School, Yadav, and Kutan. All paras are interconnected except the Kutan para. The village has excellent road connectivity; however, the availability of transportation facilities remains a significant challenge. People must walk to the main road to take private buses or use their personal vehicles. The proximity of the canal allows irrigation and ensures a high-water table; hence, households use personal borewells. However, the lack of a formal drainage system is evident from stagnant water around households. Most of the houses in Pratappur are Kuchcha or semi-Kuchcha, and hardly any are Puccahouse (classification as per Census of India). Most houses are surrounded by their own fields, used for agriculture, with paddy as the primary crop, followed by wheat and Mustard. A significant house has a good open yard; use it for drying grains and washing utensils. Every household access electricity but faces load-shading issues, pronounced on summer days. Digital connectivity is present. Ownership of toilets, smartphones, and other assets is unevenly distributed across social groups. Majhwar, Gond, and Oraon have lower levels of assets, reflecting underlying poverty.
Daily Activities and Livelihood Patterns:
The economy is predominantly agrarian, centred around paddy cultivation. Due to the availability of irrigation facilities, double cropping is standard. Supplement to agriculture households do livestock rearing, including cows, goats, buffaloes and chickens for their livelihood. People also work as casual labourers on other farms at a daily wage of 300 rupees. Those people cannot work in the field, go to Ambikapur or Lakhimpur as labour. Kirana shops are also set up by people in the village. Shop ownership is prevalent across social groups. Physical work done by all social groups is not common to Majwar and Oraws. OBC and Kayasth do it. Some young people run stalls selling pani puri and omelettes. They earn 200-300 daily.
Education and Health Facilities:
The village has a primary government school from 1st to 5th standards. I personally visited the school and found that it has only 3 classrooms and 2 male teachers. A total of 17 students are being educated in school. On average, 3.4 students are present in each class. The school building was simple; there was no basic infrastructure, such as desks, washrooms, or drinking water. I visited the school on 5th January 2026, and all students were absent except for one teacher. After primary education, students go to Ambikapur for further education because proper transportation is unavailable. Most students leave their higher education. This phenomenon is quite prevalent in Oraw and Majwar (ST) communities. Students from the OBC and Kayasth communities in Ambikapur prepare for various competitive exams, while students from the ST community in Pratappur are unaware of such exams.
Gender Roles:
Gender roles in the village are clearly defined. Women manage household chores, care for children and elders, and manage water and fuel. Similarly, women help their husbands in the field and manage all livestock. Some girls and women take herds to grazing ground away from home. Despite their heavy workload, most men say they do only household work, and women admit the same. Young girls help their mothers with household chores. Most young boys do nothing. Education of girls is improving; however, child marriage is quite prevalent among girls, especially in the Majwar and Oraw communities. I personally asked a few families about girl’s child marriage. Families say that to avoid elopement, we do early marriage (Head of Household says that “Dunia Kharab ho gayi hai, ladkiya pahile jaisi nahi rahi hai”).
Challenges:
The village faces several challenges, including transportation services, limited access to quality education, healthcare, and employment opportunities. People are terribly suffering from insufficient transportation services – reduced Daily working mobility means people have to work on farms for lower pay. The second-largest problem caused by insufficient transportation is the dropout rate among higher education students. Lack of transportation services makes female students more vulnerable, and finally, they have to drop out of their education.
Similarly, all village adolescents/youth aged 17 to 25 are addicted to alcohol and Ganja. Once I dug deeper, I found that 70 per cent of adolescents are addicted in Pratappur village. Youth says that Ganja is chip (50 rupees per packet) and easily available in village and nearby village.
Dhanora:
The economy of Dhanora is primarily agrarian in nature, with paddy and mustard as the major crops. Both men and women work together in the fields. In Dhanora, most families live in semi-kachha and pucca houses, many of which are well designed. Tap water is available in most households. Families usually construct shelters for their livestock adjacent to their houses. There is stark gendered division of labour. The care and nourishment of livestock are mainly the responsibility of women.
A significant number of male heads of households have completed education up to the 10th standard, whereas their female counterparts are not equally educated; many women are either uneducated or illiterate. This paint distinct gender disparity in literacy. Educated parents appear to be more aware of the importance of their children’s education. this clear that intergenerational effect in education.
Most households belong to the Oraon community, which is classified as a Scheduled Tribe. A significant proportion of the Oraon community follows Christianity, and the present generation represents the third generation practicing this religion. This indicates the long-standing cultural shift. Dhanora has a government school that provides education from Classes 1 to 8. However, personal site visit revealed a significant infrastructure-resource gaps. school suffered from adequate number of classrooms consequently Primary students force sit on ground. There is no drinking water facilties and sepates kitchen-shed which pose health issues of students. Once I discussed with female teacher about inadequate facilities in school. Her reply was quite interested. She said “thanks god government are not closing this school”. This highlights the institutional negligence about education in state. I found the contrast; parents are hopeful but state infrastructure failing them. After completing Class 8, students travel to Ambikapur for further studies. However, I encountered that some students drop out after the 8th standard due to a lack of interest in education and difficulties related to travel. This phenomenon is quite prevalent among Majwar and Oraon belongs to Hindu religion as their religion haven’t done anything for school like Christianity have very good hostel and college in Ambikapur.Those who drop out often migrate to parts of Gadchiroli.
