The Central government has demanded a report from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands administration after outrage erupted over a video released by a British newspaper allegedly showing Jarawa tribal women in the islands being bribed to dance for tourists.
What is the issue?
The Jarawa women were bribed to dance naked and a legal notice has been sent to two Delhi-based TV channels telecasting the video footage showing a group of tribal women being ordered to dance for tourists by a policeman.
British newspaper, ‘The Guardian’ and ‘The Observer’, a weekly, had released video footage of police involvement in ’human safaris’ in the Andaman Islands. The videos were recently aired on the two Delhi-based channels.
What was the bribe?
The policeman had allegedly taken a bribe of £ 200 to take tourists into the protected Jarawa reserve.
When has this happened?
Union Tribal Affairs Minister V. Kishore Chandra Deo told that the government had ordered an inquiry by the Chief Secretary and the Director-General of Police of A&N islands. “This video-clipping, is not fresh and not of recent time. Apparently, people have seen it on the Internet for the last four or five years. So that is yet to be established. But the fact is that it is not something which has happened in the last few weeks or months,” he said.
What is the impact of such a heinous act?
It is not only an outrageous insult to human dignity. It is also a symptom of the larger problems facing the 300-odd members of this indigenous community.
