By IANS
Raipur : The Chhattisgarh government has sent a proposal to the centre to nominate a representative of five endangered tribes to the state assembly, officials said Monday.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) sent the proposal this week after a meeting of the Scheduled Tribe Advisory Council presided over by Chief Minister Raman Singh. These five tribal groups have a combined population of 114,483, spread across 1,161 villages.
Officials said that five tribal groups – Baiga, Pahari Korva, Birhore, Abujhmaria and Kamar – are on the verge of extinction as their population is fast declining and representation in the state assembly is required to create political and social awareness among them.
“The state government has requested the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs to make necessary provisions in the constitution to nominate a representative of these five tribal groups in the assembly on a rotation basis for a period of five years,” an official told IANS.
According to the proposal, the five tribal groups are unable to elect their representatives due to their backwardness and illiteracy.
Tribals constitute about 34 percent of Chhattisgarh’s total population of 20.08 million. The five endangered tribes traditionally live in forested stretches that are inaccessible by roads. They are totally dependent on the forest for food and rarely respond to the government’s welfare and educational schemes.
The Baiga tribe consists of 9,147 families with a total of 42,838 people living in Kawardha and Bilaspur districts. Many are now facing starvation. Pahari Korvas have 7,562 families consisting of 33,380 people who reside in the state’s northern Jashpur, Sarguja and Korba districts. The Birhore tribe consists of 304 families with 1,105 people who live in Jashpur and Raigarh districts.
The Kamar tribe has 3,862 families with 17,759 people in Raipur and Dhamtari districts, while the Abujhmaria tribe has 3,895 families with 19,401 people who live in the state’s southern Bijapur, Dantewada and Narayanpur districts.