[dropcap]D[/dropcap]r Samujjal Bhattacharya, advisor of North East Students’ Organisation (NESO) has rightly pointed out that it has become a matter of urgency for the region to have a ‘special policy’ to protect the indigenous peoples of the Northeast. In fact, it is the long felt need of the region. Many scholars, activists and senior journalists have been expressing this feeling for quite sometimes now. The population of migrants is fast ballooning and it is overshadowing the indigenous peoples in many states of the region. If this trend is allowed to go unchecked the fate of the indigenous peoples will be at stake.
Regulation such as the Inner Line Permit (ILP) which is the off-shoot of the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulations, 1873, has been introduced in certain states for the sole purpose of protecting the indigenous peoples. However, this regulation proved to be ineffective. Even knowing fully that the ILP is toothless there are certain communities in states demanding for it where the ILP is not implemented. These communities are actually desperate to have a policy and they perceive ILP as the only available regulation to protect them from social annihilation.Meanwhile, available policies are not suited to protect the indigenous peoples of the region. Dr Sammujal Bhattacharya in a workshop in Imphal on Monday harped on the need to formulate a ‘special policy’ to protect the indigenous peoples.
One interesting thing the NESO advisor cited was the case of Tripuris, an ethnic group which was dominated by influx of migrants. He cautioned that most of the North Eastern states have been seriously threatened by migrants. The NESO leader then hurled accusation that New Delhi does not seriously take the issue of migrants in the region and said the issue has raised serious security concerns. Bhattacharya said identity crisis is evident in the polity of NE though the Government of India has claimed that a political change has been brought in the region.
Meanwhile, the indigenous peoples of the Northeast region also ought to do our home works. The demand for cheap labours should be stopped at once. We should also change our attitude towards certain jobs and be ready to pull up our loins and start taking up works done by migrant labourers.