Some households reported that their children, both boys and girls, migrate to cities such as Gurgaon and Mumbai and engage in informal work, particularly platform-based work. Well-settled relatives in these cities often encourage and support this migration. This unearths the importance of social capital in labour market. During the survey, I encountered one household where a woman lived with her daughter after her husband abandoned her following the birth of two daughters. Upon further discussion, and on the condition of anonymity, she revealed that she had earlier undergone two abortions of female foetuses. This indicates that a preference for male children continues to persist in society.
Puta:
Puta is a village comprising about 200 households. It is located nearly 42 km away from Ambikapur district. The village is divided into several paras such as Tikrapara, Kharadand, Yadav Para, Korbapara and others. I observed two different paras like Tikrapara and Yadav para, Tikrapara is located far from the main village. There is no proper connectivity to reach this para whereas Yadav para is centralize, with better connectivity. Tikrapara is dominated by Majwar and Oraon communities, while Yadav para belongs OBC. hence, I did the comparative analysis about their socio-economic conditions. For observation I employed non-participant, informal, in-depth interviews with villagers.
Housing Condition:
Almost all Majwar and Oraon families live in kuchha houses, whereas Yadav families live in semi-kuchha houses. Majwar people construct their houses themselves without the help of external workers, using mud from their own land and paddy straw. The houses are quite distant from one another. Housing condition reflects clear socio-economic disparity in two communities.
Occupation and Livelihood:
Agriculture is the main occupation of most households in Puta. Paddy is the major crop. Most households belonging to the Majwar and Oraon communities own very small patches of land; therefore, they also work as labourers on other farms. Majwar and Oraon in Puta take only one crop per year due to insufficient irrigation facilities. However, families belonging to the Yadav community own a substantial amount of land and have better irrigation facilities through privates borewells leads to cultivate two crops per year. This clearly show that disparity in ownership of land between two communities. This disparity directly impacts the overall living standards of the families.
A significant number of households own livestock, including cows, buffaloes, and goats. I also observed that OBC Yadav families own cows and buffaloes, whereas Majwar and Oraon families own only goats and hens. Majwar and Oraon communities still depend on hunting birds for survival. People go to nearby forests for hunting and use traditional “gulel” (slingshots). As OBC own the high value livestock provides them better protein and secondary income whereas STs depends on low value livestock which provides lower level of nutrition and income. hence, at first glance, children belongs to Majwar and Oraon appear to be suffering from malnutrition, undernutrition, and being underweight.
Educational Status:
Due to lack of infrastructure and vicious circle of poverty Majwar and Oraon communities keep away from education. I closely observed that all heads of households are illiterate, and the same is true for their female counterparts. When I asked about their children’s education, I realized that all children aged 1 to 15 are illiterate, as none of them attend school. There is no school or anganwadi nearby, and the nearest school is located far from their homes. Moreover, there is no proper road to reach the school. During the rainy season, the road is often flooded, so families do not send their children alone. Family members stated that they cannot accompany their children to school as they have to go to work. Most older children stay at home to take care of their younger siblings.
The educational situation among OBCs is relatively better compared to ST communities. Most household heads in OBC families have attained secondary-level education; however, their female counterparts are mostly illiterate. Children from OBC families perform better in education.
Assets ownership:
I found a clear inequality in asset ownership between Oraon, Majwar, and Yadav families. Most Oraon and Majwar households own only a mobile phone. I also found two families from these communities who do not have mobile phones or electricity in their homes. Women use traditional “chulhas” to cook food, and women and older girls have to collect firewood from nearby forests. The availability of water is also a major concern, as people have to travel long distances to fetch water belongs to ST.
Social Issue:
Child marriage is a common phenomenon in both communities. Girls are married before the age of 18, whereas boys get married at a later age. Moreover, dowry quite prevalent among OBC communities. Similarly, people belonging to the Majwar community prefer “Shadu-Baba” (traditional healers) over doctors for treating family members. I came across one such family where the head of the household died due to “PILIA” (Jaundice) because of a delay in seeking medical treatment, as the family initially relied on Babas.
Conclusion:
Observation reveals stark socio-economic inequality between two communities (ST and OBC) in Puta village. Poor infrastructure, lack educational facilities and lack of basic service push the Majwar and Oraon households into vicious circle of poverty. In contrast, Yadav (OBC) enjoys better ownership of land, education and other service to increase their living standard.
– Ajay