Child’s Right To Identity Among Tribal India

Child’s Right To Identity Among Tribal India With Special Reference
To Dhankut Of District Bahraich (U.P.)
Dr. Alok Chantia
Lecturer (Anthropology)
Sri J.N.P.G. College, Lucknow
E-mail: alokchantia@rediffmail.com
Abstract
Child is the father of man. This famous parlance encompasses the status of a child in a
social structure of any socio-cultural group. Tribe or indigenous groups of India
constitute 9% of the total Indian population with 698 tribal groups. In general practice
tribal population is categorized as simple society and their mental status is not considered
as complex as that of urban people because they lead very simple life in context of their
cultural structure. But when we emphasize on their cultural life, we find a complex and
conflict free system regarding the role and status of a child in a family especially in
polyandrous and polygamous society. Jaunsar Bawar of Dehradun district of Uttaranchal
of India take successive numerical method for identifying the social father of a new
born child, where as Toda another polyandrous society perform Pursut Pimi Ritual to
identify the social father of a new born child.. Bachhed tribe of Mausar and Dewas
Districts of Madhya Pradesh of India is treated as tribe in prostitution. The first daughter
of a family becomes “khelwadi" (Prostitute) and earns livelihood for family but when she
becomes pregnant, she gets symbolic father to provide identity to her child. In this regard
it is clear that in tribal India social father is more important than biological father.
Dhankut of District Bahraich is an endogamous group who totally abide by culture. They
are 2687 in number and their locality is known as Dhankuttypura. 40% separation cases
are registered by their panchayat due to suspicion of paternity between Biological and
Social father. The main cause of broken family amongst Dhankut is suspicion regarding
paternity of the child.. The present paper critically evaluates the role of social and
biological father and focuses on a comparative study between Dhankut and some other
tribes of India to understand the role of biological father and social father in their culture
context for children right.