Jharkhand will become the second state in the country to have an atlas for its tribal population — a set of maps, visuals and statistics highlighting demography of the 32 tribal groups in the state.
The nearly 150-page tribal atlas will be published by Dr Ram Dayal Munda Tribal Welfare Research Institute, an academic institute in Tagore Hills, Ranchi, functioning under state welfare department.
“So far Odisha is the only state to have a tribal atlas highlighting tribal demography and Jharkhand would be the second. We are giving final touches to the atlas and would be releasing it by end of October or November this year,” said a senior official at the institute.
Ranendra Kumar, director of the tribal welfare research institute, said: “We have utilised the data of the 2011 census to display salient features of tribal population of all the 32 tribal groups found in Jharkhand with a series of maps, corresponding charts, diagrams, graphs and pictures portraying the distributional aspects of the population, ecological setting of the tribal habitats, their socio-cultural attributes such as linguistic, dialectical affinity, gender composition and literary levelse.
Sources in the institute said that the atlas would also have details on work participation, health, administrative mechanism and other related aspects, and also a section on tribal freedom fighters.
The atlas will have plates of maps in each section preceded by an introductory text.
“It will be a powerful tool for policy decisions and insight for social researchers dealing with culture and development of tribes of Jharkhand,” said Chintu Duraiburu, deputy director of the institute who has played an active role in the compilation of the atlas.
“All the government departments in Jharkhand will have a copy of the atlas. We will be deciding on the pricing of the book soon after consultation with government but can assure that it will be priced moderately. We have written to the Jharkhand Agency for Promotion of Information Technology, the IT wing of the state government, for upgrading our website through which we can sell the books online for those staying outside the state,” Duraiburu added.
In July last year, Odisha had published the first such atlas.
That atlas was prepared by the SC&ST Research and Training Institute in collaboration with the Academy of Tribal Language and Culture.