Birhor
Tragic Death of a Birhor Child
On May 15, one of India’s major newspapers, the Daily Pioneer, published a report about the death of an 18-month-old Birhor boy. With the news media in India crowded by stories about the devastation of the pandemic, the coverage of issues in a remote Birhor village was interesting enough. More than that, the story was […]
Encouraging Birhor Children to Speak Their Language
Livemint.com, an Indian news website, published an article on March 19 about a new children’s dictionary of the Birhor language. The news story indicated that the dictionary is designed to increase the appeal of the language for their children so they will want to continue using it when they become adults. Titled Abun Ari Re […]
Birhor Girl Completes Schooling
Nirmala was celebrated by a local official in India’s Chhattisgarh state for being the first Birhor girl to complete class 12. A photo that accompanies the Times of India news story last week shows the District Collector for the Jashpur District, Nileshkumar Mahadev Kshirsagar, congratulating the girl in a ceremonial setting. Nirmala says she hopes […]
Birhor in West Bengal
The government of India’s West Bengal state is taking pains to keep the Birhor and the other tribal groups safe as long as the COVID-19 pandemic lasts. While most of the earlier news reports about the Birhor focus on their lives in Jharkhand state immediately to the West of Bengal, a news story dated April […]
Electricity Reaches a Birhor Village
On India’s Republic Day, January 26, the Birhor living in a small village in the state of Bihar were connected to the electric grid with the rest of modern India. Two days later, the Hindustan Times published a description of the village and the ceremonies involved with turning on the electricity. Light bulbs flickered on […]
Why Is the Birhor Population Declining?
Although the number of Birhor increased from 7,514 in the 2001 census of India to 10,726 in 2011, tribal rights activists claim that the population is now declining. According to a news story on July 25 in The Pioneer, an English language daily newspaper, a couple major research institutes are planning to conduct a study […]
Mining in the Saranda Forest
Mining for iron ore is destroying the Saranda Forest in the southern part of India’s Jharkhand state and causing serious health problems for the Birhor living in it. An article in the environmental news website Mongabay.com last week describes the growing destruction of the Sal trees, which dominate the forest. It is considered to be […]
Birhor Man Starves to Death
A Birhor man from Nawadih village in the Mandu Block, Ramgarh District of India’s Jharkhand state, died of starvation late on Tuesday, October 30, according to a news report last week. The 40-year-old Rajendrra Birhor left a wife, Shanti Devi, and six children. He was the sole wage earner for the family. Shanti Devi said […]
The Birhor Need to Bury their Dead
As a way of observing the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples on August 9, the Telegraph sent one of its reporters into the village of Chalkari, in Jharkhand, to speak with the Birhor people. One of their major difficulties, they told him, was that they are having problems with burying their dead during […]
Advocate for the Birhor
A selfless 63-year old man from a rural village in the Jashpur District of Chhattisgarh has devoted his life to promoting the welfare of the Birhor people. The Hitavada, an English-language daily newspaper from Central India, published an account on July 6th of the work of Jageshwar Ram Yadav, who was recently recognized by the […]
