NEW DELHI: Blaming the government of failing to protect the endangered Jarawa tribe of the Andaman Islands, Survival International, an international NGO working for tribal rights, has taken the matter to the UN.
According to it, India ignored the UN’s call in 2007 to ‘implement the 2002 order of the Supreme Court to close sections of the Andaman Trunk Road’; thereby allowing the exploitation of the Jarawa to continue.
As per the 2011 census this endangered tribe is barely 383 in number. “More than four years after the deadline set by the Supreme Court, the Andaman Islands authorities have made any move to close the road, and have even petitioned the court to revoke its order,” the NGO said.
Jarawas had hit international headlines after video clippings of half-naked Jarawa women dancing for food were aired.
The NGO has now written to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in the background of its meeting in Geneva next month.