The Hindu - CHENNAI, July 30, 2011
Chief Minister Jayalalithaa has requested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to consider the request of the inclusion of Badaga community of the Nilgiris in the Scheduled Tribes list at the earliest.
In her letter sent to Dr. Singh on Thursday, she pointed out that the issue had been pending for long. In September 2003, she wrote to the then Union Minister for Tribal Affairs, with a detailed analysis of various attributes of the community such as primitive traits, distinctive nature, shyness of contact with the public at large, geographical isolation and social and economic backwardness to declare them as a Scheduled Tribe.
Referring to a recent representation made by the Badagas to her, Ms. Jayalalithaa said the evidence produced by the community revealed that the Badagas had been living in the Nilgiris hills for several centuries with other Tribes such as Todas. “The Badagas are an ethnic and linguistic minority tribal group with a distinct culture and heritage of their own. Their oral literature, belief and faith reveal their attachment to Nakkubetta and Nilgiris through DEVVA and HETHE HABBAS, which are animistic in nature.”
The Chief Minister argued that the criterion of primitive tribe, one of the characteristics indicated for Scheduled Tribes, could no longer be applicable to many of the STs in the country due to their upliftment through various developmental programmes of the government since Independence, whereas it was very much relevant in the case of the Badagas of the Nilgiris. “It is clear that the broad characteristics indicated for classification of a community as a Scheduled Tribe have been satisfied, thus making them eligible for qualification as a Scheduled Tribe.” she said in the letter.
~~~~~~~~~
Ms.Sudha Arjun sent the following as comments. But I feel that her strong feelings need to be put as a new post so that a much better and healthier debate can take place .
I was shocked and horrified to see the article in The Hindu, with reference to Jayalalitha’s letter to the PM requesting for ST status for the Badagas. It is a complete shame that we are being used by these politicians as the single largest vote bank in the Nilgiris.
I ask each Badaga to introspect and judge whether we really need this status, which is being given to us as an incentive, as a bribe so that we vote as per political requirements. Have any of us thought what qualifies for a scheduled tribe- have we broadened our horizon to look all over India to see the plight of millions of people living in abject poverty, with barely a single meal a day? The farmers in the plains, who have been sucked into a vicious cycle of debts draining their life blood, the caste-ridden hinterlands of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, where people are not given any opportunity to progress, the hills of the north-east, where people barely know the meaning of economic progress the way we in the South have experienced it- these are the people who deserve a special economic status, who need reservation.
One the one hand, we Badagas are so proud of our own social and economic progress- we have people settled in 98 countries in the world, we have a hatti which has 75 cars, our youngsters have been able to reap the benefits of liberalisation to join good companies and lead good lives. I ask many of those youngsters who are still in their hattis without any jobs to re-look at themselves- are you incapable of doing any job or were you unable to find one? If you are unable to find a job, inspite of the required qualifications, we have the vast Badaga network which should be put to use for such good causes to help find jobs, support persons who cannot work, or to help our poor.
Why should we look to the government to dole out reservations like alms- do we not have our pride that we can look after our own? Let the reservation go to the oppressed and the really deserving- let us not snatch is away from those who need these government benefits. In the name of our ancestors who have achieved so much without “reservation” but all with their hard work and belief in themselves, I request you all to stand up and refuse this “special status”.
- Sudha Arjun responds :Dear Sir,Thank you for including my comments even though you do not agree with them. However, I would sincerely advice all Badagas to re-think the ST status. We do not fulfil the general characteristics of a tribe. I prefer that we are looked upon as a forward thinking community grounded in our traditions of rich hospitality & warmth, willingness to take care of our own people and ability to work hard. We already come under the 27% reservation for OBCs which should cover the opportunities available to us. Are we not going against the spirit of the constitution when we cover economically better communities/ castes in the ST category?I am glad that you brought up the point of our land being protected, which is exactly what I had raised a few years back in “Burning issues”. Is there no other way to protect our lands? I have heard that in Himachal, only the locals can buy and sell land to each other and harmony with nature is an essential requirement. What can we do to bring in similar laws? How do we maintain the beauty of our hills without rampant construction in the name of development? Is getting included as ST, the only way to protect our land?With reference to the perks given to Senior citizens, I beg to differ. Majority of senior citizens across the country have no income and live on their savings, hence, this cannot be an equal comparision.
Having said that, I look forward to more such healthy debates on the betterment of our community.Hello Ms.Sudha Arjun, thanks for your prompt rejoinder. I am putting your comments as a new post with the hope that there will be many more healthy debates on this ‘current’ topic – Wg Cdr JP##################MAHALAKSHMI comments :I agree with you Ms Sudha Arjun. Its meaningless in degrading us(Badagas) from our status for mere reservation and benefits from the Govt. There are people all over India(world) even today who die due to starvation, drought etc….There are people who even don’t know that the govt. can help them in many ways. These politicians play a good game there.We badagas with God’s Grace are good enough and developing ourselves in all the sectors today. Its a shame to all badagas asking for ST status though we can stand on our own. We should understand one thing basically (i.e) Reservation from govt. is to help the poor people to come up in their life and to make them stable. When a person from SC/ ST/ OBC gets a govt. job they should write to the govt. That they no more belong to lower caste, they satisfy their needs by themselves & they should upgrade their status. Unfortunately it doesn’t happen everywhere. Very scarcely people are genuine. It looks selfish, weBadagas strive for ST status in the country where we have the duty to abolish the caste difference, we should leave way for the poor and help people to come up.Instead we can make way for unemployed youths. As we see in other parts of our country we don’t leave our senor citizens in old age home. Also I agree that not all of them are safe and good. We can ask govt. to take any safety measures for these problems and feel them safe rather to degrade us to ST status.Also we should note that we have a major problem in our community, (i.e)early marriage of girl children, unawareness about the politics, in general though we are educated we lack in understanding the things that happens around us and take measures. We have to fight for these……….
No comments:
Post a Comment