Article from The Hindu: Airing grievances through stage

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Source: The Hindu (http://www.hinduonnet.com/2009/09/02/stories/2009090250780200.htm)
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Airing grievances through stage


Correspondent
KORAPUT: People in Koraput district are adopting different ways to impress upon the district administration on their problems.
Having failed to get results in favour of them after writing scores of applications to the officials at the local level to the district level offices, the villagers of Jangamput in Semiliguda block came up with an innovative way to place their demands through enacting a play in front of the district Collector on Tuesday. The villagers were trained in community-based theatre by IAEET, an organization from Koraput to spread awareness on different themes on behavioural changes and now it was the time to utilize the skills to place the demands of the village through theatre , Biju Dora, team leader of the theatre group from the village, said .
The village was affected by acute shortage of water for the lack of any source of water in the village for years .
There is only one open well that was dug prior to Independence and it had got spoiled since long . But without any better source of water nearby, villagers were forced to consume the same water . The district administration had rushed to the village two years back when Mangala Hayal, a 12 year old child had died of diarrhoea after taking the water.
Medical teams were sent and promises were made that some thing would be done . But till date no work was initiated in this regard , Sitaram Khora another villager, alleged.
‘Theatre was another form of submitting an application before the district administration describing the miseries of the people living in the village for the lack of water’ Biju said .
While the script was written for the first time with the combined effort of a few young members of the village, it had taken more than one month’s practice to stage it before the public, he added.
This new form of expression might generate some sense of emergency among the officials in taking corrective measures for the supply of water, he added.


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