Officials in eastern India solicited the help of some Birhor youths in an attempt to get rid of some angry bees, which have killed one man and injured others. The Birhor have, so far, been unsuccessful in their attempts to remove the insects, but they plan to try again. On… Continue reading…
The Birhor are so jaded about the value of their votes—they have been so ignored by the power structures of their district—that they saw no reason to vote in the recent Indian elections. According to The Telegraph, one of India’s major papers, at least 80 families living in several villages… Continue reading…
Two leading Indian newspapers featured different Birhor communities last week, one painting a bleak picture of rural poverty, the other portraying a sense of hope. The Times of India sent a reporter to the Ramgarh District in Jharkhand state to visit the very poor village of Birhor Tola. The residents… Continue reading…
Women are taking the lead in a struggle by the peaceful Indian Birhor people to prevent huge coal mines from devouring more of their villages. They are joined by women from other neighboring tribal groups—specifically the Gond and the Kanwar societies—in Chhattisgarh state in their vocal opposition to the mining…. Continue reading…
The plague of gang rapes in India has spread to a peaceful Birhor village in the industrial district of Ramgarh, in northeast India’s Jharkhand state. According to an article last Thursday in The Times of India, an unnamed 18-year old Birhor woman was visiting her uncle in Banji, a small… Continue reading…
Nine Birhor teenagers, who were ignored by government bureaucrats despite their having gotten educations, have been admitted to the Industrial Training Institute of the Bokaro Steel, Limited, (BSL) plant. The boys made the news about six weeks ago when they began protesting the way they were being treated. They had… Continue reading…
Nine teenage Birhor boys are now working in laboring jobs rather than in the kinds of positions they were promised when they enrolled 11 years ago at the Bokaro Steel school for underprivileged tribal children. According to a news report in The Telegraph of Calcutta last Thursday, the boys have… Continue reading…
Michelle Bachelet argues that a much stronger economic and political role for women in India will not only be the right thing to do, it will send an important message to the world. She summarized her thoughts on the subject during a speech in New Delhi at the beginning of… Continue reading…
The tribal people of Lohardaga district in India’s Jharkhand state, particularly the Birhor, have been suffering lately from attacks by Maoist guerilla groups. The latest strategy by the terrorists has been to forbid merchants from entering the local villages. The guerillas also demand levies from both the local people and… Continue reading…
A group of fourteen six and seven year old Birhor boys have been brought to the Bokaro Steel Limited (BSL) complex in Bokaro, India, for an education, and they are now running wild—like children almost everywhere. According to a Times of India report on the new arrivals, the youngsters from… Continue reading…
