What would you like to see for your tribe in the next 10 years?’ the professor askd.
Lakhmara, a tall young tribal from the Garasiya tribe in Rajasthan stood up, cleared his throat and said: “Ten years from now, we want our tribe to be free of the Panchayati Raj system and return to our traditional way of governance. The Panchayats only create divisions and enmities in the community.”
Tribals youths from the five states of western India nodded in agreement. Youths from eight communities, four of them classified by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs as Primitive Tribal Groups, had come to Gandhinagar last week for a 5-day leadership training programme organised by Sony Pellissery, a professor from the Institute of Rural Management (IRMA), Anand; and Actionaid.
The tribes included the Garasiyas of Rajasthan, Bhils of Rajasthan and Gujarat, and Korkus from Maharashtra. The four ‘primitive tribes’ included the Koragas and Jenu Khurba tribe of Karnataka, Kathodis of Gujarat and the Sahariyas of Madhya Pradesh.
The Ministry of Tribal Affairs had identified 75 tribal communities as Primitive Tribal Groups on fixed criterion of pre-agricultural level of technology, very low level of literacy and declining or stagnant population.
The unanimous consensus among the tribals was that the Panchayati Raj System was inferior to their traditional tribal law. […]
According to the 1981 census, there were only 1,098 Koragas in the world, living in the forests of Kerala and Karnataka. In a 1996-97 survey by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, their numbers had increased to 1,349.
But apart from their dwindling population, the Koragas also face other problems as they try to assimilate into the mainstream. “Our women now stay at home and do household work because the men think that way. They think non-tribals are superior, and they copy the wrong things,” said Mathadi. […]
But on the positive changes, most agreed that the women were being empowered; education was picking up, and health services were better, though there was scope for improvement.
But all agreed that the Forest Rights Act, 2006, was not being implemented properly. […]
“Many people of the Jenu Khurba tribe in Coorg were shifted out of the forests because they had no land records. But even after the Forest Rights Act, they still work in the coffee plantations and get very bad pay, without electricity and housing. Some sleep among the coffee plants,” said Mathadi. […]
Shreemati, a Sahariya woman from Madhya Pradesh, who brought along her toddler, said: “If I could decide on the development that took place where we live, I would talk to the people before starting a project.”
But most tribal youths kept harping on the cultural aspect of their tribal lifestyle. […]
“We shall first have to give up this hubris of considering tribes backward. Every tribe has a rich and living cultural tradition and we must respect them.” – Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu on the constitutional obligation to respect the cultural traditions of India’s tribal communities
“Air is free to all but if it is polluted it harms our health… Next comes water… From now on we must take up the effort to secure water. Councillors are servants of the people and we have a right to question them.” – Mohandas K. Gandhi, Ahmedabad address on 1 January 1918; quoted by his grandson, Gopalkrishna Gandhi, in “On another New Year’s Day: Mahatma Gandhi’s ‘khorak’ a 100 years ago” (The Hindu, 1 January 2018)
“The world has enough for everyone’s need but not for anyone’s greed.” – Mahatma Gandhi quoted by Medha Patkar and Baba Amte (Narmada Bachao Andolan)
If a man cannot enjoy the return of spring, why should he be happy in a labour-saving Utopia?
