Post Tagged with: "Adivasi"

The sound of silence: A Bharia story

The sound of silence: A Bharia story

There is so much cacophony on ‘development’, that shrieking voices dissolve the milder ones, as bulldozers transform landscapes, and brush away healing sources of life along with the people who are nourished by them. I live in Madhya Pradesh (MP), the Indian state with the largest numbers of tribal people, as well as the highest malnutrition of children.  The Narmada[Read More…]

by 12/05/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Fact-Finding team finds grave violations of Adivasi rights in Nagarhole Tiger Reserve

Fact-Finding team finds grave violations of Adivasi rights in Nagarhole Tiger Reserve

All-India Fact-Finding Team observes grave violations of Adivasi rights in Nagarahole Tiger Reserve, even as PM ‘celebrates’ 50 years of ‘Project Tiger’. Calls for immediate measures to uphold rights of Adivasis as per law and  end evictions, intimidation and violence. ‘Celebrations’ are a cruel way of marking not 50 years of Project Tiger and conservation through protected areas,  but 50 years[Read More…]

by 14/04/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Migrant Gutti Koyas (Murias) in Telangana facing a humanitarian crisis

Migrant Gutti Koyas (Murias) in Telangana facing a humanitarian crisis

To Smt Droupadi Murmu President of India Rashtrapati Bhawan Subject:- Migrant Gutti Koyas (Murias) in Telangana facing a humanitarian crisis- Urgent need for recognition of their Constitutional rights in Telangana, AP, Odisha and Maharashtra Respected Rashtrapati Ji, A severe conflict situation in Chhattisgarh State since 2005-06 has forced more than 50,000 Muria adivasis, recognised as a Scheduled Tribe (ST) in their[Read More…]

by 05/01/2023 Comments are Disabled India
Bill to amend the Forest (Conservation) Rules- NCST’s views should be placed before the Parliament

Bill to amend the Forest (Conservation) Rules- NCST’s views should be placed before the Parliament

To Ms Leena Nandan Secretary Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change (MEFCC) Govt of India Dear Ms Nandan, I understand that your Ministry has taken action to introduce a Bill to amend the Forest (Conservation) Rules in the Parliament during the ensuing winter session. The Bill has far reaching implications for the lives of the adivasis across the country[Read More…]

by 04/12/2022 Comments are Disabled India
Scheduled Tribes: Adivasi or Vanvasi

Scheduled Tribes: Adivasi or Vanvasi

Rahul Gandhi’s in one of his recent statements about Adivasis said “The people of BJP don’t call you Adivasi. What do they call you? Vanvasi. They don’t tell you that you are the first owners of Hindostan. They tell you live in jungles…” The word used for these aborigines is Scheduled Tribes in the Constitution. It is interesting to recall[Read More…]

by 03/12/2022 Comments are Disabled India
Rajasthan–Asserting Tribal Strengths While Improving Livelihoods and Nutrition

Rajasthan–Asserting Tribal Strengths While Improving Livelihoods and Nutrition

At a time of increasing economic inequalities and ecological ruin, the search for alternative development paradigms has increased and an important aspect of these efforts has been to learn more about indigenous and tribal cultures and world-views as a source of guidance. While these efforts can be seen more in a few countries like Bolivia and Ecuador, there have been[Read More…]

by 13/10/2022 Comments are Disabled India
Being Adivasis: The History of Broken Promises

Being Adivasis: The History of Broken Promises

 Book review : Being Adivasis: Existence, Entitlements, Exclusion edited by Abhay Flavian Xaxa and G. N. Devy, New Delhi, Penguin, 2021, 208 pp., 699 (Hardcover), ISBN 9780670093007                                         Scholars on the study of Adivasi bring out new book under the title ‘Being[Read More…]

by 08/10/2022 Comments are Disabled Book Review
Can  the  new  President  `fulfil  the  dreams  of  the  poor’ ? 

Can  the  new  President  `fulfil  the  dreams  of  the  poor’ ? 

