-Hindustan Times Sheopur: The tribals of 106 villages in Madhya Pradesh have either demolished government made toilets or are using them as storerooms, say government officials, admitting that one of the reasons behind this was faulty design. This happened just 450 kilometres from Bhopal in Sheopur district villages where the government had built about 13,000 roofless, waterless and three-walled structures’ in the name of toilets in 2008-09 under its rural sanitation scheme. Many...

-The Hindu The Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill 2015 contains no provisions for consent from tribals for mining operations, but strengthens the rights of private sector mining companies Even as countrywide protests against the land ordinance gain momentum, Adivasi communities living in mineral-rich areas are apprehensive of what awaits them as the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill 2015 (MMDRA) has received presidential assent and the government has drafted Rules...

-The Hindu Adilabad: Tribal farmers face same adversities which dog ryots of other regions, yet taking an extreme step is rare among them. For a brief while, Pendur Somu, the Gond Patel of Jodeghat village, seemed lost when he was asked why Adivasi farmers do not resort to suicide when in distress. A smile soon broke out on his face as he grasped the significance of such a question. “Can we repay the...

-The Telegraph   Tribal ministry to cover 6 lakh children of indigenous communities in Assam     Guwahati: The Union tribal affairs ministry, with the help of the health department, is planning to cover at least six lakh tribal children in Assam, including those of tea garden workers, under its sickle-cell anaemia screening programme this year. Sickle-cell anaemia is a blood disorder characterised by an abnormality in haemoglobin that carries oxygen from the lungs to...

-The Times of India Despite more access to education, better household amenities and increased incomes, the economic gap between upper castes and dalit and tribal communities continues unchanged over the years, according to latest economic data from the NSSO. A comparison of average monthly expenditure of households belonging to dalit communities with upper caste households showed that in rural areas there was a gap of about 38% in 1999-2000 which changed only...