Chhattisgarh committed towards preserving diminishing tribal culture: Bhupesh Baghel
NEW DELHI: Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Friday said tribals have their own specific and prosperous culture despite being away from the country's mainstream and development.
Addressing the inaugural ceremony of National Tribal Dance Festival in Raipur, the Chief Minister said tribal areas have a tradition of folk songs, dialects, folk dances and various types of musical instruments. He said that the main objective behind organizing a National Tribal Dance Festival is to preserve diminishing tribal culture of not only Chhattisgarh but also of different tribals living across the world.
Lok Sabha MP and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who was the chief guest at the inaugural ceremony, danced to the beat of traditional instrument ‘mandar' wearing traditional headgear “Gaur Sing” along with the tribals. More than 1350 participants from 25 states and UTS of the country and six countries are taking part in this three-day dance fest and presenting their respective folk art cultures.
Appreciating the work of Bhupesh Baghel-led government in Chhattisgarh, Rahul Gandhi said the state government has started various schemes for betterment of tribal community. He said that violence in the state has dropped because the government is listening to the voice of people.
The chief minister said that the irony with tribal areas is that these areas have poverty, illiteracy, malnutrition, unemployment and lower health index. According to estimates of Reserve Bank of India and World Bank, percentage of BPL families in Bastar district ranges between 50 to 60 per cent whereas the average percentage of BPL families in India is 22 per cent. In the past decade, number of families living below poverty line has decreased but tribal areas are still affected by it.
He said it is very unfortunate that basic problems of tribals are still the same even after spending crores of rupees in the name of infrastructure development in tribal areas in
last 15 years. The biggest challenge for the state government now is to minimize the effect of poverty in tribal areas and make lives of tribal prosperous.
“We have taken the resolution that under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi we will work towards bringing prosperity in tribal regions. For the purpose, we chose Dantewada district which was badly affected by Naxalism and where economic and social index are at minimum. Total population of Dantewada is 2,83,479 and the number of families living in Dantewada is 48574. Out of this, over 57 per cent families i.e. 28000 families live below poverty line. We have set a target of bringing the number of BPL families in Dantewada even less than the national average of 22 per cent in the next five years through various poverty eradication programmes,” Baghel said.
The state government has prepared an action plan for bringing down the number of BPL families below national average in Dantewada district. The plan will be implemented from the third and fourth week of January 2020.
Under the action plan, increasing the sustainable income of over 13000 families through mid day meal scheme with the help of self help groups, suposhan abhiyaan, collection of minor forest produce, processing and marketing, horticulture and providing necessary items for residential schools. In addition to this, a separate action plan will be prepared to increase the source of income for total 9834 families having patta land under Forest Right Act.
On the basis of the experience of Dantewada, two more districts having maximum number of BPL families will be earmarked for coming areas. The state government will ensure implementation of the action plan in war footing and provide funds for the same.