Faculty and students of science and humanities stream of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) will be staying among tribals to research on the traditional scientific knowledge that is used by these tribal communities since time immemorial. Starting from the tribes of North-East India , the JNU is starting a programme called “Science and Technology programme for Tribal Studies” whereby research students and professors from every school of JNU will study at length about the tribal societies, their ancient medicinal systems etc. They will also teach tribals about technological aspects to make life better for the tribal communities.
Research would also be done among the tribal communities spreading across the nation. However, researchers would start with North-Eastern region and Chhattisgarh. Different ethnic and tribal groups inhabit Northeast India with each having their own culture and tradition making Northeast India, one of the most culturally diverse regions of world.
They will also help tribal people in acquiring knowledge technological knowhow in order to make their lives better. For this, the JNU is slated to launch “Science and Technology Programme for Tribal Studies” from this year. The programme will first cover the tribal belts of the North-Eastern India and Chhattisgarh.
A team of professors and students from various Schools of JNU will visit the tribal areas and stay with the tribes to do research on their medicinal systems, knowledge of herbs, agricultural system, preservation of seeds, use of traditional technologies, wildlife conservation, interaction with forest and environment etc. Both students from humanities and science stream, pursuing their research in JNU, will be part of this programme.
Dr. Rupesh Chaturvedi, Director, Research and Development, JNU told The Pioneer that there have been many researches on tribal communities from the sociological and humanities prospective but very few from the scientific and technological perspective.
“This programme is having very different prospective as it will research on the traditional scientific knowledge that is used by these tribal communities since time immemorial. Most of this knowledge is yet unknown to the world outside but if properly utilized it can prove to be of immense benefit to the modern society,” said Dr Rupesh.
He said that the efforts would be made to register Intellectual Property Right (IPR) of the utilised traditional knowledge in the name of tribal community to which it originally belongs to. Moreover, resource generated by the utilisation of the traditional tribal knowledge will be transferred to the tribal community for its welfare, Dr Rupesh added.