SEMINAR ON TRIBAL DEVELOPMENT AT PASCHIMBANGA BANGLA ACADEMY OF PASCHIM BANGA ADIBASI LEKHOK O BUDDHIJEEVI MANCHA This organization was established in 2010. The organizing secretary is Mr. Karthick Hasda. Purnendu Soren: The steps that should be taken for tribal development are as follows: No government attack. No individual attack. No individual insult. We are few in number but the work is huge. This seminar can help us in showing the ways of tribal development. The tribals are still in darkness. No school and college were engaged in this tribal developmental work. The reservation and quota for education is there for the scheduled tribe. No appointment was made in the general category. In 2009, Bundwan Vidyapeeth started teaching Santali as the first language. The application from students who are interested in learning came in the year 2010-2011. No teachers were present for teaching. No significant work was done. The fund was collected for the students living in the hostels. The tribal boys could not live in hostels as the hostel charged Rs. 700 per month for the accommodation. So the tribal boys are not in high school. The Bundwan region is in Hoogly district. The students who are unable to pay were not allowed to stay. Mahasweta Devi: She gave a message to the Bangla Adibasi Lekhok o Buddhijeevi Mancha that she is sick and so cannot attend this meeting. Lakshmindra Kumar Sarkar: I am doing the tribal development work for 31 years. I worked in Kamarbandh village. I worked in the language movement. Chandra Sekhar college was started with 79-80 students. There was a revolution. Those who were not associated could not realize this. I worked in the anti-witch movement. I left the job of Aajkaal for social work. I worked for the gain of the tribal and underprivileged people of Bengal. I made the tribals write on their own through the newspaper. At the time, no writings were printed in the city journals and newspapers. They were trained to write in the newspaper Adibasi Sambad. This is the platform from which they could speak freely. We need to create a Master Plan of tribal development. We need to think of the ways to improve and progress. Everybody will cheat in the name of development. The workshops and meetings were organized on Adibasi Sambad. Mr. Kartick Hansda organized many seminars in spite of debts. We do not care of our next door neighbor. We need to be kind to others especially to the tribal issues. The farmers of rice returned to the city but never went back home. For the general masses, the tribals are meant to be exploited as labourers. They are given work in tea gardens and as servants. They are employed in huge numbers in tea gardens in North Bengal. This is the real picture. The city people are ignorant of these stories. The city people must get united. We will create a fund of our own. For example, we can keep aside Rs. 100 per month for the development of tribals. If everybody accumulates this way, then there will be no crisis of funds for tribal development. Waste Bank is a way of creating funds through the sale of old newspapers and magazines and saleable scrap materials. The village and city people can organize and create funds this way. The solution of problems can be done this way. The small steps can be taken easily and eventually a revolution will be observed in the life of the tribal and underprivileged people of Bengal. The lack of treatment can lead to the death or aggravation of the disease of the poor. So the nongovernment organizations will make projects and we will tap it. We will tell the story of our village. Survey work must be done to know the present situation and the crisis needs to be analyzed. Purnendu Soren is a retired person. We need to analyze the economics for their development. Saradaprasad Kisku took part in the anti-witch movement. There were attempts to murder the revolutionaries. The attempts were made by those who supported the witch movement. They wanted to stop this anti-witch movement. Now the question of safety of the girls of Purulia arises. A revolution has started in the jungles in those areas. The santal poets and writers have started protesting. We neglect the tribals. We make awareness programs. Nowadays no fairs or haat is organized. There is a lot of party politics. The life in the village are discussed in the weekly meetings and solutions are sorted out. So there must be unity. The city dwellers can also arrange weekly meetings for the development of their community. We must have the UNITY. We must think of the solutions to the problems. We have come to this Bangla Academy to think of the solutions to the problems. The city people are also studying the tribals, then why are they not coming to the seminar? The problems needs to be analyzed. The people were roaming in the fields and asking the villagers. The problems must be solved through discussion with the local people. A master plan needs to be formed. The relative relationship in tribal society is called “dik.” The “dik” word is used in Santal parganas. The adibasis are cheating themselves by working in the city. They are riding expensive cars like Alto. They are enjoying themselves at Baha Parab in Santragachi. They are not coming to the meeting thereby neglecting their own