India’s tribal Catholic bishops have sought the intervention of President Pranab Mukherjee to ensure the rights of millions of tribal people.
The memorandum signed by tribal bishops from six states said, they were “saddened” by the policies of state governments that have trampled over tribal people’s rights. They want the president “to protect the land, forest and socio-cultural rights of tribal people,” the May 10 memorandum said.
“Land is the only means of livelihood and sustenance” for most tribal people, as 90 percent of them are dependent on agriculture or allied activities in their ancestral land, the bishops said. The present federal and most state governments, however, “have taken various actions to alienate tribal people from their land on a massive scale to facilitate industrialists.”
In the most recent example, Jharkhand government amended two laws that guaranteed the protection of tribal land used for agriculture. The government declared their land as non-agricultural and, since non-agricultural land does not come under the purview of protective legislation, tribal people can be deposed.
Father Stanislaus Tirkey, secretary of the Indian Catholic bishops’ office for tribal people told ucanews.com that indigenous people are facing the same problems every state and “we plan to address it collectively.”
