An elderly Birhor worships a tree in a Gomia village on Monday. (Pankaj Singh)

Gomia (Bokaro), April 13: Even after 61 years of Independence, most members of the 77 Birhor families living in Birhoretanda, Tulbul and Khakhra Basti in the Gomia block of the district are ignorant about their voting right.

Living almost 79km from the city, the elderly in these villages have never seen a ballot box, let alone electronic voting machines. They don’t know why we have an election. Some believe that an election will help them procure “rice”.

Of the 350 people living here, no one has ever seen an MP or an MLA or have heard of any political parties in the region.They only know some senior officers — for instance, deputy commissioner, Bokaro, Satyendra Singh who recently distributed 35kg of foodgrain in the villages. “We drink and be merry. What is an election?” said Sukar Birhor, an elderly villager. “Some NGOs visit us often and ask whether we are having any problem. No one has asked us to vote.”

Though Gomia, 18km from this village, is seeing political rallies ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, Tulbul and Khakhra remain blissfully unaware.

Chotu Mahto, a local JMM leader working for Giridih candidate Teklal Mahto, said that it was a waste of time to visit Birhors. “You don’t know whether they will come and vote. It is difficult to teach them anything,” he said.

Nazarat deputy commissioner-cum-welfare officer Jugnu Minz said they were trying to educate them but the results are not very positive yet.