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Tribal women emerge as confident leaders

— Photo: Ashoke Chakrabarty

Towards empowerment: Tribal women participants at the inaugural ceremony of State-level Tribal Women Leaders Summit in Bhubaneswar on Friday.

BHUBANESWAR: Anybody who will have a first look at Andhari Majhi, a tribal lady in her mid-forties from a nondescript village of Rayagada district, will surely carry the impression of a typical shy, fearful and backward woman.

But Andhari has proved everybody wrong. Well, her looks could be deceptive when it comes to taking up critical issues pertaining to her tribe and region. The tribal woman leader here on Friday minced no words while pointing out the issues such as Government’s inefficiency to tackle liquor menace, insecurity to teenaged tribal girls and apathetic attitude of Government machinery towards development of her region.

Andhari was among 50 odd tribal woman leaders from nine districts, who spoke eloquently about the problems they had been facing for decades.

The State-level summit for tribal women leader was organised by city-based voluntary organisation CYSD in collaboration with National Alliance of Women’s Organisation and ‘We Can Orissa’.

“State Government has closed its eyes on the flourishing liquor trade in tribal region. It is actually plaguing the development. About 5 per cent of tribal population died after consuming the liquor. Middlemen and politicians are in the forefront of pushing tribals into the clutches of intoxication,” she addressed the gathering un-flummoxed by the presence of top bureaucrats and other intellectuals.

Andhari said, “The high-rise buildings and non-stop construction in the capital city suggest that Government is only worried about development of urban centres. But a small irrigation project in my region has been ignored by the administration.”

While Andhari was more sceptic, Panamani Marandi, a young woman leader from Keonjhar district, was optimistic in her approach. She came to the summit with several accomplishments of her own. Panamani, who is a sarpanch, was instrumental in preparation of a grass root-level development plan, which could be a blueprint for Government agencies for executing welfare schemes.

The next goal of Panamani is to put a 24-hour water supply system in place for some villages under her panchayat.

Champabati Soy, another woman tribal leader from Mayurbhanj district, said she dictated development plan in her region without being influenced by her relatives. Exposure to various capacity building programmes have emboldened many of the tribal women leaders.

Speaking at the occasion, Tara Dutt, Secretary of ST & SC, OBC and minorities development, said woman leaders must carry on their boldness approach to ensure proper implementation of development progroammes. CYSD Member Secretary Jagadananda also called upon woman leaders not to get suppressed by influential people.

The tribal women leaders will interact among themselves as to how they should carry forward development programmes in their region here during next four days.

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