After  taking  the  oath  of  office  of  the  President  of  India,  Droupadi  Murmu  said:  “My  election  is  proof  of  the  fact  that  the  poor  in  India  can  have  dreams  and  fulfil  them  too.”   Her  speech  at  the   oath  taking  ceremony  was  a  moving  narrative,  recalling  her past   struggles  from  humble  origins  and   her  daily  toil  during  her  childhood.  She  described [Read More…]

by 12/08/2022 Comments are Disabled India
How Tribal People Have Been Losing Their Land Rights Steadily for Years

How Tribal People Have Been Losing Their Land Rights Steadily for Years

How will you feel if someone promises to remove an injustice you have suffered for years, but in the end leaves you suffering even more than before? Something similar appears to be happening to tribal communities in India in the context of the Forest Rights Act 2006. They were promised by the government that the historic injustice caused to them[Read More…]

by 11/08/2022 Comments are Disabled India
National Tribal Day: The Centre and the States should “walk the talk”!

National Tribal Day: The Centre and the States should “walk the talk”!

Letter to the Prime Minister on the occasion of the Janjatiya Gaurav Divas (national Tribal Day) on November 15, 2021 To Shri Narendra D Modi Prime Minister Dear Shri Modi, Janjatiya Gaurav Divas on November 15, 2021 The Centre and the States should “walk the talk”! I understand (https://indianexpress.com/article/india/pm-modi-to-lead-first-tribal-day-celebrations-7620370/) that you will be leading the first-ever Janjatiya Gaurav Divas on[Read More…]

by 13/11/2021 Comments are Disabled India
Criminalization of Pathalgari Movement

Criminalization of Pathalgari Movement

Thousands of Adivasis involved in the “Pathalgari Movement” were criminalized for fighting for their collective rights to self-determination and protection of their lands, territories, and natural resources in Jharkhand State of India. Forty-six year old Ladu Nag from the Munda Adivasi (Indigenous) community is bound to live alone after her husband Neta Nag, a resident of Kevda village in Khunti[Read More…]

by 08/09/2021 Comments are Disabled India
 Conflict on podu lands in Telangana: cultivators in dismay – “We won’t leave the lands” they say

 Conflict on podu lands in Telangana: cultivators in dismay – “We won’t leave the lands” they say

Podu cultivation is a traditional way of “shifting agriculture” in forests being practiced from ages and   generation to generation. Lakhs of forest dwellers are solely dependent on this type of agriculture for their livelihood. The plight of lakhs of podu farmers in the state of Telangana is becoming precarious. The dismay and panic faced by them is very miserable. They[Read More…]

by 26/08/2021 1 comment India
Why PESA, India’s Great Initiative to Empower Tribal Communities, Has Not Succeeded

Why PESA, India’s Great Initiative to Empower Tribal Communities, Has Not Succeeded

In 1996 India took a great step forward in terms of empowering rural tribal communities, a step which moreover was very much in continuity with Gandhian traditions of gram swaraj or village self-rule ( genuine decentralization based on justice and equality) and so India was a particularly good country for introducing such a step. This was in the form of[Read More…]

by 05/06/2021 Comments are Disabled India
Tribals / Forest Dwellers are facing eviction and backwardness in Yogi Raj

Tribals / Forest Dwellers are facing eviction and backwardness in Yogi Raj

   The population of Tribals (Scheduled Tribes) in Uttar Pradesh is 11.35 lakhs of which 80% are landless. That is why the Forest Rights Act – 2006 and Rules 2008 came into force for the empowerment of Tribals. Under this law, Tribals and non-Tribals living in a Reserve Forest area were to be given a lease of residential and agricultural[Read More…]

by 21/03/2021 Comments are Disabled India
Dr. M. Kunhaman

Changing Social Landscape of Tribes in Kerala: Challenges in Tribal Studies

Written by K.M. Seethi & Elizabeth Abraham The social landscape and livelihood options in the tribal habitats in Kerala have changed tremendously in the last several decades. This transformation has its impact on the tribal population and their life-world experiences. This is the theme of the ongoing workshop organised as part of the Engaging Human Ecology Series of the Inter[Read More…]

by 20/02/2021 Comments are Disabled India
Protection of Tribal Land and Forests Rights is Important Not Just for Livelihoods but Also for Invaluable Traditional Wisdom

Protection of Tribal Land and Forests Rights is Important Not Just for Livelihoods but Also for Invaluable Traditional Wisdom

