Figures, census & other statistics

“India is home to nearly 20 Cr. [200 million] traditional forest-dwelling Adivasis and OTFDs [other forest dwelling communities], who derive their subsistence and livelihoods from forest and forest resources over several generations and thousands of years.” – Research team (Sayantani Satpathi, Shambhavi Singh & Subhodeep Basu) in “Revisiting the Forest Rights Act: Status of Implementation with respect to Land Tenures and Collection of Minor Forest Produce” (Bharat Rural Livelihoods Foundation New Delhi, 12 July 2019)
https://www.academia.edu/41756309
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=10151

“Tribal communities have proven that they are the best guardians of the forest and die-hard conservationists”: Illegal mining destroys the life and culture of the conservators of forests

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Source: “Odisha’s Tribal Communities Are Reeling Under a Land Grab Project Masquerading as ‘Afforestation’” by Abhijit Mohanty (The Wire, 23 July 2020)URL: https://thewire.in/rights/odisha-kandhamal-forest-rights-tribalsDate Visited: 26 February 2022 Illegal mining in forests is destroying the life and culture of schedule tribes, opined Dr H Sudarshan, director of Vivekananda Girijana Kalyana Kendra. He was speaking at national … Read more

Cultural invisibility – India’s 600 potentially endangered languages

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According to UNESCO, any language that is spoken by less than 10,000 people is potentially endangered. In India, after the 1971 census, the government decided that any language spoken by less than 10,000 people need not be included in the official list of languages. In India, therefore, all the languages that are spoken by less … Read more

“Languages cannot be preserved by making dictionaries or grammars”: Discoveries and proposals made by the People’s Linguistic Survey of India

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What Is People’s Linguistic Survey of India? The People’s Linguistic Survey of India is a right based movement for carrying out a nation wide survey to identify, document and understand the state of Indian languages, especially languages of fragile nomadic, coastal, island and forest communities. The PLSI is carried out by scholars, writers and activists … Read more

Helping end human trafficking and modern slavery – #FREEDOMFORGIRLS

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71% of modern slavery victims are women and girls. With an estimated 40.3 million people victims of modern slavery and human trafficking, that’s a lot of girls around the world who are being exploited for someone else’s benefit, or treated like a commodity, unable to leave because of threats, violence, coercion, and abuse of power. Read the … Read more

eBook | “It is possible to finance tribal health care”: Recommendations by the Expert Committee on Tribal Health – Government of India

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Though it has long been suspected that tribal people have poor health and unmet needs, health care for tribal people remained subsumed in rural health care. It was assumed that tribal people have same health problems, similar needs and hence the uniform national pattern of rural health care would be applicable to them as well, … Read more