The G20 countries are one of the most powerful groups in the world. It’s well known that they hold 85% of Global GDP, 75% percentage of international trade and two third of the world population. Also, they are the home of 70 % of the world’s indigenous cultural communities. This 70 % is cumulatively 4-5% of the total population of these countries.
They are the real minorities that we could term as Micro Minorities of Depriving culture and disappearing.
Different countries have different terms for these groups like Tribes, Indigenous peoples, indigenous cultural communities, Aborigines, Indians, ethnic communities and so on. Whatever the name they’re given, it is a commonly accepted factor that they have a distinct culture, traditions, customs, values and live with Nature. Many of these countries acknowledge their customary laws, traditions, culture and at the same time, accommodate these micro minorities in their legal system and approve.
As per the reports, the population of the Toto tribes are the smallest in the world. These primitive Indo-Bhutanese tribes hail from Totopara in Jalpaigudi of West Bengal in India. The highest number of “untouched” tribes live in the deep inside Amazon Rain Forest which is in Brazil. Untouched means they have either no interaction with the outside world and haven’t been explored by outsiders. Most of these tribes are Nomadic tribes. Highest numbers of Tribal communities and highest number of untouched tribes, both are in G20 Countries.
Many countries in G20 have provisions in their legal system and constitution for protecting these communities’ traditions, culture and custom. From even before the colonial times these communities faced a lot of challenges. Colonial invader’s mind-set never recognised tribes’ values systems and marked them as uncivilised. After colonialism started to end, tribes and their rites have started to get recognised.
In Indonesian hosting of G20 in the previous turn, the W20 forums were accused for exclusion of indigenous Indonesians from the discussions and dialogues. The W20, which stands for Women 20, is the G20’s official dialogue for women’s empowerment and one of several engagement groups under the umbrella of the economic forum. W20’s narrative was ironic when their theme was ‘recover together’ equally, but they didn’t even include any agenda related to the challenges of the women of Lake Toba, especially regarding land grabbing and customary forests. Toba women are not involved in the talks in an inclusive manner. So the question raised by women and environmental activists was that how can we recover together while excluding Toba tribals? Unfortunately, the forum focused on small and medium enterprises (SMEs), while women are dying trying to defend their customary land, something which is apparently not considered a problem for the W20.
This is the right time for India’s chairmanship to redeem the world by correcting those mistakes and allegations. The entire world’s tribe communities are eagerly looking at India’s position on Tribal matters and on micro minority community protection.
After colonialism, the tribal/ Indigenous cultural communities/ Indians/ Aborigines are facing different challenges. Those challenges are of urbanisation, Industrialisation, climate changes, religious and political. These are the products of developed and developing countries’ contributions. It is high time we show the commitment of G20 to have a declaration to protect these Depriving Micro Minority Communities. Another recent threat is of data sovereignty of Tribe from newer technology from Developed countries. Traditional Cultural Communities need to protect indigenous data and knowledge that is intellectual property protection for “traditional knowledge and folklore”
Presently India is the host for G20 Summit. India is said to be the second highest recognised tribal populated country in the world. India’s highest office is held by a tribal woman. So all the 325 million Indigenous cultural communities following unique traditions and cultures in the G20 countries is anxious to know if India will take a lead in committing themselves to protect them.
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