'Sonia preventing Jarawa integration'

NEW DELHI: Should primitive tribes like the Jarawas of the Andamans be retained as “museum exhibits” or brought into the mainstream? Taking this age old debate to a new level, a Parliamentary Standing Committee has recommended that the Jarawas, an almost extinct tribal group of the Andamans, should be “modernised”. But the lone MP from the Andamans, Bishu Pada Ray, alleges that Congress president Sonia Gandhi and the “so-called AC room NGOs” are bent on scuttling the panel’s recommendations, thereby condemning the Jarawas to a “slow death”.

The parliamentary committee report is significant, coming as it does on the heels of international coverage of a video clip showing Jarawa women being made to dance for food. The clip had created such a furore that even the UK Parliament passed a resolution expressing concern.

The committee, headed by BSP MP Dara Singh Chouhan, has said that time has come for a drastic change in the policy on the Jarawas as they are “now willing to come to the mainstream and modern life”. The committee report says: “It would not be appropriate to suppress their voice and leave them in total isolation, unattended and without care.” Chauhan and 11 other MPs visited the islands last year to meet the tribals. Asking the Ministry of Tribal Affairs to “review the policy”, the Standing Committee has said that there should be a new policy to facilitate a “slow and smooth process of transition, i.e. bringing Jarawas into the mainstream with minimum damage to their heritage as well as the Jarawas themselves”.