Report by Badal Tah; Rayagada : A delegation led by State Convenor Bidulata Huika of Odisha Adivasi Manch(OAM), an apex tribal forum in the state of Odisha, has demanded promulgating Panchayat Extension to Schedule(PESA) rules, re-opening of closed schools, allotment of forest land, resettlement of displaced persons, education of children in their mother tongue tribal languages, establishment of tribal language academies at district level, etc. The demands were presented to Odisha Chief Minister Mr. Mohan Charan Majhi.
Although the PESA Act was enacted by the Central Government in 1996 & despite repeated demands of the OAM, the Odisha Government did not enact any Rules for nearly 30 years. In some other states this Rule has been enacted. Therefore, OAM has demanded immediate introduction of people-oriented Rules to empower the Gram Sabhas or village assemblies in the tribal areas. The previous Naveen government, especially in tribal-dominated districts, closed down many primary schools and deprieved thousands of tribal children of basic education. Therefore, the forum has demanded that all those schools should be re-opened immediately.
Despite ownership of the land allocated under the Forest Rights Act, many irregularities are alleged. In spite of repeated demands, many tribal families have so far failed to get forest land pattas . Most of the villages have not been given community forest rights. The forum has demanded an immediate solution to all these irregularities. Tribal families displaced by mining, large river dams and other large scale projects are still living a miserable life. The Manch has demanded that they be properly rehabilitated within a certain time frame according to the government’s R&R policy.
In 2013, the central government enacted a policy on mother-tongue-based pre-primary education (Anganwadi) in tribal areas, following a sustained movement by OAM. But it was not implemented in true spirit. The previous state government also kept quiet after publishing books in ten tribal languages and imparting half-hearted training to ICDS functioaries. Those books with lots of errors are rotting in the warehouse of the state. Odisha Adivasi Manch has demanded that the Mohan government should re-examine the said policy in the context of the state and implement it at the grassroots level. The forum demanded that mother tongue based multilingual pre-primary education should be introduced in all tribal areas.
Out of the 62 types of tribes of Odisha, about 30 languages have survived in one way or other. All other indigenous languages are dead or dying. Like Odia Identity(Asmita), own mother tongue is also the identity of tribal Asmita. In this context, the forum has submitted a demand to the Chief Minister to establish a “Language Institute or Language Academy” in each tribal district.
Manch said that as the chief minister of Odisha is a tribal himself, he is sensitive to the above problems of the scores of tribals of Odisha because he has seen and realized them very closely. The Chief Minister has assured the representatives of OAM to fulfill the above mentioned demands in a phased manner.
In this delegation, the president of voluntary organization PREM Jacob Thundiyl, EDUCO National Director Guru Prasad, OAM State Advisor Dr Badal Tah from Koraput, OAM State Coordinator Sudhir Digal and Santosh Sahu from Kandhamal, Mayurbhanj OAM Convenor Basant Singh, Ratan Mishra from Gajapati and others were present.
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