What are the major issues of concern to adivasis today?

Issues of concern to adivasi's :

(i) Development plans during postindependence period had displaced Advasis from their natural habitat i.e. forest but nothing has been done so far for their rehabilitation.

(ii) The so-called traders and industrialists have trickily upsurped their lands, increased the trend of consumption among them but being resourceless they find themselves in helpless position.

(iii) Tribal identity has got mixed with Hindu society and culture therefore, boundaries between tribe and castes have become porous. In brief, they have lost their specific identity.

(iv) Adivasi population in India is widely dispersed. About 85% of the tribal population lives in middle India viz. Gujarat and Rajasthan in the West, West Bengal and Orissa in the East and in the Centre places of Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh and parts of Mahrashtra and Andhra Pradesh. They are only concentrated in North-Eastern states like Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland. Being so dispersed, they can not organise themselves properly.

(v) Economic and social conditions of the Advasis in North-Eastern states is much worse than those of other-tribals.

(vi) Being dispersed population, it is difficult to collect proper data and implement schemes for their development.

(vii) The projects like Sardar Sarover Dam on the river Narmada in western India and the Polavaram Dam on the river Godavari in Andhra Pradesh are in progress and it is estimated that several lakh adivasis are going to lost their habitat and source of survival. Economic liberalisation policies have made it easier for corporate firms to acquire large areas of land by displacing adivasis.

(viii) As per the people’s unit for civil liberties report on the Kalinganagar corissan incident refers how brutally the police attached on Adivasis, peacefully demonstrating against the takeover of their farm lands by a Steel Company. Thus, in the name of development policy, adivasis are being displaced frequently from all regions of the country. It has been estimated that since independence in 1947, about 30 million people have been displaced by this land acqusiton policy and 75 percent of displaced people. are still awaiting their rehabilitation. Kalinga nagar area was bought by a Steel Company from the state government in November, 2005 and therefore, police was ordered to ensure eviction of adivasis on 2 January, 2006 in which more than twelve adivasis were shot down dead and many more injured. It is stated that the corpse genitals and breasts (women corpses) were found mutilated when bodies were returned to their families. Perhaps that was done for the trade of human organs - the report clarifies.