DHANBAD: Calls have rung out from a Jharkhand pocket for a monument to “Nehru’s tribal wife”, a Santhali named Budhni Manjhiyain who died three days ago at 80 after being ostracised for years by her tribe as then PM Jawaharlal Nehru had garlanded her at a dam’s inauguration in 1959 when she was 16 and a project worker.The garland placed respectfully by Nehru at the inauguration of the Panchet Dam -- now near Dhanbad -- became a millstone for Budhni for much of her life as the Santhal tribals considered the gesture a “marriage” .She became an outcast for “marrying outside her community, particularly a non-tribal”, and was denied entry into her hamlet.

The turbulent tale came full circle November 17 when Budhni died in a shack in Panchet where she lived with her daughter Ratna.

Hundreds, including local politicians and officials, descended to give a farewell to what many there described as “the first tribal wife of the first PM of the country”.

It was then that they sought a memorial in her honour, next to an existing statue of Nehru in a local park.

They also demanded pension for Ratna (60).Bhairav Mandal, the chief of Panchet panchayat, and others have written to the DVC management about the memorial and a house for Ratna in the local DVC colony.

DVC is Damodar Valley Corporation, the PSU under which the dam was built and functions.

Ratna’s son Bapi (35) is an accountant with DVC and lives in nearby Maithon.Sumesh Kumar, deputy chief engineer of DVC at Panchet, said no decision on the memorial or the other demands had been taken so far.

“These decisions can be taken only after consulting top officers,” Kumar added.Like the devastating Damodar, the eddies of Budhni’s life began in 1952 when her ancestral land was submerged during the construction of the dam.

But she managed to stay afloat, becoming one of the first contract labourers in the project as she had no source of income other than land.Then, at the inauguration on December 5, 1959, troubles started anew with Nehru’s garlanding.

The DVC management had selected Budhni along with Ravan Manjhi, a Santhali man, to welcome Nehru.

Local lore has it that Budhni pressed the button to get the dam going.In 1962, Budhni was retrenched along with scores of other DVC contract workers.

She moved to Saltora in neighbouring Bengal’s Purulia and toiled as a daily-wager.

There, Budhni met Sudhir Dutta, a contract worker in a colliery who gave her shelter and later married her.After Rajiv Gandhi visited Asansol in Bengal as PM in 1985, a local Congress leader got Budhni to meet him and she narrated her ordeal.

After that, Budhni was provided a job in DVC, from where she retired in 2005.