Every year August 9 is celebrated as World Tribal Day. This day is a day to protect the people of the tribal community and create awareness about their rights. Find out how the celebration of this day started here.
World Indigenous People’s Day: Not only India, but all parts of the world are inhabited by tribal communities whose lifestyle, food habits, customs etc. are different from the common people. They are left behind because they are away from the mainstream of society. For this reason, various programs are being conducted in many countries, including India, for their upliftment, to promote them and to draw attention to their rights. In this episode, the United Nations General Assembly declared 1994 as the International Year of the Tribes for the first time. Since then, this day is celebrated on August 9 every year. Let us tell you the special things related to this day.
Why World Tribal Day necessary to be celebrated?
Tribal people live in all countries of the world. Their language, culture, festival, customs, dress are all different. Due to this, it is not possible to connect with the mainstream of society. Reports show that their numbers are also decreasing with time. Tribal people have to struggle to maintain their existence, culture and honor. Tribal Day is celebrated to protect and promote these tribes, to save their culture and honor.
Native American’s greatest contribution
The Aborigines of America have a great contribution in celebrating the World Tribes Day. In fact, Columbus Day is celebrated on October 12 every year in America. The aborigines there believed that Columbus represented the colonial regime, for which a large-scale genocide had taken place. That’s why Tribes Day should be celebrated instead of Columbus Day.
For this, an international conference was organized in Geneva in 1977. In this convention, instead of celebrating Columbus Day, it was demanded that Tribes Day be celebrated. Since 1989, tribal community people started celebrating this day. After this, every year on October 12, instead of Columbus Day, Tribal Day was celebrated. After this, in 1994, the United Nations officially declared August 9 as Tribal Day.
Celebration of World Tribal Day
On this day, along with United Nations government agencies and many countries around the world, tribal community people, tribal organizations organize mass celebrations. At this time, there is a discussion about the current status of the tribals and the future challenges. Awareness programs have been organized in many places.
A large number of tribal people in India
If we talk about India, all states like Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Bihar etc. have tribal communities living here. There are 46 tribal tribes living in Madhya Pradesh. 21 percent of the total population of MPs belong to the tribal community. At the same time, about 28 per cent of the total population of Jharkhand is tribal. Moreover, all the states are inhabited by tribal people.
Gond, Bhil and Oran, Korku, Saharia and Baiga tribes live in Madhya Pradesh in large numbers. The Gonds are the largest tribal group in Asia, numbering more than 30 lakhs. Apart from Madhya Pradesh, Gond tribes live in Maharashtra, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. People from tribal groups such as Santal, Banjara, Bihor, Chero, Gond, Ho, Khond, Lohra, Mai Paharia, Munda, Oran etc. live there.
