Dizen Tudu wasn't always a calculative person. There was a time when he could work in the field under the sweltering heat all day and still have enough energy left in him to play with his three boys at home in the evening.A little more than a year ago, he was the sole breadwinner of his family. His boys weren't allowed to work. He would cover the extra mile alone, in order to ensure that his children could study and would not have to take any pressure.The setting of the shanty he lives in today though paints a completely different picture. The 42-year-old Santal, who was hit with a rubber bullet in his eye on November 6 last year, focuses on saving every ounce of his energy to perform the most basic tasks.“One of my eyes is gone. It does not function. The other one has deteriorated a bit. I can't stay in the sun for more than 30 minutes. My head heats up and I need to rest,” laments Dizen, who now lives in a village nearby the mill along with his family.“Nowadays, I don't even feel like talking. It takes too much energy and I feel tired. This is all because of the bullet that hit me. I think it has affected my brain. Have a look. You can still see the splinters on my forehead and my face,” he says while tilting his head.Dizen's wife, Morses Tudu, has since been compelled to take charge of the family. It hasn't been easy.“My family eats once a day. Since he can't work, I have to travel far looking for work and then I have to come home and take care of the family as well. It's difficult, but who else will do it?” she asks.Most of the Santals used to work as day labourers. However, according to them, ever since the attack on November 6, many locals haven't been interested in giving them jobs, which has forced them to travel farther in a bid to earn money. Most of the Santals, as a result, have been depending upon aid that they have been receiving from the NGOs. The government, they allege, haven't done much.Their dire situation is best described by Morses: “This is a free country and I want my freedom. We are a part of this country. Where will we go? How long will we live on the roadsides? We can't do this for much longer. We want the government to build the houses in the place where we were in. We need to be paid for our loss.”
