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MP sacks tribal artist as daily-wage worker

Rahul Singh in Bhopal

The Madhya Pradesh government has sacked Bhuri Bai, a tribal artist, whom it awarded the state-level "Shikhar Samman" for artists in 1987 and national level "Devi Ahilya Samman" for women in 1998, as a daily wage employee.

The artist, in her late thirties, is among the 2,300 employees retrenched as part of the state government's economy measures. An aboriginal, Bai has almost become synonymous with Bhil art in the past one-and-a-half decade.

The painter, who was an unskilled labourer with the public works department for eight years, was sacked on March 18. Her husband Jor Singh, in his forties, is also a daily wage employee.

The loss has hit the family hard. Bai lives in a shanty in a Bhopal slum with 10 of her family members. They now depend on Singh's salary of Rs 1,923 per month.

Bai is upset by the decision. "I have never seen good days, even when I was employed as the salary was only Rs 1,823 per month. Now things are worse." That is not her only problem. She is suffering from a skin disease for a long time and she may have to discontinue treatment.

She started painting at the age of 10 on the walls of her house in Pitola village in the tribal-dominated district of Jhabua.

The first time she used paper was at Bhopal's Bharat Bhawan, a local art centre, where she was working as an unskilled worker and caught the eye of renowned painter J Swaminathan.

"Those were the days," Bhuri sighs. The only memories now of the past glory are the government certificates, which lie in a dusted corner of her shanty.

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