The Opposition BJP staged a protest and disrupted the Jharkhand Assembly monsoon session over alleged infiltrators from Bangladesh and their alleged atrocities against tribals.

Following this, a collective of rights outfits has cited statistics belying the BJP’s allegation. The Loktantra Bachao Abhiyan (save democracy campaign) — a collective of rights outfits — in a media statement has claimed that “BJP leaders’ statements are beyond facts”.

“BJP leaders are making statements that a large number of Bangladeshi intruders are coming to Jharkhand, marrying tribal girls (love jihad), grabbing tribal lands (land jihad) and blaming this for the decrease of tribal population in Santhal Pargana by 16 per cent and that of Muslim Bangladesh infiltrators has increased by 13 per cent. But these statements are beyond facts,” the statement read.

“According to the 1951 census, there were 36% tribals in the Jharkhand region. In 1991, there were 27.67% tribals and 12.18% Muslims in the state. According to the last census (2011), there were 26.21% tribals and 14.53% Muslims in the state.

“The ratio of tribals in Santhal Pargana decreased from 29.91% in 2001 to 28.11% in 2011. So the BJP’s claim of 16% and 10% is a lie,” the statement further added.

The rights outfits claimed that the reason for the decline of the tribal populace between 1951 and 1991 was due to a large number of non-tribals coming to the state from surrounding states.

“Due to locals not getting priority in jobs, fifth schedule provisions and tribal-special laws not being implemented properly, non-tribals from other states started settling and tribals have been forced to migrate in lakhs for decades due to displacement and lack of employment, which directly affects their population growth rate,” the statement added.

The statement also cited the central government’s 2017 Economic Survey Report, between 2001 and 2011, about 50 lakh people in the age group of 15 and 59 years
migrated from the state to buttress their claim.

“For decades, the population growth rate of tribals has been less than other non-tribal groups. Between 1951 and 1991, the annual exponential growth rate of the tribal population was 1.42, while that of the entire Jharkhand was 2.03. Due to inadequate nutrition, inadequate health system, financial constraints, the mortality rate of tribals is higher than other communities,” it stated.

The right outfit also said that the NDA government under Narendra Modi has continuously given statements in Parliament that they do not have any data related to the number of Bangladeshi infiltrators.

“If we consider only the population of Muslims in Santhal Pargana, then the 2.15% increase in the proportion of the total population between 2001 and 2011 shows that the number of Muslims migrating from Bangladesh will be much less than the claims of BJP leaders if at all it happened,” the statement added.