There is widespread anger in the tribal society on the issue of conversion in Chhattisgarh. Tribal society has been seeking to stop the violation of their rights through different means for the last 5 decades. Tribal society demands that those who have converted should no longer be given the status of Scheduled Tribes and their reservation should be abolished.
According to this demand, the President, Prime Minister and the Governor, through the Collector, Tribal Suraksha Manch and Tribal Gaurav Samaj, in the districts of North and South region of Chhattisgarh, on 29th October, on the occasion of Baba Karthik Oraon Ji’s birth anniversary Memorandum has been assigned.
On the occasion of Baba Karthik Oraon Birth anniversary on 29th October, A memorandum was handed over to His Excellency the President and the Hon’ble Prime Minister through the Collector at Ambikapur under the joint aegis of Tribal Suraksha Manch (Janajati Suraksha Manch) and Tribal Gaurav Samaj (Janajati Gaurav Samaaj) in Sarguja District in the northern region of Chhattisgarh. The memorandum calls for cancellation/abolition of the reservation given to the converted tribes from the list of scheduled tribes.
Apart from this, a memorandum has been submitted to the President through District Collector by Sarhul Sarna Mahotsav Committee in Jashpur district. Application containing the signature of 235 Lok Sabha members was also submitted.
In this memorandum, there has been an appeal to abolish the reservation given to those castes who have been converted from the Scheduled Tribes list.
The “Black Night of 20 years” (20 varsh ki kaali raath) booklet was also written by him expresses the pain he suffered due to the state of the tribal society. That application was neither laid on the floor of the Lok Sabha, nor was it rejected, but was put in cold storage.
Tribal Suraksha Manch has been fighting against this injustice happening to real tribes for years, yet many facilities have been consumed by the converts, which is economically and academically much better than the real tribes.
Tribal Suraksha Manch and Tribe Gaurav Samaj, have demanded that despite the considerable delay, it is extremely important to amend this error, in order to hold a referendum, the Tribal Suraksha Manch organized a signature campaign in 2009, which was signed by 27.67 lakh tribal people above the age of 18 across the country. Delegation led by late Shri Jagdev Ram (Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram), Shri Dilip Singh Bhuria and Ms Anusuiya Uike (present Governor of Chattisgarh) submitted the memorandum to the then President Pratibha Devi Singh Patil.
Despite 73 years of independence of the country, people of converted tribes are still taking maximum undue advantage of reservation facilities. Jointly, the two organizations have requested His Excellency the President and the Hon’ble Prime Minister to resolve this problem on a priority basis and eliminate the injustice done to the Scheduled Tribes forever and remove the people from the Scheduled Tribes list.