                    Many commentators on land and forest rights, including former senior government officials, have expressed serious concern at the land alienation suffered by tribal farmers and the dilution of their forest rights. While this has led to a serious livelihood crisis among a large number of tribal households, in addition this has led to immense threats to the rich[Read More…]

by 07/02/2021 Comments are Disabled India
The Imli Andolan of Bastar, 1997

The Imli Andolan of Bastar, 1997

Written by Aman Rathi, Ashutosh Rungta and Darpan Jain It was a fine morning, about 4 AM, in a remote village named Beliyapal, in the state of Chhattisgarh. Shiv Kumari, a tribal woman of around 40 years, readied herself to make her way to the jungle. She would walk about 5-6 km deep in the wilderness with a basket ready[Read More…]

by 12/12/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Protecting Indigenous Languages is Protecting Biodiversity

Protecting Indigenous Languages is Protecting Biodiversity

One million animal and plant species face extinction due to human activity, according to the United Nations. Now, think about cultural production—art and literature that we have invested to address the extinction of just a handful of species (passenger pigeon included). Quite a bit actually. The extinction of one million species feels rather abstract, beyond the comprehension of human cultural[Read More…]

by 30/11/2020 1 comment World
Government and the Old Woman in Forest

Government and the Old Woman in Forest

In the not-too-distant past, there was a very senior official .  He was an official of his own kind, very devoted to the welfare of the poorest people. He led a most simple life, so that he could devote himself single-mindedly to the dearest objective of his life which was to work for the welfare of poor and oppressed people,[Read More…]

by 30/11/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Malkangiri Adivasi Sangh: Writing a new epoch in Adivasi liberation

Malkangiri Adivasi Sangh: Writing a new epoch in Adivasi liberation

Commemorating 25th anniversary of spark ignited in Padmagiri-Pandaripani  landmark struggle This week we commemorate 25 years since the launching of the peasant struggle in Padmagiri Pandaripani  in Malkangiri in Orissa which was landmark event in history of Indian revolutionary Movement. Such agitations are the turning point in the seeking of liberation of the oppressed from the clutches of exploiter classes.[Read More…]

by 23/11/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Tribal health in India: An eternity of backwardness?

Tribal health in India: An eternity of backwardness?

Co-Written by Dr. Anamika Roy, Dr. Chandrima Chatterjee & Dr. Parul Malik The tribal population of India comprises of the indigenous people dwelling in the hinterlands who are sometimes extremely susceptible to high levels of inaccessibility to health resources. The health inequalities which have been faced by these people are an evidence of the fundamental failure of the realization of[Read More…]

by 27/10/2020 Comments are Disabled India

Increasing Incidence of Violence Against Women Forest Dwellers in Uttarakhand

MAHILA KISAN ADHIKAAR MANCH (MAKAAM) or Forum for Women Farmers’ Rights condemns and expresses deep concern over the increasing incidence of violence, harassment and atrocities against adivasi and other traditional forest dwellers especially women forest dwellers in Uttarakhand. The Forest Rights Act 2006 proclaims the responsibility of the state to defend and uphold the rights of Adivasis and Other Traditional[Read More…]

by 21/09/2020 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Mass prayer of more than 20,000 children at the KISS school in Bhubaneswar.

An open letter to Academics and People’s Movements in India –  Towards a critical articulation on factory schools

by Pranab Doley, Jacinta Kerketta, Deme Oraon, Gladson Dungdung, Sharanya and Rajaraman Sundaresan A recent protest, through a petition endorsed by around 300 Adivasi leaders, academics, activists, environmental groups and people’s movements in India, has brought the issue of decolonization to the forefront by protesting against the decision of IUAES and its member organizations to hold the World Anthropology Congress[Read More…]

by 16/09/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Strangers In Their Own Home

Strangers In Their Own Home

The 24th edition of the Kolkata international film festival, held in November 2018, showed a surprisingly large number of films from Australia, which has never been counted among the foremost film-making nations of the world; no less than two dozen in all. It is hard to tell whether the ‘focus’ had anything to do with an increasing interest in Down[Read More…]

by 09/09/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Deskilling and Reskilling of Adivasi farmers- Context Specific Analysis is Important

Deskilling and Reskilling of Adivasi farmers- Context Specific Analysis is Important

