UNPFII - Joint statement on education and migration

United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues

Seventh Session, April 21 - May 2, 2008

Agenda Item 8

Joint Statement by: Stephen Ekka, PAJHRA (Promotion and Advancement of Justice Harmony and Rights of Adivasis); Anjali Tirkey, Dorothy Kujur, John B. Ekka, Rashmi Ekka, Vincent Minz, Chotanagpur Rising Association; Meenakshi Munda, Mundari Literary Society; Nicholas Barla, Rourkela Social Service Society,

Respected Madam, Chairperson, Distinguished Member of Permanent Forum, Honorable representatives of the UN agencies, delegates and friends,

JOHAR! Greetings from us, the representatives of the Adivasis from India.

We are the Adivasis meaning aboriginals or original inhabitants or tribals of India. We would like to present some of the prevailing conditions of the Adivasi youth and children, related to Education and Migration.

We all know that education and awareness is the pre-requisite of any change we can dream of. But the very literacy rate amongst the Adivasi in India throws light on the pathetic situation of our people. I state some examples from Assam. The Adivasis are about six million in Assam which is approximately 20% of Assam's population. The Literacy rate amongst Adivasis is as low as 5% where as the overall Literacy rate in Assam is 57%.

Studies show that the then British Government in India, who brought the Adivasis as indentured labourers to work in the tea-estates wanted the people to remain illiterate and cocooned to a life in tea-plantations so that there was a continuous supply of cheap labourers. Even when the country gained freedom, nothing really worthwhile happened in the tea-gardens. The attitude of the tea-planters remained by and large the same. Shrouded by a slave like life in the tea-gardens, struggling with the economics of survival, unaware of their rights and the opportunities, the majority of people of the tea garden and ex- tea garden do not value education. The tea garden management does not provide adequate facility for education for the fear that if the Adivasis are educated; they would refuse to work in the tea garden as labourers for a meagre wage which is not even a dollar a day. Ineffective implementation of Government Education Schemes in the Tea & ex-Tea Garden area is another dominant factor which has deprived the Adivasi children from education.

Majority of the Adivasis work in the tea garden for their sustenance. Those in the villages too work seasonally in the tea garden. This total dependency in the tea garden has created a psyche that they don't have a future outside tea garden. Adivasi children are deprived of education because a large number of them are engaged in child labour. Many remain at home to take care of their younger siblings. There is no middle and high school within the tea garden. The dropout rates are more than 90% among the Adivasis. Even those who venture to go to nearby middle school have to face many challenges because they become alien amid the non Adivasi children. The management and the government do not pay attention to the requirements for promoting education. It is worth mentioning that lack of quality infrastructure; teachers and non-functioning of schemes like mid-day meal scheme etc. fail to attract the parents and children. The medium of instruction being a non Adivasi language add to their disinterest and disadvantage. The syllabus of the primary school is no way related with Adivasi life. There is no mention of their language, culture, history etc and hence the subjects too become alien to the children.

The about 50,000 children and youth in the relief camps (an aftermath of the 1996, 1998 ethnic clash) still have no education or even health facilities, making a whole generation illiterate.

Lack of education and job opportunities have forced the people to migrate to cities looking for daily wage jobs or join the unorganised sectors like that of domestic workers. This has led to further exploitations of Adivasis. In Delhi alone it is estimated that there are about 85,000 to 100,000 female Adivasi domestic labourers, most of them are unmarried and in the age group of 12 to 25.Likewise their numbers may run into thousands in other metropolitans of India like Kolkatta, Mumbai and Chennai. In these unorganised sectors, the Adivasis become easy prey to exploitations of many kinds like instances of girls being sold, missing, physical torture and punishments, brutal sexual abuses. What is still more serious, frightening and pitiful is that this young adivasis are compelled to become a generation of exploited, oppressed, abused, rejected, passive, non-reactive because of the way they are being ill-treated. This is going to have its terrible negative impacts on the generation to come.

Migration and Land alienation is also causing the cultural alienation of Adivasis. When the whole community migrates for survival strategy the tribal life is not much affected. However, when the migration is forced or induced as in the case of Assam, Bengal, Andaman and Punjab the tribal life, values, identity are disastrously and sometimes irreversibly affected. Invariably this uprooted group has been marginalized socially, politically, culturally and in fact in every sphere of life. For example in Assam, the Adivasis are not even recognized as Scheduled Tribes unlike their counterparts in other states of India.

Our Recommendations:

· We would like your office to impress upon the Indian government to take special interest in the Education of its Adivasi children. For we understand that education is liberation.

· To make policies and schemes which makes education a must and also to see its proper implementations. Implementation is an area where the Indian Government is wanting.

· To introduce free education at least in primary and lower levels and to see that there exists conducive environment to act as incentive for children to study.

· To introduce schools in the rural areas so that children do not have to travel long distances and to have hostels in cities for adivasi children and youth so that they can live in the cities and acquire education.

· To introduce learning in ones own mother tongue especial in primary and lower level of education. This becomes more important where the regional language or the state language is not ones own mother tongue.

· While child labour is banned there are many loop holes in the policy and also in the implementation process. The government must check this and see that every child receives education.

· To make adult education a reality.

· To introduce schools with good infra-structure and human resource and to revive and revitalise the existing schools.

· To introduce mother tongue as a medium of instruction and to include our history and culture as a part of the curriculum.

· To make policies which give opportunities of jobs and work in the ones own area so that it mitigates migration.

· To introduce laws and to make the domestic workers sector more organised with proper work and wage policies.

· To do a proper research and study on migration to urban areas. Some of such induced or forced migrations are man- made and hence man can find solutions for them. One must analyze the historical forces and constraints which normally create causes and nuances of migration. And therefore one must find out the processes, forces and constraints that can become appropriate strategies for relieving them and for migration planning in order to help alleviate those human problems.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

PAJHRA

Chotanagpur Rising Association

Rourkela Social Service Society

Mundari Literary Society