President Murmu to lead tribal day events at Birsa Munda’s native village

Murmu will pay floral tributes to Birsa Munda on November 15 at Ulihatu, the village in Jharkhand’s Khunti district where the revered tribal leader was born, to mark the second Janjatiya Gaurav Divas, the minister said.

The same day, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar will pay tributes at Birsa Munda’s statue in Parliament complex in the presence of several MPs.

The week-long celebrations will include several other national- and state-level programmes, Munda told the media in New Delhi. A series of events have also been planned at 392 Eklavya Model Residential Schools at multiple locations across the country.

As part of the celebrations, the President will inaugurate several projects of the Ministry of Road and Transport as well as the Ministry of Power and lay the foundation stone of several Eklavya Schools virtually from Khunti. She is expected to address women’s self-help groups in and around Khunti.

Stating that the government will celebrate Birsa Munda’s birth anniversary “even in the remotest parts of the country”, Munda said there will be special emphasis in reaching out to the tribal population in border belts. Marches by the youth and performances by artists from tribal communities will be held in state capitals, alongside seminars, workshops, sports and painting competitions.

Other ministries such as the Railways, Culture and Education have also been involved in the programmes.

Munda said Janjatiya Gaurav Divas celebrations are not just symbolic but a resolve towards providing basic amenities, employment, education to people from tribal communities living in remote areas and villages when the country completes 100 years of independence in 2047.

He said work is moving swiftly towards completion of 740 Eklavya Model Residential Schools across the country by 2026 as residential schools for children from Adivasi communities.

In 2021, the government had declared November 15 as Janjatiya Gaurav Divas.