Raji

The Raji people are a community found in Uttarakhand, India. As of 2001, the Raji people are classified as a Scheduled Tribe under the Indian government’s reservation program of positive discrimination.They call themselves Khasa and Bot Tho. Others also call them Forest Raji (Ban Raji) and Forest Rawat (Ban Rawat). They traditionally hunt for a living, especially porcupine and bats, and dig wild yams (Dioscorea spp.) and other forest foods. Some families have a trade agreement with local traders (Bhotiya) to sell their handmade wooden bowls while others have branched out into carpentry, selling other woodenwares such as plowshares and house building planks. Raji women have also been employed as rock crushers for construction projects. Households who were forcibly settled by the Government of India in the last generation mostly have subsistence-size garden plots and a few cattle as well.