By Matters India Reporter
New Delhi, August 9, 2020: Activists working among tribal communities in India on August 9 joined their counterparts around the world to observe the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples.
The Indians marked the occasion with a series of virtual talks and discussions from August 1 to 9.
Similar programs were also held in Asia, Canada, Europe, South America, and the USA where activists stressed collective struggle and solidarity to champion the rights of indigenous peoples, said Juhi Priyanka Horo, a member of the organizing committee in India.
More than 1,300 people took part in the webinars in India, she added.
The programs highlighted the need to safeguard indigenous peoples at global and local levels, tribal youth concerns, fusion of traditions and modernity, role of indigenous women in sociocultural development, tribals’ traditional knowledge system, languages and identity.
Gladson Dungdung, a tribal human right activist from the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand, urged the participants to join the struggle “to save our land, region and natural resources,” along with the identity, language, culture, tradition, and customs of more than 10 million tribals in India.
Tribals, he explained, can survive only in their community unlike non-tribals who are mostly individualistic.
“We will never move forward by separating or competing with each other. We have to move forward with the community while supporting one another. Adopt the community of tribal society by abandoning the individualism of non-tribal society. Our ancestors were, we are and our future generations will remain intact on this ground,” Dungdung asserted.
As the world fights against the spread of the pandemic, it is more important than ever to safeguard indigenous peoples and their knowledge, he added.
Dungdung also said that the indigenous people started worrying about a pandemic hitting the world much before the Covid-19 attack. They could predict such a disease with their traditional knowledge and relationship with nature. They had watched with unease the unscrupulous way humans degraded the environment, he added.
As the tribal territories account for 80 percent of the world’s biodiversity, indigenous people can teach the world how to rebalance the relationship with nature and reduce the risk of future pandemics, Dungdung said.
Sister Frida Toppo, a Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate nun working among indigenous people in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur, too says world needs the traditional knowledge, voices and wisdom of indigenous peoples.
“I am proud to be counted among indigenous communities, which are rich in culture, having unique languages, and possess invaluable knowledge of various practices,” the Oraon tribal from the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, told Matters India.
According to the teacher at Jesuit-managed St. Xavier School, Moirang, Bisnupur district under Imphal archdiocese, tribals maintain special strong bonds among themselves. They share common problems and face the challenges boldly. They are simple and hard-working people, she added.
Franciscan Binod Kanhar, a pastor in the Kandhamal district of Odisha, wants tribals helped to come up in lives. “Their inherent talents should be tapped for their integral and sustainable development.”
Jesuit Father Vijay Kachhap, a teacher and chaplain at De Nobili School, Chandrapura of Jharkhand State, said: “Tribal people need to be one in the fraternity by coming together in fellowship. It will make them have a sense of strength. United we will be standing tall.
For Shilpa Ekka, former national general secretary of the Indian Catholic Youth Movement, tribals have been contributing to the protection of nature for centuries.
“I am blessed to be a member of an Adivasi community who has been the protector of natural earth. Tribals have the power and strong will to resist any injustice taken against them, who always help each other for their rights,” said the young girl who now teaches in Sundergargh district of Odisha.
Father Ajaya Kumar Singh, a social worker based in Bhubaneswar, the capital of Odisha, wants every tribal to dedicate oneself to promote an indigenous community that sustains the planet, people and prosperity.
According to Census 2011, the number of scheduled tribes in India is 104,281,034, or 8.6 percent of the country’s total population. A total of 93,819,162 people belonging to scheduled tribes reside in rural areas whereas 10,461,872 people in urban areas.