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came down with respiratory compli cations after stints ranging from two to three months in the 20-odd units<br />
involved in crushing silica stones on the outskirts of Godhra. According to a survey con ducted by the<br />
Adivasi Chaitanya Trust, over 160 tribal labourers from the Joj region of Chhotaudepur Taluka have, in the<br />
past four years, died. The killer disease has been identified by Dr Kiransinh Loth of the Tejgadh Tribal<br />
Academy Clinic as pneumoconiosis, or accumulation of silica dust in the respiratory tract and lungs that<br />
causes in flammation of the lungs and affects their functioning. He claims no treatment is available for the<br />
condition. Surprisingly, no medical pa pers about the treatment of the affected were available with their<br />
family members, making it difficult for the district ad ministration to initiate any ac tion in the matter. (<strong>Indian</strong><br />
Express 7/12/05)<br />
Indigenous groups seek `pro-people' changes in tribal rights legislation (6)<br />
NEW DELHI: Hundreds of indigenous groups from the tribal-dominated States staged a dharna here on<br />
Wednesday, demanding "pro-people" changes in the Scheduled Tribes (Recognition of Rights) Bill, <strong>2005</strong>.<br />
The groups from Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, led by leaders of the Lok Sangharsh<br />
Morcha, said the present Bill would not undo the "historical injustices" done to them. Tribals and other<br />
forest dwellers were undergoing trauma and tribulations. They have been debarred from their traditional<br />
lands and forest produce, declared encroachers and treated as disposable population by various<br />
developmental projects since Independence, the activists said. "The UPA Government, in accordance with<br />
its national common minimum programme (NCMP) has commendably acknowledged the historical<br />
injustices done to the tribal people. But, in a fashion characteristic to all previous governments, it is now<br />
diluting or destroying the very purpose of the bill by fixing 1980 as the cut-off date for conferment of land<br />
rights," the Morcha leaders said. Excluding all non-tribal forest dwellers from the ambit of the Bill, thrusting<br />
a land ceiling well below the prevailing norms, and desisting from giving any categorical commitment<br />
against eviction and displacement without any promise for rehabilitation to the displaced would not help<br />
the tribal people, they argued. The Bill also debilitated grassroots democracy by putting bureaucratic gags<br />
over gram sabhas and other statutory bodies prescribed in the legislation. "It is indeed a matter of shame<br />
that such a section of peaceful working masses should be denied basic rights enjoyed by all other citizens<br />
of the country and be haunted by all sorts of highhandedness of the police and forest officials," the<br />
protesters pointed out. (The Hindu 8/12/05)<br />
Jharkhand: It’s Adivasis vs Adivasis (6)<br />
RANCHI DECEMBER 8: The war to get the support of the tribals is on in Jharkhand. Days after the<br />
Adivasi Adhikar Morcha (AAM) organised a mammoth rally in Ranchi, the ruling BJP is gearing up to<br />
counter it with its own version on December 10. Billed as the Akhil Bharatiye Shashakt Adivasi Maha<br />
Sabha, the rally is expected to be attended by a galaxy of the BJP’s Adivasi leaders, 19 MPs and 132<br />
MLAs from across the country as well as party President L K Advani. Former CM Babulal Marandi, who is<br />
convenor of the rally, has already made an emotional appeal to Adivasis to turn up in large numbers for<br />
the rally. ‘‘This time we will make the world know that our party is the most popular among the Adivasis,’’<br />
said BJP state President Yadunath Pandey. The 32 party MLAs have been assigned with the job of<br />
collecting the bringing the Adivasis to the venue. And they seem to be vying with each other to prove their<br />
own worth. The AAM—which is supported by both the Catholic and Protestant churches and has the<br />
‘‘moral support’’ of the CPI(M), CPI and CPI(ML)—has given a call for a bandh on the day of the BJP rally.<br />
It has attacked the BJP announcement particularly as the party has not declared an agenda for the meet.<br />
‘‘By holding the rally in the name of Adivasi,the BJP is out to cheat us,’’ said Bandhu Tirkey, convenor of<br />
the AAM. However, there is no unity among the Adivasi leadership. While the Left parties are supporting<br />
the AAM, the Congress, RJD and the JMM have opposed the anti-BJP bandh. ‘‘There is no rationale for<br />
the bandh now,’’ said JMM President Shibu Soren. (<strong>Indian</strong> Express 9/12/05)<br />
State governments violating tribal rights (6)<br />
New Delhi : Dec. 9. — India's tribal population is facing gross human rights viola* tions, and state<br />
governments that claim to safeguard the tribals are themselves , encroaching on their rights. This has<br />
been revealed in a recent survey conducted by Delhi University's anthropology depart ment. Professor P C<br />
Joshi, who was in strumental in conducting the study, said the government's aim to lure tribals into the<br />
agrarian set up was a violation of fundamental human rights. "Tribes are being coerced into the so-called<br />
civilised society mod el of the state government. The Hill Korwa and Birhor tribes of Chattisgarh are in a<br />
tumultuous state as the state government is forcing a''cultural conversion' on them," he said. According to
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