Priest urges tribals to go for their rights

(August 11, 2011) Tribal people must join the mainstream and develop the power to bargain for their rights, a Jesuit priest said in New Delhi. “Unless you think positive and come forward, nothing is going to change,” said Father Stanislaus Tirkey, secretary of the Indian Catholic Bishops’ commission for tribal people. He was speaking at a seminar on The changing face of challenges before tribals in India in New Delhi on Wednesday to mark International Indigenous Peoples day. Father Tirkey told some 50 tribal leaders that they should protest for their rights but do so peacefully as “violence is no solution”. The one-day seminar was organized by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India’s committee for tribal affairs, the tribal support group Ho Disum, and the Indian Social Institute staff forum. Father Marianus Kujur, who heads the tribal unit of the Jesuit-managed Indian Social Institute, said he regretted that tribal people continue to suffer even 64 years after the country gained independence. Industrial and development projects in their areas have threatened tribal people’s lifestyle, culture and identity, he said. Father Edward Mudavassery, Provincial of South Asia, who has worked among tribals for several years, said: “It is very sad to see tribal peoples’ poor socio-economic condition.” He added that in the name of globalization the tribals are being uprooted from their ancestral land through displacement, migration and trafficking.