VSK TN
AKHIL BHARATIYA VANAVASI KALYAN ASHRAM
National executive committee meeting
Krishna Bhawan Howrah
21st February 2013.
PRESS RELEASE
Akhil Bharatiya Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram (ABVKA) held its national executive committee meeting at Krishna Bhawan, Howrah on 21st February 2013. ABVKA is a philanthropic organisation working for the welfare of 10 crore Scheduled Tribes of country through its 32 affiliated organizations. The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Shri Jagdeoram Uraon and attended by its members and special invitees from various States. The dignitaries who have attended the meeting were both the vice presidents Shri. Jaleshwar Brahma and Shri Kripa Prasad Singh , Shri Gunavant Sing Kothari, General Secretary and other office bearers of ABVKA. Other prominent tribal leaders attended the meeting were Shri Morensing Poorti, Ex M.P from Bihar, Shri Rajkumar Hansda from Santhal Parghana, Shri Mahrang Uraon from Jharkhand, Shri S.D. Lepcha, and Ex.Minister from Sikkim and Shri Chakradhar Soren from West Bengal.
Shri S.K Kaul, retd. IAS officer brought a resolution regarding the Bonded Labour issue prevailing in India even after 66th year of Independence. Shri Moren Sing Poortiji highlighted the problem that it is a grave issue and our Scheduled Tribe brethren are still being exploited as slaves in large number. Estimates about the number of bonded labourers in India vary from 40 million people according to Human Rights Watch, to 11.7 million according to the International Labour Organization. Every year in November brick Kiln workers, mostly tribal with hunger gnawing inside them migrate from Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Mandhya Pradesh to West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu to escape abject poverty. This ‘distress migration’ of tribal workers from the districts of Bolangir, Koraput, Kalahandi, and Kandhamal is estimated to be at least 2 lakhs for work in brick kiln in Andhra Pradesh by a N.G.O. It is a matter of concern that the administrations of these districts do not implement properly schemes like NREGS to provide gainful employment to villagers in their villages or nearby. He appealed that the District administration should identify and rehabilitate the bonded labourers problem. The Executive committee took a resolution in this connection appealed to all social activists and workers of Kalyan Ashram to take up the matter at local level to bring the issue to a logical end.
The ongoing violence in the Rabha area of Lower Assam was discussed in length. Shri Jaleshwar Brahma explained his experience during his tour in the trouble hit area. He said that the situation could have been averted if the government had shown some sagacity. It is for the third time in the recent years that the indigenous inhabitants of Assam especially Janajati people are targeted by the Bangladeshi infiltrators. The National Executive Committee of ABVKA has demanded a judicial probe into the firing incident on 12th February and the attack that followed on the indigenous people by alleged Bangladeshis. 13 people of Rabha Janjati community died in the police firing which inflamed the people. As a result violence spread in many areas. Muslim hooligans came out lashed with staffs, spears and machetes and burnt down the houses Rabhas and other indigenous inhabitants. 7 persons of Rabha, Orang and Nepali community killed in the Rakshashini area by Muslims and burned 7 villages in the area. Villagers in large number vacated the houses and compelled to stay in refugee camps. Hoodlums are at large looting the houses of abandoned villages. Army columns patrolling the troubled areas recovered three big boats anchored on the banks of the Brahmaputra at Dubapara in Goalpara district and it is reported that about 1,000 Muslims from Barpeta came to Goalpara by these vessels. National Executive Committee appealed the Government to speed up the process of updating National Register of Citizen as per the Assam Accord 1985.
Sd/-
Kripa Prasad Singh,
Vice President,
ABVKA,Camp Howrah