Ranchi: The Jharkhand assembly on Wednesday unanimously passed a House resolution seeking a separate code for Adivasis and sent it to the Centre. The resolution, which demanded provisions for a separate ‘Adivasi/Sarna religious code’ from the Centre, for inclusion in the census register, was tabled by chief minister Hemant Soren.
While tabling his government’s resolution, Hemant said a religious code will present an exact number of tribal communities, help document their population, preserve tribal languages, culture and history and help them avail their Constitutional rights (under the 5th schedule) and benefits under the tribal sub-plan.
Soren expressed his concern over the falling tribal population nationwide. “Upon analysis of the tribal population between 1931 and 2011, a drop to 26.02% from 38.03% has been noticed in the past 80 years. The census figures indicate that the growth rate of tribal population in Jharkhand is less than that of other communities. While population of other communities has increased at a rate of 25.65%, that of tribal communities stands at 17.19%,” the CM said.
Soren claimed that the dip in numbers were also because a large chunk of tribals migrate to other states when they are not harvesting. “It is often argued that these people, who are not documented in their respective hamlets, are done so at the places where they migrate. But these people are documented as people of general class outside of Jharkhand. The falling numbers of tribals can also have an adverse effect on the special provisions guaranteed by the fifth schedule,” he added.
BJP, led by former minister Neelkanth Singh Munda, welcomed the state government’s move, but demanded that the resolution be renamed ‘Adivasi Sarna religious code’ as the name was misleading and politically motivated. Munda also questioned why the government did not deliberate the resolution in the tribal advisory council (TAC) before tabling it in the assembly. The new TAC is currently pending approval of the governor.
Mandar MLA Bandhu Tirkey suggested that the resolution must drop the word ‘Adivasi’ and be passed as Sarna Code. Claiming that though tribal communities make up for 10.45 crore of India’s population, JMM MLA Dipak Birua said the Centre’s refusal to acknowledge Sarna as a religion is leading to religious conversions. Ajsu-P MLA Lambodar Mahto, who also welcomed the resolution, claimed 20 lakh tribal people have embraced Christianity through all these years.
Hemant, agreeing to suggestions of legislators from the treasury and opposition benches, renamed the resolution as ‘Sarna Adivasi Religious Code’. “Besides passing a resolution, we will speak to the state governments which have tribal population and galvanise a nationwide appeal. We will also meet the Union government and demand the religious code before the Census gets underway in February next year,” he promised the House.