Bangladesh ratified the ILO’s Indigenous and Tribal Populations Convention, 1957 (No. 107) in 1972, and is home to around 3 million indigenous people (Adivasis and Jumma), from 45 different ethnic groups, who between them speak over 30 different languages. They are located predominantly in the North and South-eastern parts of the country, with the majority found in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), where there are 11 distinct groups of indigenous peoples. Indigenous peoples in Bangladesh are among the most marginalized and excluded groups in society. This fact is also reflected in the national Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), which includes a section on Adivasi/Ethnic Minority Groups.1
As in other parts of the world, in Bangladesh, indigenous peoples’ vulnerability has tended to stem from loss of land and forest/natural resource rights, displacement for purposes of modernisation and industrialisation, loss of culture and social disintegration, erosion of local self-governance, discrimination and violent suppression of autonomy movements.
Decades of instability and conflict in the CHT continues to hamper sustainable development in the region and has had a disproportionate impact on the indigenous peoples who live there. The Peace Accord signed in 1997 now provides the framework for the development of the region and recognizes CHT as a semi-autonomous tribal region to be governed through an institutional framework based on traditional indigenous institutions of chiefs, headmen, karbaris and hill district and regional councils. There is also a Ministry of Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs at the central level. In contrast, indigenous peoples in the plains have very little representation in mid-to-high levels of Government and there is no central ministry or regional development authority to deal with the issues and developmental needs of indigenous peoples in the plains. The situation of indigenous women from both CHT and plains areas in terms of representation and participation in national decision-making processes and bodies is particularly acute.
PRO 169’s main activities in Bangladesh to date are thus: National and regional consultations on ILO Convention No. 107; promotion of Convention No. 107 as a development framework among key donors in Bangladesh; and research on shifting cultivation and gender discrimination.
1 ‘Unlocking the Potential: National Strategy for Accelerated Poverty Reduction’, National Planning Commission, section 5.F.3, p. 155.