'Give us ST status, else merge us with Raj'

Vadodara: The Bhils in Khanpur taluka of Mahisagar district have been on an agitation since Sep last year as they are being denied ST certificates. The villagers do not get the benefits of reservations in education and jobs in the absence of ST certificates and their multiple representations have not yielded any result.

The Bhil tribe is recognised as a scheduled tribe (ST) in multiple states, including Gujarat and bordering Rajasthan. But in in Khanpur taluka, the members of the community are deprived of the ST status. Frustrated with the situation, they stopped sending their children to schools and even demanded that they be merged with Rajasthan.

According to activists, the state govt stopped giving them ST certificates in 2004. When they made representations, a sample survey was done by the Tribal Research and Training Center of Gujarat Vidyapith. "Based on the report, we started getting ST certificates. But this was discontinued again in 2005 even as officials kept asking us for evidence," said activist and secretary of Khanpur Taluka Adivasi Samaj Mandal, Kamlesh Damor.

Damor said that they dug up a series of evidence since the British rule to prove that they were tribals. He added that even the standard eight textbook of the social science subject of the Gujarat board states that tribals from the Pandarwada area fought against the British in 1857. "Pandarwada is a part of Khanpur, and if a govt textbook recognises this, why doesn't the govt accept it," said Damor.

Damor added that various mentions in documents from 1865 to 1872, as well as a British report regarding border disputes between the Lunawada and Dungarpur princely states, mention Bhil tribals living in the area. "Even the censuses conducted in 1911, 1921, and 1931 described the traditions and customs of people living here that were followed. These were those of the Bhil tribe," Damor said.

Even relatives of tribals from Khanpur taluka living in the neighbouring Kadana taluka are considered tribals. Across the state border in Rajasthan, their relatives are tribals. The situation is such that out of two cousins living merely a stone's throw apart on different sides of the state border, one is considered a tribal in Rajasthan, and another does not get the same benefit in Gujarat.

A fresh survey was ordered in 2016 after a detailed report with the documentary evidence was submitted to the state govt. The survey was not made public, and an agitation took place with the demand to make the report public. Damor said that a third survey was ordered in the wake of the agitation.

"It was a hurried survey, and local leaders asked us to keep our age certificates and a couple of other documents handy. Most people did this, even as some others collected more additional documents. Those who collected the additional documents to prove their case got ST certificates, and others were left out. From around 9,000 tribal families in the taluka, only 893 were considered tribals for the certificates. Others were never asked to submit additional documents or give more details," said Damor.

Peeved at the state of affairs, members of the Bhil community and their leaders gave an ultimatum and an agitation schedule addressed to the governor. This included parents discontinuing their children's school education. The permission for agitation programmes was denied, and eventually, kids stopped going to school from Nov 18. "If they cannot find a solution, we have demanded that they merge us with Rajasthan. Even after this, nobody has bothered to talk to us. I am a parent, and even I lost out on job opportunities as I did not have an ST certificate,'' said Mukesh Bamaniya, a parent.