Click to play videoTejpur, Assam: Living in denial for decades, the adivasis of Assam are now bracing for a show down. With Assam's Panchayat elections around the corner at the end of December, several adivasi organisations have warned political leaders of political parties not to visit the community for electioneering.
The shocking attacks on Assam’s tribal people several days, which outraged the nation, have shown the tribals just how powerless they are.
Sixteen-year-old Pankaj Tati from Sonitpur district knows that doing well in his Board exams would not bring any of the rewards or comforts he seeks.
Says Pankaj, a tea-planter’s son, "I will try to look for a job, but it is difficult to find one. Nobody gives government jobs to adivasis and even if they do, they ask Rs 20,000–30,000 as bribe money.”
Tribals like Pankaj’s family, who came from Orissa originally, a century ago, have been the main workforce for Assam’s tea industry.
Such people were brought in by the British to work in the state’s tea gardens for at that time, Assam's tea industry was a booming one.
Now, the tea gardens are in crisis and many have closed down.
Hungry for government jobs under the reserved category, tribals are now mobilising for a political battle ahead
"We have made it very clear that if we are not granted ST status we will not allow any politician to enter the tea gardens or any area where the adivasis live,” said the District President of the All Assam Tea Tribes Students’ Association (AATTSA), Shib Goala.
With Panchayat polls looming closer, no political party can afford to ignore the tribal sentiment.
The ruling Congress loses no chance to blame former Chief Minister Prafulla Mahanta
"In 1999, the entomological report that Mahanta said, he said very clearly that these tea tribe people do not deserve to be a scheduled tribe,” said a spokesperson for the Assam government, Himanta Biswasarma.
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