Chronicle Reporter, Bhopal, At Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya, an exhibition– Aadi-Jan – has become popular amongst visitors coming to the museum. This exhibition has been created by P Shankar Rao (Assistant Keeper) with the help of museum officials.
The exhibition titled ‘ADIJAN: A special exhibition on Indigenous tribes of Central India, special reference to Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh’. The ethnic group lives in various ecological and geo climatic conditions ranging from plains and forest to hills and inaccessible areas. The present exhibition mainly focuses on particularly vulnerable tribal groups (PVTGs).
In India there are 75 PVTGs identified and listed spread across 17 states/UTs, There are 46 recognized scheduled tribes in Madhya Pradesh inhabited in different geo-spatial locations, three of which have been identified as PVTGs (earlier known as PTG) i.e. mainly Baiga, Bhariya and Saharia.
The population of Scheduled Tribes (ST) is 21.1 per cent of the total state population. The Chhattisgarh State having 31 Scheduled Tribes (ST) out of which four tribes i.e. Abuj Maria, Hill Korbas, Birhor and Kamar have been listed as PVTGs.
These groups are culturally diverse which makes them unique in the tribal world. The scheduled tribes (ST) population is 30.6 per cent of the State’s total population (2011 census).
The present exhibition depicted the socio, economic life and cultural development in different stages of the PVTGs of Central India starting from hunter gathers to shifting cultivators to settled cultivation.
In fact, their material culture reveals their simple and sustainable livelyhood stratigies for which they are know in the tribal world. This exhibition gives an overview of different PVTGs in general and their holistic culture in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in particular, this important special occasion in the context of International Day of the World’s Indigenous peoples.
