TRIBALS – 2007 - Indian Social Institute

eported that around 30 per cent of adivasis reported some sort of problem in conception, while amajority of local women complained of fatigue, weakness and depression. Children are next.Five-year-old Gudiya is one of the "victims" of radiation. Managing to come out of her mother’swomb alive, after her mother had five miscarriages, Gudiya now cannot walk and cannot talk. Herlimbs are distorted and she is mentally challenged. "This is not just the tale of my daughter, thereare many children in the village who have met the same fate," says Mangal, the girl’s father.Subsequent surveys by a few other NGOs also claim that children living in more than two dozenvillages surrounding the uranium mines have also shown signs of mutation. While walkingthrough the narrow lanes in this tribal-dominated village, one can easily spot children with twistedlimbs and mutilated body parts sitting on the lap of their mother, quietly and curiously looking atevery stranger passing by. Even the adults are hesitant to mix freely with "outsiders", speciallywhen someone asks what had happened to their child. According to a rough estimate, UCIL,which is under the department of atomic energy, acquired 2,000 acres of land at Jadugoda andestablished a township, displacing five villages. According to the 1961 census, the totalpopulation of these villages was 2,047, of whom 47.1 per cent were tribals. Many indigenoustribal families have also been displaced from their ancestral land owing to the construction ofmines and mills in nearby Bhatin, Turamdih and Narwapahar. Bapi Da, a local activist leading thecampaign against health hazards, says: "Not only women and children, but the workers who getinto the mines to dig out uranium ore and man the tailing ponds where the waste generated fromthe mills is dumped suffer from serious ailments like bone, blood and kidney disorders, braindamage and nausea." According to him, the kit to measure the effect of radiation on the bodies ofworkers, which UCIL used to be provide to every worker earlier, was later taken away; and themedical records of workers who fall ill and get admitted to the hospital run by the corporation arekept secret. (Asian Age 30/1/07)180 people reconverted to Hinduism (6)Bhubaneswar : Keeping an eye on the third World Hindu Religious Conference, which will beginon February 11 in Allahabad, the State unit of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Monday reconvertedat least 180 people from 50 families to Hinduism under the Bonai Police Station area inSundargarh district. According to VHP sources here, all the families were reconverted amidstperforming of traditional Hindu rituals at the Jagyan site, where several VHP leaders werepresent. Early in January 2006, nearly 136 tribals were reconverted to Hinduism at a functionorganised by the local unit of the VHP and the Bajarang Dal at a remote village in Tumbei underGurundia police station in Sundargarh. It was again followed by reconverting at least 336 personsof 80 tribal families in 11 villages under Sundargarh district at a special function in Baridia lastOctober. Similarly, at least 73 persons from 17 families in Rourkela on the occasion of KartikPurnima were reconverted into Hinduism. On October 24, 2004, 300 Tribal Christians werereconverted to Hinduism in Sundargarh district. According to a statistics, more than 8,000 peoplewere reconverted in 2006 while Parishad has planned to strengthen its women wing Durga Bahiniand youth wing Bajarang Dal. Besides it has also decided to carry out more reconversionactivities in the tribal dominated regions of the State, where conversion is a war between theChristian Missionaries and Sangha Pariwar. Meanwhile VHP sources admitted that thereconversion is on the active agenda in Sundergarh district. "We are planning to do it moreintensively and in a well-coordinated manner," VHP insiders said. In the past four years, morethan 2,000 tribals have gone through the process of "home coming". "They are not Christians butthey are Hindus in fact and don't call it conversion as we are just bringing them back to the fold oftheir ancestors' religion," argued VHP activists. (Pioneer 30/1/07)Kalinga tribals to meet CM to end stalemate today (6)Jajpur : A 17-member team of the Visthapan Virodhi Janmanch will meet Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik on Wednesday at the State Secretariat to discuss the Kalinga Nagar issue. The riftamong the activists of the Visthapan Virodhi Janmanch, on Tuesday was amicably settled after along meeting at Ambagadia. An emergency meeting was called to discuss the issue over theChief Minister's invitation to end the stalemate in Kalinga Nagar that has been continuing over thelast one year. In the meeting, there was an angry exchange of words between two factions afterJanmanch Secretary, Rabindra Jarika said he had not given any statement on the action of