The Hindu : Other States / Orissa News : Ignorance proves their undoing

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 27, 2007
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Other States - Orissa

Ignorance proves their undoing

Correspondent

Some 10,000 tribal families reportedly lose
many benefits
They are not aware that they are a ST

KORAPUT: More than 10,000 families from Dhuruba community staying in Ramgiri, Gupteswar and Kotpad region of Koraput district might lose their precious land if the district administration does not extend the benefit of tribal status to this community. Though members of this community lived like any other tribal community of the region they were being ignored for a long time, Jagannath Shroff, a former administrative officer from Koraput and a researcher on tribal way of life, said.

Children were deprived of proper education while other tribal communities were enjoying the benefit from the government . Further, their land and property were not protected under special prohibition under schedule area acts available to other tribal communities, leading to their losing a great amount of land and property in the hands of rich people, Paresh Rath , another researcher on Dhuruba tribe, said. In 2003, the Central Government included Dhurua, Dharua and Dhuruba in the ST list. This decision was also mentioned in the Government’s notification, Mr.Shroff said .

But thanks to inaccessibility to information among poor tribals living in the remote corners of Koraput district, members of the tribe have remained ignorant of the development that had gone in favour of the community to date, he added.

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