By Matters India Reporter

Jamtailbari: The International Indigenous peoples Day was celebrated at Sorojini Tea garden at Jamtailbari in Unakoti District, Tripura, a northeastern Indian state.

Around 700 people from Oraon, Munda, Kharia and Santal tribes participated in the August 9 program organized by All Adivasi Students Association, Tripura (AASAT), a two-year-old initiative of the Salesians in Tripura among the college students.

Mervar Kumar Jamati, the state’s Tribal Welfare minister, the chief guest, encouraged the audience to foster unity and eschew ills such as alcoholism and drugs abuse.

The minister also declared the newly announced federal government welfare scheme of 5 billion rupees each for Orang and Halam Tribal people of Tripura.

AASAT founder Salesian Father Juel Ekka explained the importance of the day and the need of tribes of Tripura to come together for education and development. Father Ekka stressed the need for educating the Adivasi youth.

Jesuit Father Irudhaya Jothi, the director of Xavier Institute for Development Education (XIDE), encouraged the Adivasis to become rooted in their cultural and societal values. He insisted that the world needs to learn from the Indigenous people specially about their communitarian spirit and life centered around Nature.

The strong sense of “I am because we are,” the African philosophy of ‘Ubundu,’ is visible among most tribal communities in Tripura that needs to be promoted, the Jesuit social activist said.

He also reminded the gathering of the struggles of tribals for Jal, Jangal and Jamin (water, forest and Land) in other parts of India and the sacrifice of Jesuit Father Stan Swamy for this cause in the recent past.

The program also included cultural display by various tea garden youth and children. The students from Jesuit-managed XIDE neighborhood coaching centers actively participated with songs and dance. The institute is the new initiative of the Jesuits in Tripura.

The AASAT distributed prizes to children who passed their school final examinations to encourage other students in the Tea Garden areas where the drop out rate is high.

More than 476 million indigenous peoples live in 90 countries across the world, accounting for 6.2 percent of the global population.

Indigenous peoples are the holders of a vast diversity of unique cultures, traditions, languages and knowledge systems.

They have a special relationship with their lands and hold diverse concepts of development based on their own worldviews and priorities.

Tripura has 19 different tribal communities — Tripura/Tripuri, Riang, Jamatia, Noatia, Uchai, Chakma, Mog, Lushai, Kuki, Halam, Munda, Kaur, Orang, Santal, Bhil, Bhutia, Chaimal, Garo, Khasia, and Lepcha.

United Nation secretary general Antonio Guterres in his message for the day says, “Indigenous peoples around the world continue to face overwhelming marginalization, discrimination and exclusion.”

The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed and exacerbated many existing inequalities, says Guterres and continues, from the perspective of indigenous peoples, the contrast is even starker.

The UN throws some shocking statistics on the global indigenous communities as more than 86 percent indigenous peoples globally work in the informal economy, compared to 66 percent for their non-indigenous counterparts.

The Indigenous peoples are nearly three times as likely to be living in extreme poverty compared to their non-indigenous counterparts.

At least 47 percent of all indigenous peoples in employment have no education, compared to 17 percent of their non-indigenous counterparts. This gap is even wider for women.

The UN chose August 9 the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples to raise awareness of the needs of these population groups.

The day was chosen in recognition of the first meeting of the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations held in Geneva in 1982.