Co-Written by Dibyendu Chaudhuri and Parijat Ghosh   Deskilling is a process of elimination of skilled labour within an economy. Separation of intelligence from muscle helps ruling class dominating both (Braverman, 1974). Advent of modern agriculture, characterised by hybrid seeds, chemical fertilisers, pesticides, etc., is considered responsible for deskilling in agriculture. In agriculture, deskilling is understood as a process in[Read More…]

by 03/09/2020 Comments are Disabled India
 ‘Historic Injustice’ to Adivasis made permanent

 ‘Historic Injustice’ to Adivasis made permanent

Whereas previously SC affirmed indigenous people’s inalienable rights to their land,    it now orders their eviction from their land unilaterally  There are three significant SC judgments on the indigenous Adivasi people’s rights over their land and natural resources: 1)      In 2011 the SC, hearing a complaint petition by a young Adivasi  woman who was raped and paraded naked by[Read More…]

by 25/02/2019 2 comments Annihilate Caste
BJP Sarkar Jawab Do! Tens of Thousands Will Join National Andolan For Forest Rights

BJP Sarkar Jawab Do! Tens of Thousands Will Join National Andolan For Forest Rights

   Today, the Campaign for Survival and Dignity, a national platform of adivasi and forest dwellers’ organisations, decided on a national Wave of Struggle over the next two weeks against the unjust attack on millions of people whose claims under the Forest Rights Act were rejected. The Supreme Court’s order to evict over one million claimant families is the direct[Read More…]

by 25/02/2019 Comments are Disabled Annihilate Caste
HRF Condemns Eviction Order of Adivasis

HRF Condemns Eviction Order of Adivasis

The Human Rights Forum (HRF) rejects the atrocious February 13 order of the Supreme Court that calls for eviction in a summary and time-bound manner of those whose claims for forest rights under The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act (FRA) have been rejected. This amounts to an attack on the rights of adivasis[Read More…]

by 25/02/2019 Comments are Disabled Annihilate Caste
Corporate Conservationists use judicial process to annihilate India’s Indigenous People

Corporate Conservationists use judicial process to annihilate India’s Indigenous People

A Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra has ordered eviction of Adivasis and other forest dwelling communities from the ‘forest’ regions whose claims for entitlement have been rejected by the Forest department.  The written copy of the order was made available on February 20th, 2019 which makes things unambiguous and the intent. The court order says : “The[Read More…]

by 23/02/2019 2 comments Annihilate Caste
Eviction of 1 Million Adivasis: Centre must issue Ordinance

Eviction of 1 Million Adivasis: Centre must issue Ordinance

Supreme Court Order for Eviction of a million forest dwellers in more than 16 states perpetuates ‘Historical Injustice’ ! BJP-led Union government jeopardizes the interests of country’s forest dependent people and adivasis: State governments fail in implementing FRA in true spirit Centre must issue Ordinance to stop evictions as per SC Order 21st Feb, 2019: National Alliance of People’s Movements[Read More…]

by 21/02/2019 Comments are Disabled Annihilate Caste
Declare Adivasis as Indigenous People Of India

Declare Adivasis as Indigenous People Of India

Today we celebrate World Indigeneous people’s day but in the backyard of the biggest democracy of the world is the systematic isolation and displacement of millions of adivasis in the name of development. A veteran activist is fighting for the rights of the aadivasis on the Narmada valley but the government is determined to ‘develop’ the state even when it[Read More…]

by 09/08/2017 3 comments India
Adivasis Integral To Protecting The Forest

Adivasis Integral To Protecting The Forest

Not many people may have witnessed the beauty of forests, but it is certainly something that everyone knows something about. In the narrative of climate change and the destruction wrought on nature by man, the declining forest cover and the thinning canopy take on poetic notes. The forest becomes a singular identity, existing majestically, independent of animals and people. Thus[Read More…]

by 30/06/2017 1 comment Environmental Protection
Financing For Indigenous People, Land Reforms And Protection Of Forests And Other Natural Ecosystems

Financing For Indigenous People, Land Reforms And Protection Of Forests And Other Natural Ecosystems

One does not have to read Marx to understand how debt-based money in the form of credit to corporations, – chosen by banks on the basis of their ability to make profit, – leads to an accumulation of money in the hands of those few who create the money and are given the credit. Profiteering, in short, capitalism, is incompatible[Read More…]

by 18/06/2016 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection