Why in news?
- A section of adivasis in northern Telangana districts has boycotted teachers from the Lambada community (Scheduled Tribes).
- It reveals a conflict between the two groups for the past few months and poses a complex political challenge.
What is the conflict about?
- Some Adivasi groups have been demanding the exclusion of the Lambada community from the Schedule Tribe (ST) list.
- They claim that the Lambadas are “cornering” their opportunities in jobs and education.
- Adding to the tension, the creation of Telangana has offered the Lambadas an advantage and benefits when compared to other tribes.
- The protests have hit tribal schools hard since majority of teachers are from the Lambada community.
What is the reason behind the conflict?
- Telangana has a total of 32 tribal communities comprising 9.08% of the state’s population.
- Lambadas comprise majority (20 lakh out of 30 lakh) of the tribal population.
- The remaining tribal population are from communities such as Gonds, Guthikoyas, Pardhans, Nayakpods, Kolams, Gotis and several others, which are relatively low in number.
- The Gond people are Adivasis, originally believed to have spread from central India to parts of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.
- The Lambadas have come from different states in the north like Maharashtra, Rajasthan and others.
- They are listed under BC,OBC and SC in other states.
- Despite not being tribals they have managed to get listed under the ST category in Telangana.
- Gond tribals point out that the Lambadas were included in the ST list only in 1976, during the Emergency.
- Thus, Gonds termed this as unfair through a “backdoor entry".
What are the implications of the conflict?
- The boycott in northern Telangana lays bare the political and policy challenge for the state.
- The absence of teachers has led to poor results and raised the prospect of students dropping out.
- The boycott deprives tribal children of education which is considered as the most important tool for social and economic mobility.
- It shows that the claims of relative inequality and discrimination within the Scheduled Caste and Tribe categories have been largely ignored by the government.
Source: Indian Express
