Tribals in India

Tribals plight unpalatable’

NEW DELHI, 27 AUG: Describing as “unpalatable” the condition of tribals in the country, vice president Mr M Hamid Ansari today said the struggle to retain their identities and seek empowerment through the Constitutional framework has not yielded “commensurate outcomes”.

“For the 85 million scheduled tribes in India, the struggle to retain their identities and seek empowerment through our Constitutional framework has not yielded commensurate outcomes,” vice president said after inaugurating an international seminar on 'Adivasi/ST Communities in India: Development and Change'. The event was organised by the Institute of Human Development and supported by UNICEF, IFAD and Planning Commission.

Mr Ansari questioned whether “Adivasis” have been accorded the equality of opportunity or treated with “greater” attention and justice as per the Objective Resolution tabled by the first Prime Minister Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru in the Constituent Assembly in 1946.
“The reality is unpalatable and the data speaks for itself,” he added. PTI

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I have always had a soft spot for Tribals. A truth which I can’t deny. Their innocence and honesty is irresistible to me.

 

Being born and brought up in a family of landlords I have had the privilege of mixing with them closely.

 

We had one woman working at our ancestral home for years. That woman was so honest that the whole house was left in her hands, with utensils worth thousands of rupees and other things which might have added up to another few thousands. While the whole family was scattered all over India she guarded that house.

 

She used to maintain that house like her own. We realized her dedication after she left to live with her nephew. Who used and threw her away. The last news I had of her was she was living with one of my relatives happily.

 

Every one will be able to understand the level of her honesty. I won’t have to elaborate it.

 

There was another couple who used to come to work for us at burdwan and in our ancestral home. This couple worked alone in houses littered with jewelry and cash, not a single thing was ever misplaced. But that did not meant they were hermits, if they liked some thing very much they asked us for that. They were really cute. I still remember when they used to come to work in our Burdwan house they always begged us for audio cassettes, we used to keep all the audio cassettes which we did not liked much for them. Their childish longing for them never ended.

 

My next brush with tribals was during my journey from burdwan to Kolkata. These people work in the fields of others during harvest for a meager amount. They used to throng in the trains, the thing which touched my heart was they never sat in the seats because they did not had the money to buy the tickets. I myself have often asked them to sit in the seats as they were empty but they never did, they sat on the floor chatting like a bunch of birds.

 

Even the ticket collectors knew that they won’t steal a thread. I too have noted it and have done it myself. No one bothered to grab her purse in case she was going away from the seat for a while.

 

When people like them suffer it’s a little shame to the society.