Many development activities are jeopardising the life and livelihood of ethnic minority people instead of benefiting the people, observed speaks at an online discussion on Saturday.
The discussion was organised by internet news portal IPnews on the occasion of International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples 2021 to be observed on August 9.
They said that the government was claiming that the country was in the ‘highway of development’ though the ethnic minority people were not experiencing any of that.
They said that it was important to ensure the cultural and linguistic independence of ethnic minorities to engage them in development activities.
Jahangirnagar University teacher Rezwana Karim Snigdha said that it would not be wise to dominate ethic people and their languages and culture.
Bangladesh Adibasi Chhatra Sangram Parishad leader Sulob Chakma said that the ethnic minority people were evicted from their lands because of so-called development.
Former student leader Manabendra Roy said that the government development projects, namely five star hotels and safari parks in hill areas, evicting locals.
Such development works are not actually beneficial to the people living there for decades, he said.
They said that there was no progress in implementing the CHT accord.
On 23 December 1994, the United Nations General Assembly decided, in its resolution 49/214, that the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People shall be observed on August 9 every year.
The date marks the first meeting, in 1982, of the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations.
The International Day observance will take place online on Monday, 9 August 2021 from 9:00am to 11:00am Eastern Standard Time (EST).
This year’s theme is ‘Leaving No One Behind: Indigenous peoples and the call for a new social contract’.
