Balhi Marandi stands at the edge of a pond. Balancing on her toes, she stretches to reach a banana flower. She aims the sickle at the tear-drop-like blossom and closes her eyes to protect them from the sap. She strikes once and then again and again. Nothing. She laughs at her attempt.
Marandi is at her pond in Bhalubasa village in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district. A cattle track across a now-empty farm plot lies next to it. In the distance, a herd of goats and cows are heading back home.
Marandi has another go at the banana flower, with determination clear on her face. A clean swish is heard. The banana flower is lying on the ground. She tosses a victorious smile at her daughter and nieces.
Marandi proceeds to pick vegetables she has been growing around the pond. Hunched over, she plucks a few brinjals, uproots some greens, and places them on the ground. She wades into the pond, water up to her knees, pulls out weeds, and throws them on the bank. A mosquito net lies close by. She will use it to catch small fish.
This is her usual preparation for cooking dinner for her family of 13, Marandi says, speaking in Santhali, the language of Santhal Adivasis.
The Adivasis (indigenous peoples) form close to 23% of the population of Marandi’s home state, Odisha. The Santhals, with a population of nine lakh, are the second-largest indigenous group in Odisha and primarily live in Mayurbhanj district.
Marandi’s elaborate preparation for dinner has a context – the longstanding problem of malnutrition in this region and especially among her community. As a Santhal woman, she was worried about her children’s nutrition.
Traditionally, a pond in the backyard solved the problem of food. Marandi remembers the time when every family in the village had a small pond in their backyard. All these ponds were interlinked. When it rained, water from one pond overflowed into the other. If somebody put fish seeds in one pond, overflowing water distributed fishes across all ponds, and they became full of fish. This was the season when Marandi and others in her village ate a lot of fish. In some years, they got fish for eight months. But that had changed by the time Marandi grew up. When she married and moved to this village, the pond at her marital home had been filled up…
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