Chief Minister Hemant Soren today stressed on the need to protect interests of tribals, dalits, poor and subjugated classes of society calling upon policymakers, authorities and institutions to ensure that the Constitutional privileges accorded to the weaker sections are realised in real terms.
Delivering his lecture at the 18th Annual India Conference at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA in virtual mode on Saturday late evening the CM said that the vision of the society towards tribals has not yet changed despite their oppression since centuries.
“It has not changed yet… The mentality has not yet changed, people still have the same set of minds., I often hear, ‘You people are not eligible for this work; it’s not your work’ etc. Unnecessary trouble is given to the tribal residents, leg pulling is common in institutions and a lot of similar things happen,” said the CM answering a query of Suraj Yengde, PhD, Senior Fellow, Kennedy School, who had invited the former for the lecture.
Elaborating on various schemes of the State government to uplift tribals and dalits in the State of Jharkhand, especially about the new scheme to send talented SC/ST youth to foreign institutions, the CM said the scheme will change the way of life and perception of the people towards the community.
The CM also mentioned about the Niti Ayog meeting with the PM and CMs of different states that took place today where Soren reiterated the demand of separate column for tribal population in the Census 2021 data.
“Demand has been kept for years to establish a place for tribals in the census. We have sent a proposal related to the demand for Sarna Adivasi Dharma Code, passed from Jharkhand Legislative Assembly. We believe that the Government of India will consider it sympathetically. Separate columns should be arranged for them in the census as well,” he said.
Soren also talked about the need to strengthen the system to protect the interests of migrant labourers. He said that during Covid times a very bad face of governance was witnessed in the country. “I was regularly knocking on the doors of the Central government to bring back our people. And after immense pressure the Centre finally allowed us to rescue lakhs of people. Today, we have launched several schemes to give them employment and skill them for employment,” he said.
He gave an example of MGNREGA where a record 9 million mandays were created.