India has the largest tribal population in the world
Ranchi: Two tribal leaders who had recently been to Geneva to contest the claim made by the government of India that there are no indigenous people in this country have petitioned the United Nations to end the systematic violation of international human rights laws in the tribal belts of the country.
The petition was made before the 9th session of the UN Working Group on Indigenous People which met at Geneva from July 22 to August 2.
The leaders, Dr. Ram Dayal Munda, former vice-chancellor of Ranchi University, and currently the head of the department of the regional and tribal languages, and Prof. Amulya Kumar Kisku said the government had been deliberately misinterpreting the Indian Constitution at international for a refusing to concede that there is any indigenous population in the country.
Sardar Sarovar: Dr. Munda and Prof. Kisku said India has the largest tribal population in the world and it was also among the first few countries to ratify the 1957 ILO convention of indigenous population and tribal population in 1958.
The government was following double standard as it asserted that there were no tribal people in India while crushing the basic! rights of tribal people in the name of development.
Development projects were rendering countless people homeless. Citing the tribal people’s struggle against the – Sardar Sarovar dam, the – demand for autonomy in —– Jharkhand and Bodoland and the plight of the 6 million tribals who had migrated into the Assam tea gardens some 200 years back and are still awaiting their being scheduled as tribes, Dr. Munda and Prof. — Kisku said the government had resorted to oppression instead of trying to understand the – tribals’ problems. – They said the only way to ensure development of the tribals was to grant them – autonomy within the framework| of the Indian Constitution, temporary suspension of the —- Sardar Sarovar Project and an immediate dialogue with the affected people (Telegraph Sept. 10).
