Dewas · September 2026
Madhya Pradesh Field Survey- Dewas District
The Dewas households are of the Kafir, dispersed through Dewas town, Amona, Shinalpur and Sujalpur. This quarter is distinguished by a near-equal number of men and women among its respondents and by the modest keeping of livestock — a goat or two, sometimes four — a slender asset the neighbouring communities wholly lack. The hearth is kindled twice daily, and meat appears upon the table perhaps once in the month.
- Conducted by
- -
- Location
- Dewas
- Respondents
- 13 households
FINDINGS
Despite these small mitigations, the survey found the Dewas households the poorest by income — four to five thousand rupees — and the largest in number, several counting seven mouths or more. Food insecurity was, as everywhere, complete and severe across all indicators. The women ate only once the men had finished. The chief finding of Dewas is instructive: the possession of a few goats and a somewhat steadier fire does not amount to sufficiency, for no such holding can answer the arithmetic of seven persons fed upon five thousand rupees.
FIELD NOTES
- 01Dewas was surveyed in rain that fell almost without remission, and the condition of the settlement was poor; the lanes between the houses ran with water, and where new building had been undertaken the ground lay churned and half-dug, impeding passage. The want of properly made roads was conspicuous, and the wet had worsened an already neglected terrain. Interviews proceeded indoors where shelter allowed, and were on occasion interrupted by the weather. Consent was taken in each case before the questions began. As in the other localities, a number of the households were related to one another, a circumstance to be borne in mind when weighing the consistency of the responses.
PHOTOS
