Kushinagar (Uttar Pradesh): How does one support a family on just 20 rupees a day?
For the a Dalit tribal community of Uttar Pradesh - The Mushahars of Kushinagar - it's one meal a day, sometimes rice and a basic diet of snails.
Citizen Journalist Vidya Bhushan Rawat sent us this story on the Mushahars, a poverty stricken community, waiting for some aid from the Government or local authorities.
And while they wait for this aid, they feast on snails to avoid starvation when there is nothing else to eat.
A heap of shells is what remains after the snails are boiled and eaten and the monsoons are a time of plenty.
"We boil the snail and drink the juice,' says a tribal woman.
This Dalit tribal community of Uttar Pradesh lives a hand to mouth existence for Government schemes have yet to reach the district.
Most Mushahars do manual labour for local landowners, earning a pittance. Locals say nearly 50 Mushahars have died of hunger and malnutrition in the past one year.
Their only hope - to get access to their tribal land rights in order to sustain themselves.
CNN-IBN will send a copy of this story to the Prime Minister's office and the Home Ministry.
(With inputs from CNN-IBN's Nidhi Krishnan, New Delhi)
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