Jarawas to join outside world

India may lose the tag of having world’s most primitive nomadic --- Jarawa of Andaman – with the government deciding to reverse its 2004 policy of preserving their uniqueness.

Updated on: Jun 15, 2011, 23:20:34 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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India may lose the tag of having world’s most primitive nomadic --- Jarawa of Andaman – with the government deciding to reverse its 2004 policy of preserving their uniqueness.

Jarawa migrated from Africa centuries ago and lived in isolation in forests of Andaman till 1998 when some of them ventured out to visit nearby towns. Dependant on forest produce for food and clothes, they caught attraction of researchers and tourists. But reducing forest habitat and inbreeding have shrunk their population to below 350 from over a thousand in 1950s.

To protect primitive lifestyle of Jarawas, the tribal affairs ministry in 2004 notified a policy of not making any attempt to bring them to the mainstream of the society and have minimum government intervention.

The government’s policy did not work as Jarawas interacted with neighbouring settlements mainly due to Andaman Trunk Road (ATR) constructed about 50 years ago and got exposed to the outside world.

“They have started chewing tobacco and eating rice and sugar. They are sharp, intelligent and confident. Their articulation is clear and self assured. The effort to protect the Jarawa tribe (as enshrined in 2004 policy) from external influences is therefore an exercise in futility,” a proposal of Andaman and Nicobar Island Administration says.

The Island Development Authority chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday agreed with the proposal and asked the union territory administration to increase exposure and interaction of Jarawa with the modern world. “We will have to work in educating Jarawa tribe to integrate with the modern society,” a senior government official said.

Unlike the NGOs, who claim that Jawara still continue their primitive ways, the administration says they don’t live in “splendid isolation” anymore.

The policy has also caught the administration in a dilemma as it wants to curb freedom of Jarawas to interact with the outside world and enrich their knowledge. Therefore, now the administration has sought a change in policy to empower Jarawa to integrate with the modern world.

The core of the issue is the supreme court’s order in 2002 asking the administration to close Andaman Truck Road for vehicular traffic as its contravene the exclusive right of Jarawas in 1,200 kms of the forest area. The road was constructed in 1960s to extract timber from Jarawa reserve which the court in 2002 termed as illegal.

Although the administration has sought modification to the order, the authority on Wednesday decided to wait for the supreme court’s decision on the issue. The administration has filed a petition asking the court to modify its decision to close the road in 2002.

Even as IDA headed has taken a decision, NGO Kalpvakrish had served a legal notice to the administration and environment ministry asking why the court order has not been implemented so far.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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