Indigenous community leader Jyotirindra Bodhipriya Larma came down heavily on the government saying that thousands of people from the minority communities are sinking under the high tide of country’s “so-called development”.
“The government says that high tide of development spreads across the county, but actually thousands of people of the minority communities are sinking by the so called tide,” said the president of Bangladesh Adivasi Forum.
His remarks came this afternoon at a press conference at a Dhaka hotel to mark the International Day of the World’s Indigenous on August 9.
Larma, popularly known as Santu Larma, alleged, “We firmly want to say that there is no reflection of the development in the lives of the community people who live in the country’s rural areas. The communities are facing crisis of existence due to land grabbing, oppression and violence against them,” he added.
Continuous incidents of land grabbing turned them into minority community in their areas where they were the majority at a time, said Larma, also president of Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samity (PCJSS), while reading out the statement at the conference.
Noted columnist and writer Syed Abul Maksud, Oikya Nap President Pankaj Bhattacharya and Adivasi Forum General Secretary Sanjeeb Drong, among others, also spoke at the occasion.
The International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples is observed on August 9th each year to promote and protect the rights of the world’s indigenous population. This event also recognises the achievements and contributions that indigenous people make to improve world issues such as environmental protection. It was first pronounced by the General Assembly of the United Nations in December 1994.
The official logo of the “UN Permanent Forum of Indigenous Issues” (Forum created by resolution in April 2010) was drawn by Rebang Dewan, a Chakma boy from Bangladesh. It features two ears of leaves facing each other and cradling the Earth globe. Within the globe is a picture of a handshake (two different hands) in the middle.
Source: The Daily Star
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