Indigenous people deserve our attention

Bangladesh is rather lucky enough that it has a variety of tribes that carry the colours of indigenous credential. These people are living across the country and as a result, their lifestyles, philosophy, social customs and culture are directly helping to enrich our over all cultural scenario. This diversity of tribe and race is a wealth for a developing country like Bangladesh, if we consider the matter from the anthropological point of view. Because, it signifies the cultural richness of our country.

All across the world, the indigenous people have been living through utmost agonies, pains and consternation, though in some developed countries like Australia, New Zealand, the situation is getting changed. Unfortunately, in Bangladesh we could not come up yet with appropriate steps for the betterment of condition of the indigenous people who are living under perceived threat of eviction. Neither governmental initiative nor private enterprise has been taken to listen to the agonies of these "aborigines". It is our great failure that despite being the people of a democratic country, we have not been able to pay heed to their demands. Sometimes, even we have tried to just overlook their afflictions because they are not directly linked to our mainstream culture and ideologies. Moreover, they are small sections of people left out without proper education, medication and democratic treatment. As such, it is often thought that it is not a big problem to deal with them when necessary in our 'self-interest'.

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But prevalence of this sort of belief in government and other influential social institutions is harmful for the development of a nascent democracy.

The indigenous people are, most often, said to be remaining out of school and in the fallacy of superstition. Still, 95 per cent of indigenous people in Bangladesh are deprived of education. Unfortunately, they are the most unprivileged community in our country. They are addressed hardly by the newspapers and other media, they are hardly under the eye of NGOs to ameliorate their sufferings and even they are ignored by the government and the opposition. Now-a-days, some intellectuals, influential persons, liberal personalities of our country are raising their voice for the protection of the rights of the indigenous people, but it is a whopping truth that as long as no political attention is paid to this matter, nothing could alter their worrisome condition.

After the recognition of the indigenous people by the UN, the developed countries where aborigines are living in the face of extinction, have taken initiative to protect their religious belief, cultural variety, traditional customs, social ethos etc. By doing that they are contributing to enrich their mainsteam culture with variety. But Bangladesh seems to have remained reluctant on this issue and the government has not perhaps appointed any anthropological department or folklore society to conduct a research on the indigenous people across the country. But, if we did, we would be discovering their strong and mysterious social beliefs, rituals and cultural diversity. By running this research, we could have made our own culture further flourished with variety. I think, it is time to give a thought to it.

Of late, we have come across a protest from the Indigenous People's Forum that the government was trying to evict some indigenous people by having taken a decision for establishing an eco-park. I am not sure how much true it is,

but if it is the real motive, then we must say, it is inhuman, undemocratic and violation of human rights. No government has any right to evict the inhabitants for establishing a project without providing them with proper rehabilitation with a long-standing pecuniary solution. The government should remember that they may be indigenous people, but they are citizens of Bangladesh and they have every right to remain protected by their rights. We must appeal to the government to act wisely and not to take any step to implement their plan, however good it is, overlooking the rights and problems of the indigenous people.

I dream of a beautiful tomorrow for the indigenous people when there will not be any discrimination, imparity and untoward incident against them. They won't be pushed to a situation where their survival will be impossible and which make the common people feel guilty. I believe a tomorrow will come when all these indigenous people will be educated and help the country to thrive economically. But, to transform this dream into a reality, we all have to come to one understanding that these indigenous people are the part of our culture and society, and we must do our utmost to make them better off. Now, noted figures of our country have raised their voices in support of the indigenous people and who knows, tomorrow hundreds of thousands of conscious citizens would not join forces. I like to believe that tomorrow is not far away.

Sulav Barua is at the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, Middlesex University, London, UK.