Karnataka - Bangalore   

‘Build colonies of community development at Banjara habitats’

— Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

Towards improvement: Former Chief Minister S. Bangarappa being received by former Minister and President of the sangha B.T. Lalitha Nayak (second from left) at the seminar in Bangalore on Sunday.

BANGALORE: Nomadic tribes and other tribal communities need to be given earmarked colonies of community development nearer to their habitats so that education and social justice will accrue to them, said experts at a day-long seminar on tribal communities held here on Sunday.

The seminar was held under the aegis of the Karnataka Pradesh Banjara (Lambani) Seva Sangha. The lectures and papers presented by experts on tribal societies reflected the challenges on livelihood faced by the nomadic tribes in Karnataka, particularly tribal people living in the fringe areas of the forests.

The paper on ‘Livelihood security, problems and challenges’ by D.B. Nayak of Gulbarga Kannada University highlighted preservation of the traditional livelihood patterns of the nomads and tribal people. Another paper on ‘Effects of education, literature and civilisation on tribal life’ by senior faculty of Kannada University of Hampi K.M. Maitry outlined the need to bring nomads and tribal people into mainstream society by educating the youth. Others who presented papers included the faculty of Kuvempu University, Shimoga, G. Prashanth Naika, with ‘Political and social awareness of nomads and tribal communities; ‘Beliefs, practices and life of nomads and tribal communities’ by director of Prasaranga of Karnatak University, Harilal Pawar; and ‘Historical and anthropological importance of nomads and tribals’ by faculty of Kuvempu University, Booda Naik. H.N. Nagamohan Das of the State High Court chaired the seminar.

Earlier, inaugurating the seminar, Governor Rameshwar Thakur said that the society and the Government should help the nomads and the tribal communities to “preserve their distinct identity even in the wake of modernisation”.

He said: “We appear to have been attracted more towards others’ cultures than making efforts to preserve and improvise our own way of living.” The people of the community have traditionally been moving from place to place and, therefore, they are deprived of education, immovable property and other comforts of life. There was an urgent need to improve their standard of living, and education was the most important tool to achieve that, he added.

Presiding over the function, former Chief Minister and president of the State Samajwadi Party S. Bangarappa said some of the acts promulgated by the governments in the past did not support livelihood patterns of tribal and nomadic communities and the Wildlife Protection Act deprived the communities of their legitimate ways of livelihood.

Swamiji of Nidumamidi Math of Chitradurga Veerabhadra Chennamalla and the pontiff of Banjara Gurupeetam Chitradurga, Basava Sardar Sevalal were also present. A memorandum was submitted to the Governor seeking his intervention in protecting the livelihood of Banjaras and other tribal communities.

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