This story is from February 24, 2021

Maharashtra: Bhandara district collector aims to revive fortunes of fortune-tellers

Nathjogis, one of the nomadic tribes in Maharashtra, are known as traditional fortune tellers. Nathjogi men wander across the region, visit houses, read palms of people and predict their fortune.
Maharashtra: Bhandara district collector aims to revive fortunes of fortune-tellers
The collector interacted with the community members, especially women, and asked them to ensure immunization of their kids.
NAGPUR: Nathjogis, one of the nomadic tribes in Maharashtra, are known as traditional fortune tellers. Nathjogi men wander across the region, visit houses, read palms of people and predict their fortune.
They are considered an important part of Maharashtra’s folk culture. But their own condition back home is pathetic.
Bhandara district houses some traditional hamlets of this community. The year 2020 proved to be a killer as they could not travel and neither were they were entertained in households in the city.
Their earnings stopped and life went from bad to worse.
After learning about their plight, district collector Sandip Kadam visited one of the Nathjogi hamlets in Lakhandur tehsil of Bhandara. The Kodamendhi hamlet saw the district collector, his convoy and officials for the first time.
“It was one of the confidence-building measures. We can’t leave such communities out of the mainstream. I asked them to send their wards to schools regularly. Also, they will get permanent houses in the next six months here itself. This will bring stability in their lives,” said Kadam.
He interacted with the community members, especially women, and asked them to ensure immunization of their kids. Officials accompanying the collector said that Asha workers regularly visit these hamlets and ensure vaccination of kids. A village Anganwadi has 100-plus kids from this hamlet enrolled, but they hardly continue their school education.

Ten years ago, four members from this community were lynched in Kalamna (Nagpur) by an angry mob who suspected them to be thieves. As members recalled this incident, the collector asked them to prepare documents like Aadhaar and ration cards immediately. Sub divisional officers were asked to help out the members for this purpose.
Shantabai Chavan, a resident of Kodamendhi, said that women stay at home throughout the year and need some kind of employment. “A permanent house and employment to women will solve most of our problems. Kids too will continue to go to their schools,” she told the collector who sat with the members of the tribe inside their huts and interacted with them in their local dialect.
TOI spoke to Nathjogi community members in Nagpur who said that there are more than 15,000 members in Nagpur division. Some of them are educated and settled in cities, but most are still away from the mainstream.
“The financial condition of those living in hamlets and indulging in traditional fortunetelling is deteriorating. Very few members of the community are well-educated. We have a community organization working to convince them about the importance of education and also to bring them into the mainstream,” said Bharat Vijaykar, leader of the Nathjogi community in Nagpur.
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About the Author
Chaitanya Deshpande

Chaitanya Deshpande is Principal Correspondent at The Times of India, Nagpur. He has a PG degree in English literature and Mass communication. Chaitanya covers public health, medical issues, medical education, research in the fields of medicine, microbiology, biotechnology. He also covers culture, fine arts, theatre, folk arts, literature, and life. Proficient in Marathi and Hindi along with English, Chaitanya loves music, theatre and literature of all three languages.

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