The United Nations officials from Bonn, Germany, will visit Gumla in the first week of November to take stock of changes that have taken place in villages in this tribal dominated district. Gumla is among the five districts in the state where government of India and UN programme of total village development is underway.   Ever since the district launched its Total Village Development Programme under its model village project in two villages...

Ten years, 125 more heads. Hardly anything to write home about in these times of billion-plus populations, but anthropologists aren’t complaining. Not when the last headcount showed 240 and the people in question are a threatened tribe — the Jarawas. The latest report by the Andaman Adim Janjati Vikash Samity (AAJVS), a government-affiliated autonomous agency headed by the Union territory’s lieutenant governor, shows the Jarawas now number 365 — 125 more since...

Are some tribal groups in Koraput and Mayurbhanj on the brink? The answer seems to be in affirmative if the rate of child mortality among the tribals is any indication. The child mortality rate of the tribals in 1997-98 was 44 but it has surged to over 62 per 1000, says the latest study by Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement in association with the World Health Organisation. The Study has conducted...

Poverty and exploitation forced some tribal women in eastern Uttar Pradesh to turn to Naxals, who proved to be no different. Leading a pathetic life after being sexually exploited and abandoned by the extremists, eight tribal women have now sought CM Mayawati's intervention to help in their rehabilitation. Hailing from the Naxal-affected Kaimur range, which includes Robertsganj, Mirzapur, Sonebhadra and Chandauli, these women had joined the banned outfits between 2000-2005. Most...

Noted social activist Anna Hazare has decided to launch a 'jail bharo' agitation against the 'illegal decision of the state government to condone irregularities' in the Lavasa lake city project coming up near Pune. "The state government's decision to regularise irregularities in Lavasa project is akin to daylight robbery of tribals whose lands have been illegally acquired for the project," Hazare said. "As per law, land of tribals cannot be transferred. But...