Drive to enrol Satipati voters achieves success

SURAT: For the first time in the history of independent India, a section of people from Satipati community in south Gujarat have agreed to participate in the electoral process.
The efforts of Tapi administration has seen majority of 4,600 community members living in Vyara and Nizar talukas take their place in the electoral rolls. Only 99 persons from the community are still to be registered.
Tapi collector Ranjit Kumar said, "Five years of hard work by our staff was able to convince most of these community members to come in the main stream."
After almost three years, Navsari officials were able to convince 67 voters from Khata Amba, Kureliya and Gothawadi villages to get them registered. However, 21 people refused.
Sandhya Bhullar, district election officer said, "The mamlatdar held one-to-one meetings with the community members and convinced them to be a part of Indian democracy. Times are changing and with education, the younger generation has started coming out and mixing with the rest of the country."
Satipatis are tribals spread across Valsad, Dang, Narmada, Tapi and Navsari districts. They keep aloof from all government schemes and don't consider themselves to be a part of the country. Satipati movement is touted to have been active in Gujarat since the 1930s but has been losing ground for the last 20 years.
In Valsad, resident collector Ishwar Mali also held meeting Satipati community in Kaprada on Wednesday. "Some of them have given their names but not their photographs. We hope to register them soon," he said.
Similarly, Narmada district collector Rakesh Shankar met the Satipatis living in Barkhat and Zarwani villages that refused to register as voters.
Dang collector GR Chaudhary said, "We have about 166 voters in Dhuldha, Lokpatal and Ambapada villages. We will have a third meeting with them on April 23 and expect positive results."
There are about 88 voters from the community in Navsari, 166 in Dang, 165 in Narmada, 20 in Bharuch, 1955 in Valsad and 4699 in Tapi district.
The community believes that they are the true masters of this land and when the British left India they signed a pact with their forefathers handing over land to them. They believe they are now the rulers and won't take part in the process of electing leaders to rule the place.