Rita Toto is a celebrity... she is
in news ~ that is nothing new to her ~ she got a good job, then buckled to
tradition and now has again got a job……… but why should all these make news ?
I had earlier posted of this girl
becoming some sort of an icon of a tribe… ‘in toto’ means ~ - in all, totally, entirely,
completely. Totopara ~ it is closer to Madarihat in Jalpaiguri District…….
there is river Torsha to the east. A total numbers of 1184 (according with 2001
census) Totos live in nearly 200 houses in Totopara. They are the ‘toto’ people
belonging to Indo-Bhutanese tribal
community. It is a very primitive inhabitance, considered as Mongoloid people.
Toto is also the name of the
language of Tibeto—Burman, The Himalayan Languages Project is working on
the first grammatical sketch of Toto. Toto is listed as a critically endangered
language by UNESCO, with perhaps 1,000 speakers. The West
Bengal government has decided to provide free foodgrains to
members of the Toto community, one of the country’s oldest tribes, and which is
facing extinction. The WB Govt had announced that all families of Totos
residing in Jalpaiguri would be provided eight kg of foodgrains every
month.
As a 22-year-old, Rita Toto earned the distinction of becoming
the first woman graduate among the endangered Toto tribe. She is the fourth from her tribe to become a
graduate -- all her predecessors were men, including Jagadish Toto who was the
first to graduate in 1920. She was
employed by IT giant TCS.; but Rita became a homemaker, miles away from the city
life she badly misses. After working for
a shortwhile, she had to buckle to her tradition, where a 22-year-old would be
considered too old for marriage, Rita took leave from her job and moved into a
live-in relationship with Jagadish Toto, a part-time teacher at Dhanapati High School
Now in May 2013, comes the news
that the West Bengal Govt has appointed the first woman graduate from the
endangered Toto community in north Bengal as a
social worker in the Backward Classes Welfare Department. “The State government
has decided to appoint Rita Toto. It is a historical decision because it will
help Ms. Toto to provide services to her own community,” Parliamentary Affairs
Minister Partha Chatterjee told journalists after a Cabinet meeting. “It is the
most important decision taken at the 50 meeting of the Cabinet of the Trinamool
Congress government. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has taken the initiative in
this regard,” he added.
Only recently, Ms. Banerjee
announced establishing a separate department for tribals in north Bengal that will look into the interests of endangered
communities in the region like the Totos, Labhas and Boros.
So now Rita Toto goes to job again,
this time a Government job …
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
28th May 2013
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