tribal issues. The script problem is always there. The olchiki script problem is there always. Now we need to think on the ways of the development. There are some loopholes. The planners of thinking about their own gain through the social work. Dr. Probhat Ghosh- He greeted everybody saying “Johar” meaning Namaskar or Namaste. He is very pleased to talk about L.K. Sarkar. The tribals like Mech, Rava, Garo, Hazong and Toto are few in number. If there is one leader like Birsa Munda, then the whole India can awake. We need to change our mindset. There has been attempt to murder Sudhir Tudu, Milan Tudu. So they had to change the residence. We used to go with L.K. Sarkar to understand this. We understood his Bankura, Purulia etc. By using the term “adibasi,” we are making it remote. There are many distractions in city life. Survey will give us valuable data for their development. We worked in Sabarpara in Purulia. Now if we think of the reason why the people are not coming up here? Ramchand Murmu from South Bankura led the tribal movement and there are Guniram Hembram and Mahadev Hansda who participated in the tribal development movement. A big program was organized with Sadhu Ramchand Murmu which went on whole day and night. Drama and poetry competition was held. There was cooking, stage preparation. It was 2 days program. We can do everything. We do not come to join hands. The speaker said, “You all can do. You have great power. You need to organize it.” There are tribes like Oraon, Munda. The Dimal has a population of 1000. The Totos are so poor in number. The Mundas are also very few. In North Bengal, there are tribals like Boro, Rava, Hazong, Toto, Rajbanshi. If the intellectuals meet once a day, then there will be a good result. P.O. Bodin worked on Santhals. He has written an account on tribals in 5 volumes and a dictionary. Micro films are used in manuscripts in 1986. These are found in Jawaharlal Nehru University (Delhi), Biswabharati, Asiatic Society, Rabindra Bharati. Only in Asiatic society, it is available now. There are many problems in Santal academy. Sadhu Ramchand Murmu, Raghunath Murmu, contributed a lot for the tribal development. In the 40s-50s there were many journals. Stephen Murmu, Gopal Soren worked in tribal development. Marshall Tabon, Har Sambad in Bihar are good journals. In 50s, Naran Soren, Saradaprasad Kisku, Bhagavat Murmu did write on tribals. They started a revolution. Journals like Aran, Nagam Shakan needs to be translated in Bengali. There are journals like Teheri, Jug Sirijal. The poetry journals are burnt. The literatures needs to be discussed. The people in the lower strata needs to be raised. There are 3 rare tribal community like Toto, Lodha, Birhor. They must think of their stage. We need to think how much scientific is the script problem. Ms. Sapna Das recited poetry of Rabindranath Tagore “Kripon.” Tanusree Bandyopadhyay is a singer who also performed in the program of Bangla Academy. She sang “Fagun Hawa.” Baha Parab goes on for one month in tribal society. We need to do tribal development but we must have good audience in our seminar. Those who are not aware of the tribals, its very tough to tell. Now we want socially aware person. Self assessment is needed. 2008-2011- in second November all Indian Writer’s Association delegate meeting was held. B.R. Ambedkar worked for the poor. There was a stay unit at Midnapore and the situation at Lalgarh is really critical. Thre was a bloody revolt at Jungle Mahal. The new government is working for the development of Jungalmahal. There was a big strike. The state and central government works for vital causes. The jungalmahal people feel that something positive will turn out. The central government is sending the action plan to the state. The policies are readymade. They are hitting the people at the grassroot level. Kamarbandhi village has the oldest school in Midnapore. There is zamindar rule in jungalmahal. The meetings can be done in community halls. A 200-seated hall is there. A 500-seated hall costs Rs. 4 lakhs. The plans of Delhi failed because it was not effective. There must be grassroot planning. The crores of money allocated are not properly utilized. There is grassroot planning. The team is composed of experts. The Olchiki script was used in education. The school had 50-60 tribal students. There is tribal exploitation and no development. An All India Development was held at Bangla, Bihar, Assam, Orissa. We are being oppressed by the government. We need to reach the people. We travelled Lalgarh, Simlipal, Madhukonda. We cannot lose hope. This is exactly Mr. Probhat Ghosh said. NIRANJAN HALDAR: Meeting must be organized. There are lots of obstacles. The bad qualities are getting absorbed in the city. The alphabet struggle needs to be stopped. The basic education system has become out of date. In teaching, the language script is more important. Rupchand Hansda took part in the language movement. The language script is more important in the development. The 29th representative in 1989 of SC, ST category. The Gandhiji and Jawaharlal Nehru took part in this movement. They defined our position in the developmental work.
Posted on: Tue, 29 Oct 2013 00:40:22 +0000
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