SIRSOTI (सिरसोती)

After doing Google search to know about Sirsoti, I found not much have been written about this small village. Whatever has been available on the web were written in official language.

It is small, backward and neglected village in Myorpur block of Sonebhadra District. It is fifty kilometer away from block headquarter and 125 Km away from district headquarter.

When I first visited in this village in year 2010, there was no electricity in the village. It was under complete darkness as most of people are too poor to burn enough kerosene to keep their home lit for longer hours. After five years of Government agency promises and processes of installing electric poles and wires, it is now getting electricity from the scheme of NTPC Rihand for giving light in its vicinity in 5Km range.

In year 2010 on behalf of Navodaya Mission,we visited this village on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan and distributed sweets to children and tied Rakhi on their wrist.  At first I found them dirty, wearing no shirt but only paints which were also very old and dirty. We called them, talked and embraced before tying Rakhi and giving sweets.  Soon all of them become acquainted with us.

After that Navodaya Mission started evening classes for these children. Jitendra Paliwal, Pradeep Lokhande,Bhagwati Charan Yadavj volunteered for this program. There is Brahmnishtha Ashram run by saints of Aghori belief. T N Singh and Shiv Shankar Singh, both are employees of NTPC Rihand facilitated this place to us for this noble job.

In the Ashram there are four big rooms where one Sadhu is living with some tribal children. Amid the campus there is a beautiful Shiv Mandir. Mahashivratri is being celebrated on grand scale in which villagers participate and gets Khichdi in prasad. The sadhu of this belief has no boundation of about choice of food. On many occasion they take non-veg items just in front of the Mandir in celebration mode. Yet sadhus wear dresses like dhoti and stay clad for most of time on upper body. Further they are not suppressing their desire. At one occasion one Sadhu requested for a television. Whatever be their belief, they get respect from villagers  driven either by respect or by fear of God. Ashramites also do social work like distribution of blankets etc for the poor people.

 There on the verandah we taught the children. Later Abhimanyu Jaisawal, an energetic youth joined us. After some month Gram Panchayat Election was held in which his mother won the seat of Pradhan by getting 168 votes out of about 1500 votes. Later his father acted as pseudo Pradhan, a typical example of Pradhan Pati. Anyway we didn't take interest in local politics. After some days  we moved our activity in Government school which is up to class 8th in the village. In the very first survey we found about 95% boys and 90% girls were not able to read and write. Abhimanyu Jaisawal is also appointed as Shiksha Mitra in the school. With the help of some teachers appointed by NTPC Rihand, now education till class 10th is being given to children.

Sirsoti is one of the village whose residents were displaced by the installation of NTPC Rihand. Many PAPs got compensations, permanent or temporary job in the plant. Most of villagers are working as contract workers in NTPC Plant and its associate companies. It has locational disadvantages as compare to other villages. It is located just outside the boundary of NTPC Rihand towards Waidhan, a small but well advance town and district headquarter of Singrauli and is located 50 Km away from RIhand.

Sirsoti is a village with tribal majority. According to 2011 census, 45.58% are tribals. Goud and Baiga are two major tribal group. Here some persons of Gaud are much advance than general people. Baiga community still seems very backward in spite of many of them have got permanent job in NTPC and got the taste of modern education.

Jaisawal though comes in OBC category is the dominant caste in this belt and so in this village.

NTPC RIhand has taken many initiative for the benefit of village community.  Supply of RO water by installing three tanks, villagers have got the test of pure water after a long interval. It is proven by some NGOs that mercury level in the ground water in the region is much above the accepted level. Under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, currently a big toilet complex has been constructed. Along with this NTPC has already built a community center.

With the help of NTPC Rihand Navodaya Mission has started a library "Navodaya Bharat Pustakalaya" for the benefit of the children. Some students are coming in training center to attend classes for preparing competitive examinations run by Navodaya Mission.

Korar, Mahuawari, Naktu are some settlements away from main village Sirsoti, but they all come under the same Panchayat. This village is located just near to lake (Govind Sagar) and river like flow of water in between hills. Korar produces very beautiful natural sceneray. By the inspiration of Prem Bhai and his initiatives, villagers have developed a check dam which has enhanced rice production. A small school has been run by Gov. and Malviya Mission, a local NGO in which mostly children of Baiga community are studying. Navodaya Mission has been facilitating motivation lecture by Navodaya Guru in this school keeping in mind for the overall development of this special community which is categorised as community about to become extinct.

The MGR rail route is passing through Sirsoti village. Mahuawari is also a mohalla in the village near CISF colony which is mostly occupied by migrant workers. They lack proper way of getting basic facilities of life. They have no water supply, no pucca road and no electricity. Because of this, they have to depend on open man made ponds.

There is social, religious harmony in the village and people live peacefully.