Denis Giles, editor, ‘Andaman Chronicle’, Protrapur, South Andaman, has expressed concern over the continued exploitation of tribals.
“The nature of exploitation has changed. Even six decades after the country attaining Independence, the living conditions of adivasis have not changed,” he said.
Mr. Giles was delivering a lecture at the three-day seminar on ‘Particularly vulnerable tribal groups of India – issues and challenges’, organised by the department of tribal studies, Kannada University Hampi, in association with the Indian Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi, and Karnataka Janapada Academy, on the university campus on Tuesday.
“It is with pain I say that the tribal women are being sexually assaulted and young girls are being exploited. The tribals are faced with the problem of eviction and have lost their identity. My appeal to the society is to respect the tribal communities and not to look down upon them,” he said.
Gowri Koraga, member, advisory committee on the Forest Rights Act, 2006, in her inaugural address, said that the tribal communities were still a neglected lot.
“Tribals have their own identify, living style, dress culture, language and culture. They are known to live in groups,” she said. Mr. Gowri Koraga sought to know which mainstream they had to join in the present day civilisation which was marred by dowry harassment, female foeticide among other social evils.
Hi. Chi. Borlingaiah, Vice-Chancellor, said that of the 50 tribal communities in Karnataka, only Koragas and Kaadu Kurabas were considered as ancient. If a scientific study was carried out, another 30 tribal communities could be added to the list, he said.
Underlining the need for instilling confidence among the tribal communities with government chalking out plans in this regard, Mr. Boralingaiah took exception to the government’s development policies which deprived the tribals to live in forests and nature. “Why can’t the government consider making use of the tribals to nurture and develop forests,” he asked and suggested to the government to get feed back from the tribals to protect and conserve their culture.
