Even-though they faced injustice while they also gained aspirations, but could'nt raise their voice. Therefore, a group of educated tribal youths from Madhya Pradesh have taken a decision to take matters of the community into their own hands, and made Facebook a platform to exchange views and find solutions.
Furthermore, the 'National Indian Tribal Yuva Shakti' page which have been created nearly seven months ago, on the social networking site has already attracted more than 5,000 members, while hundreds of them will come face-to-face for the first time next week to discuss various issues, including tribal land acquisition by big companies and loss of tribal access to land and other natural resources. The group has decided to organise a Facebook Tribal Meet in Barwani district on May 16, which is likely to be attended by more than three hundred people from Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Gujarat. During the meet, the members will be able to discuss their ordeals, issues facing the community, and flaws in redressal mechanism.
Hiralal Alawa, a student of AIIMS, Delhi, and coordinator of the group said that the one-day meet will be held in the community hall of Barwani Nagar Palika which will be attended by nearly 300 youths from seven states, including Madhya Pradesh. They have set up a seven-point agenda of discussion and talks. He further added that they have over 5,000 members, and many of them have shown their interest to attend the meeta on the contrary they have technical issues and have to invite only a few hundred of them.
Alawa said that in the meet, there will be interactions among youths who will be expressing, clarifying and interpreting their problems having one of the interesting aspects of the event is that, a problem-solving approach will be used to encourage them to make generalisations about various problems. The 30-year-old further continued saying that almost a decade back, it was too risky to be identified as a person who is raising the voice of the tribals which is no longer a taboo to talk about it on Facebook.
Having as a fruitful conclusion, Hiralal, who happens to be a student of AIIMS, Delhi and specialises in immunology branch, urges to share podium with mainstream celebrities and influential businessmen who will be able to understand the problems the tribes face in the country.
Now, even panchayat is going digital!
That's really Cool!
(AW:Samrat Biswas)
