Today Zo Indigenous Forum leaders have meeting with the Governor of Mizoram MM Lakhera at his Office in Aizawl and submitted the following letter for the interest of the Zo Indigenous People.
To,
His Excellency MM Lakhera
Governor of Mizoram
Mizoram: Aizawl.
Subject : Submission for the interest of the Zo Indigenous people.
Your excelleny Sir,
Greetings on behalf of Zo Indigenous Forum
Thank you for giving us your valuable time to have a meeting with us.
Indigenous peoples number about 300 million, representing over 5,000 languages. They live in more than 70 countries in all of the world's regions, from the Arctic to the Amazon, from the Sahara to the Pacific Islands. The majority - more than 150 million - lives in Asia, India has one of the largest indigenous people in the world and the Zo Indigenous people are among them.
For the general interest and welfare of the people, we hereby submit a recommendation and request to the government to take necessary action for the interest of the Zo Indigenous People.
1) Ratification of ratified Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989: India has cast her vote in favour of UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples on 27th September 2007 at the UNO General Assembly and also its one of the first nations to ratify the ILO Convention on Indigenous and Tribal Population, 1957 (No. 107) in September 1958. However, it has not ratified Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (Convention No. 169) even after the 21 years after the ILO make this historic convention.
Our neighboring county like Nepal has also ratified this convention and one of the most important UN Mechanism along with the UNDRIP. So, we kindly request the government of India to kindly ratified this historic Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (Convention No. 169) for the interest and welfare of the Indigenous people living in the country.
2) Promotion, Protection and Revitalization of Language: According to UNESCO's Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger of Disappearing 2009 which was released on 17th February 2009, the following Zo tribe languages have been termed among the danger list.
Aimol Critically endangered Anal Vulnerable
Bawm Definitely endangered Gangte Definitely endangered
Hmar Vulnerable Hrangkhol Vulnerable
Kom Definitely endangered Mara Definitely endangered
Maring Vulnerable Mizo Vulnerable
Paite Vulnerable Tarao Critically endangered
Thado Vulnerable
So the government must take this as a serious issue and need to formulate a programme for the promotion and protection of this language from disappearing.
Also in UNDRIP Article 14 (1) -Indigenous peoples have the right to establish and control their educational systems and institutions providing education in their own languages, in a manner appropriate to their cultural methods of teaching and learning.
There are many dialects among the Zo indigenous people living in a specific area; they don't have access education through their dialects, so the government must formulate a minimum of implementing their dialects at primary school level for promotion and protection of the languages.
2. Amendment of Schedule Tribe (ST) list in Mizoram: This list of Scheduled Tribes is recognized by the Constitution of India; the term "Scheduled Tribes" refers to specific indigenous peoples whose status is acknowledged to some formal degree by national legislation. A collective term in use locally to describe most of these peoples is "Adivasi"(literally it means "First/Ancient Inhabitants").
The list of Schedule tribe in Mizoram state has been made in 1986 ((Inserted by Act 34 of 1986, s. 14 and Third Sch. (w.e.f. 20-2-1987) but there are a number of Seven (7) groups that have never settle in Mizoram but the permanent settle people like Bawm etc has not been include, so we kindly request the government to look after this lists and make necessary amendment as per the people living in the state.
3. Illegal Migrant problems: There has been an inflow of illegal immigrants coming from Bangladesh through the southern part of the state and through Tripura and Assam.
There is a need to check and stop this illegal migrants coming from other country, they are one of the threats of our security, integrity and welfare of the state, it is believe that due to these illegal people migrants people there has been an increasing rate of crime in the state like robbery, rape, drugs addiction illegal armed supply etc and even the face money racket. We kindly request the government of India to take this as a serious issue of illegal migrants and take necessary actions according to the law.
With kind regards
Yours sincerely
(C. LALREMRUATA)
Leader