In return for his perquisite of the hides of cattle the Chamar has
to act as the general village drudge in the northern Districts and is
always selected for the performance of _bigar_ or forced labour. When
a Government officer visits the village the Chamar must look after
him, fetch what grass or fuel he requires, and accompany him as far
as the next village to point out the road. He is also the bearer
of official letters and messages sent to the village. The special
Chamar on whom these duties are imposed usually receives a plot of
land rent-free from the village proprietor. Another of the functions
of the Chamar is the castration of the young bullocks, which task the
cultivators will not do for themselves. His method is most primitive,
the scrotum being held in a cleft bamboo or a pair of iron pincers,
while the testicles are bruised and rubbed to pulp with a stone. The
animal remains ill for a week or a fortnight and is not worked for two
months, but the operation is rarely or never fatal. In the northern
Districts the Chamars are said to be very strong and to make the
best farmservants and coolies for earthwork. It is a proverb that
'The Chamar has half a rib more than other men.' Notwithstanding his
strength, however, he is a great coward, this characteristic having
probably been acquired through centuries of oppression. Many Chamar
women act as midwives. In Raipur the cultivators give her five annas
at the birth of a boy and four annas for a girl, while well-to-do
people pay a rupee. When the first child of a rich man is born,
the midwife, barber and washerman go round to all his friends and
relations to announce the event and obtain presents. It is a regular
function of the Chamars to remove the carcases of dead cattle, which
they eat without regard to the disease from which the animal may have
died. But a Chamar will not touch the corpse of a pony, camel, cat,
dog, squirrel or monkey, and to remove the bodies of such animals
a Mehtar (sweeper) or a Gond must be requisitioned. In Raipur it is
said that the Chamars will eat only the flesh of four-legged animals,
avoiding presumably birds and fish. When acting as a porter the Chamar
usually carries a load on his head, whereas the Kahar bears it on his
shoulders, and this distinction is proverbial. In Raipur the Chamars
have become retail cattle-dealers and are known as Kochias. They
purchase cattle at the large central markets of Baloda and Bamnidih
and retail them at the small village bazars. It is said that this
trade could only flourish in Chhattisgarh, where the cultivators
are too lazy to go and buy their cattle for themselves. Many Chamars
have emigrated from Chhattisgarh to the Assam tea-gardens, and others
have gone to Calcutta and to the railway workshops at Kharagpur and
Chakardharpur. Many of them work as porters on the railway. It is
probable that their taste for emigration is due to the resentment
felt at their despised position in Chhattisgarh.