Use state schemes to move up the ladder: Guv tells tribals

Ooty: The Tamil Nadu Governor Sri Banwarilal Purohit appealed to tribals to fully utilize government schemes to move up the ladder of development . He made this remark while taking part as chief guest at a conference on Tribal Youth Empowerment and Entrepreneurship on the 102nd birthday celebrations of  Dr S. Narasimhan, founder of the Nilgiri Adiwasi Welfare Association (NAWA) and an exhibition on 62-years of NAWA at the Resource Centre for Tribal Culture (RCTC)  organized by NAWA on Monday.

Addressing the gathering, he said that among the tribes of the Nilgiris, which constitute nearly five per cent of the district’s population, 6 groups - the Toda, Kota, Irula, Kurumba, Paniya and Kattunaikan find special mention as particularly vulnerable tribal communities.  It is necessary to ensure that these vulnerable tribes are given special attention to ensure a smooth merger with the mainstream population, he said.

Lauding the organizations and individuals who have contributed in a large measure for tribal uplift, he said that the central and state governments are implementing various welfare schemes to ensure the all round development of the Scheduled Tribes. These include a number of projects for housing, drinking water facilities, sanitation, access roads and community halls.

“For promoting education among Scheduled Tribe communities, the Government of Tamil Nadu is also running 24 government tribal residential schools and one Ekalavya model school in the Nilgiris. Tribal students also receive free education in professional courses. It is important that these and other facilities are fully utilized by tribal communities, using them as rungs of the ladder to move up socially and economically in society. I will also advise the administration to pay greater attention to the provision of civic amenities in localities inhabited by tribals,” he said and advised the district administration to organize more health camps in tribal hamlets to check sickle-cell anemia which is prevalent among tribals in the Nilgiris.

Ms. Innocent Divya, collector of Nilgiris, P. Udaya Kumar, director, NSIC-New Delhi, Dr Rajalakshmi Subramanian, president-NAWA,  M. Alwas, Secretary-NAWA, also spoke on the occasion.