Another Human Rights Day has come and gone with different groups playing out varied charades on the world theatre.

One such show was a circular issued by P S Gopakumar, Special Secretary to the Government of Kerala. He asked all government departments in the southern Indian state to take a human rights oath on December 10.

Such farcical circulars come from successive governments to show they care for human rights, a hollow claim.

Nothing could have been more ironical than what happened in Thiruvananthapuram, capital of Kerala. While the government employees pledged to protect and promote human rights, a few meters from their office entrances stood a group of tribal people demanding nothing, but the rights that rightly belong to them.

And those hapless people have been staging their unique protest for nearly five months now, ignored by the authorities and the media.

The oath and Human Rights Day observance were inappropriate absurdity in a state where indigenous people have been observing the “Nilppu Samaram,” or stand up protest.

Organized by a tribal group, Adivasi Gothra Maha Sabha (grand assembly of tribal clans), indigenous people and their supporters have been standing at the secretariat gate to press the government to act on its promises.

Their supporters — human rights activists, intellectuals, students and others – showed solidarity with their cause organizing similar “Stand Up” stir in various parts of the state on December 10.

It all began in August 2001 when tribal people led by their firebrand leader C K Janu set up huts in front of the chief minister’s residence in the Kerala capital with the slogan: “Give us land so that we may live.”

The protest continued for 48 days and finally the government initiated talks with the leaders when Janu declared a fast unto-death .

The government by then Chief Minister A K Antony set up the Tribal Resettlement and Development Mission for the comprehensive development of the Adivasis by distributing government land to them. However, the government wound it up soon without giving any reason.

The Forest Department and relatives of many politicians, who controlled the forest land and plantations meant for distribution among the tribals, ganged together to unsettle the Janu-Antony pact.

The Indian Constitution’s article 46 places an obligation upon states to promote the interests of Scheduled Tribes and Schedules Castes and protect them from social injustice and all forms of exploitations. However, in Kerala the government seems to care neither for the Constitution nor the tribals. The authorities remain blind to the tribal sufferings while transnational firms and politicians’ relatives shamelessly exploit them.

Since the Janu-Antony pact, Kerala witnessed among tribal people 157 deaths from starvation and 244 infant deaths. Only a government sans humanitarian mind and sense of justice can neglect such people.

The Adivasis are not begging for alms or charity but to reclaim their livelihood rights and cultural identities. Over the past several decades, they have been robbed not only of their land but also of their lifestyle.

It is a national shame that the Adivasis who preserve what we consume are humiliated, harassed and devastated. The once self-reliant communities have not become dependent on government subsidies.

Adivasi women who once enjoyed equal status with men are now treated badly as the government offerings come in the men’s name. They are a group of people who had their own medicinal system based on herbs; but now they are dying because of ill health.

The late Justice V.R Krishna Iyer once said of the tribal plight: “The rule of law blinks at them and politicians of all parties betray them.”

Not all is lost for tribal people. While the mainstream media failed to highlight the ‘nilppu samara,” the alternative media such social media networks played a huge role in sensitizing the issue. Writers and film stars came in support of their cause.

One such supporter was social crusader Father Augustine Vattoly. According to him, the stand up stir is the greatest protest that Kerala has witnessed so far.

The Ernakulam archdiocesan priest questions the right of Kerala Chief Minister Oomen Chandy, an Orthodox Christian, to quote the Biblical words, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it for me,” on the occasion of canonization of two Kerala saints November end.

Delony Manuvel

That was that time his government removed the electric fencing that divided the Aralam Wildlife Sanctuary and the farmland inhabited by Adivasi families in a bid to evict Adivasis from the farm and hand over it to a company in which he allegedly has vested interests. Fr. Vattol urges people to view the matter not only as a livelihood problem of the Adivasis but from a larger angle. He wants them to foresee the issue as a total disaster for society as a whole.

A leading cine star from Kerala, Suresh Gopi has appealed the government to grant the rich land to its right owners without any delay. He warned the government that he would encircle the secretariat with students. Others such as Rima Kallingal, a female cine artist, and her director husband Ashiq Abu dropped in to pledge their support to the tribal cause.

Hope our representatives who find it difficult to sit straight without drooping, snoozing and yawning in the legislature would understand the difficulties faced by these protestors who have been standing for the past five months. Many of them have swollen feet and ankles that could easily be visible if ministers take the trouble to glance at them when they pass through the secretariat gates in the state cars.