Shawdesh Desk:

On the eve of silver jubilee of the declaration of the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, Bangladesh Adivasi Forum (Bangladesh indigenous peoples’ forum) urged the government on Saturday to observe the day nationally.

The forum said that though ministers regularly attended programmes on the occasion and country’s heads of the state in the past issued statements on and off to mark the occasion no initiative was taken at the state level to observe the day.

In 1994, the United Nations General Assembly announced August 9 as the International Day of the  World’s Indigenous Peoples.

‘The day provides the states across the world with the opportunity to show their support to indigenous peoples,’ said BAF general secretary Sanjeeb Drong at a press conference in the capital.

‘It’s an opportunity for the state to feel proud of its diversity [in the population],’ said Sanjeeb.

This year ‘Indigenous Languages’ was set as the day’s theme, drawing attention to the status of the indigenous languages around the world.

BAF president Jyotirindra Bodhipriya Larma, better known as Santu Larma, read out a written statement at the press conference, calling on the government to take steps to ‘end oppression and discrimination against the country’s indigenous peoples.’

At least 13 ‘indigenous languages’ are on the verge of extinction, said Santu, citing a study conducted by International Mother Language Institute.

The languages are Kharia, Kora, Soura, Mundari, Kol, Malto, Khumi, Pankhoa, Rengmitcha, Chak, Khiyang, Lusai and Patro, he said.

But ‘indigenous peoples’ believe that the number of languages facing existential crisis is even bigger, he noted.

He said that the endangered languages amply reflected the deplorable condition in which three million people of the national minorities live in Bangladesh.

The gradual removal of national minorities people from their land through measures like ‘population transfer’ has turned them into refugees in their own state, he said.

From hills to the plains, from Chattogram to the northern Bangladesh, from Sylhet to Patuakhali-Barguna, national minorities people were stripped of their land, he said.

He said that the narrative of development boom based on average per capita income reaching $1,909 in no way reflected the socio-economic conditions of the country’s indigenous peoples.

Santu demanded that the government should ensure primary education to all national minorities in their mother tongues, taught by members of the communities.

He also demanded an immediate end to repression on national minorities, calling for special measures to protect their women against violence and sexual harassment.

Asked to explain the circumstances that caused languages to become extinct, Sanjeeb said that a language got lost when there was no one left to speak it.