Prominent speakers, including Ministers for Social Welfare Anjaneya and Small Scale Industries Satish L. Jarkiholi made an emphatic appeal to tribal communities living in forests to use various development and welfare programmes of the government to achieve a qualitative change.
They were speaking at the two-day State-level Tribal Festival, which took off at Kumar Gandharva Ranga Mandir here on Saturday.
The festival has been jointly organised by the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Karnataka State Tribal Research Institute (KSTRI), Mysuru; the district administration and the Department of Social Welfare.
Mr. Anjaneya, who released the ‘Dictionary of Dungri Garasia language’ brought out by KSTRI, listed out various development and welfare programmes for tribal communities living in the forests of seven districts of Chamarajanagar, Mysuru, Kodagu, Dakshin Kannada, Uttar Kannada, Chikkamagaluru and Belagavi.
He said that despite government recognising the rights of forest dwellers under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, Forest Department personnel continued to harass them.
This was despite the fact that whatever biodiversity was still intact in forests was mainly because of the self-sustaining tribal communities and indigenous cultural practices. Yet, there was very little improvement in their living conditions as seen in the lack of nutrition among young children and mothers, lack of education, and access to modern healthcare and knowledge.
A high-level meeting would soon be convened to take concrete measures to prevent the harassment of tribals, he added.
Mr. Jarkiholi, who inaugurated the festival, said that parents must encourage their children to go to schools and colleges and grow on par with other children. Basanna K. Chalavadi, chairman, Karnataka State Commission for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes, said there was hardly any awareness on rights granted by the Constitution among the forest dwellers.
Published - November 23, 2015 12:00 am IST