Government’s dealings with ethnic people generate sectarian politics: speakers

The deteriorating conditions of ethnic minorities show a rise in sectarian politics in the country, speakers told a discussion Tuesday.
Speaking at a discussion on ‘Landslides, Adivasi eviction and Human Rights,’ they alleged that the government was treating ethnic minorities from a sectarian perspective.
They said that there could be no improvement in the situation until and unless the government took to pluralism by dropping its existing policy framework. 
By treating ethnic people as strangers, the government put ethnic people’s lives at serious risks, said former caretaker government adviser Sultana Kamal.
Parliamentary Caucus on Indigenous Affairs president Fazle Hossain Badshah said that the government owed a lot to do to bring a difference in the lives of ethnic minorities.
Badshah said that only sustainable democracy could bring the needed changes in the lives of the minorities.
Antorjatik Adivasi Dibas 2017 Udjapon Jatiya Committee, a platform of 15 NGOs hosted the event at CIRDAP auditorium on the eve of the International Day of World’s Indigenous Peoples.
In separate papers, Dhaka University mass communication and journalism teacher Rubayat Ferdous and Bangladesh Adivasi Forum general secretary Sanjeeb Drong highlighted what they called a rapid decline in the country’s ethnic population following years of repression, often sponsored by the state, forcing ethnic people to leave their homes.
In 50 years since 1960, the ratio of Adivasi-Bangali populations in the Chittagong Hill Tracts changed to 51:49 by 2011 from 91:9, according Rubayat’s paper on the topic of discussion.
In last 64 years, said Sanjib Drong in his paper, ‘Land Rights and Human Rights of the Adivasis’, in the plains over two lakh acres of land of ethnic minorities was grabbed.
‘Adivasi people are going through a tough time in the country,’ said Sanjeeb Drong and cited half a dozen incidents in which ethnic people became victims violence hitting headlines.
Chakma Raja Debashish Roy highlighted the issues facing ethnic groups as did columnist Syed Abul Maksud, lawyer Rana Das Gupta, Association for Land Reform and Development executive director Shamsul Huda, Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust’s honourary executive director Sara Hossain and Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association executive director Syeda Rizwana Hasan.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net