Living far from civilisation, the Pawara tribe in Ambapani hamlet of Yawal tehsil in Jalgaon district of Maharashtra, got registered to vote for the first time in 1994 since then they used to go to a gram panchayat, a 13 km walk, to cast their vote.
In 2004, for the first time, a temporary polling booth was created at the village. Since 2009, polling has taken place at a Zilla Parishad school inside the village, a kutcha structure.
Pawara tribes are mostly found in the Satpura range of Jalgaon and Nandurbar district of Maharashtra. Ambapani’s Pawara community has been scattered in Satpura hills along the border of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra for generations. The population of 810 people feel casting their vote is one of the right things they need to do in life in the form of a ‘duty’, but they do not know its purpose clearly as it has not made any difference in their lives. There are 310 registered voters from Ambapani and their last Lok Sabha election voting percentage was around 59%.
