Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren on Thursday said the national tribal dance festival was an honour to communities which have been deprived educationally, socially and economically.

Soren inaugurated the National Tribal Dance Festival and Rajyotsava 2021 at Raipur along with his Chhattisgarh counterpart Bhupesh Baghel.

“This is not just a dance festival, but an honour to those who have been educationally, socially and economically deprived. This is a message to the whole country that if we want, this section can also walk with us. There are departments created in their name but the community is deprived of its rights and facilities leveraged to them. I also come from a tribal community. Even if I had not been chief minister of Jharkhand, I would have attended this programme,” said Soren, and wished all the best to more than 1,000 artistes from 27 states, 6 Union Territories and seven other countries.

Soren said the fest was an opportunity for all people to get acquainted with the tradition and culture of the tribal society. “Tribals will get energy from such events and they will be able to keep their civilisation and culture intact. In addition, the fair held on the campus will also showcase the amazing potential of these communities, which is naturally associated with them.”

Soren heaped praise on the Chhattisgarh government for helping these communities by giving minimum support price for forest produce.

“I believe that the country and the states can develop only when the villages prosper. Work should be done in the direction of increasing the purchasing power of the villagers and uplift of the underprivileged, backward, poor and marginalised section of the country,” he said.

The Jharkhand chief minister mentioned the sporting prowess of tribals especially in hockey and archery and also informed about his government’s full scholarship scheme to meritorious tribal students for higher education in the UK and Ireland.

During the festival, a dance competition will be organised on themes of marriage rituals, traditional festivals, harvest rituals, agriculture and other traditional methods. Artistes from Jharkhand will perform Kadsa under the marriage ceremony ritual category and Oraon and Chhau dance under the harvest ritual.

Soren and Baghel jointly played thodka (tribal trumpet) at the traditional musical section of the festival.

Before leaving for Raipur, Soren had announced on Wednesday evening that all departments will be hosting camps at the panchayat level as part of the “Sarkar Apke Dwar” (Government at your doorstep) programme to mark two years of his government.

“The Sarkar Apke Dwar camps would be hosted at over 4,400 panchayats in the state from November 16 onwards till December 29 (when he was sworn in as chief minister in 2019) and people would be linked to welfare schemes of the state government,” Soren had said.

Sources in the chief minister’s secretariat said that this year, assets would be distributed to beneficiaries in all the five administrative divisions (Santhal, North Chotanagpur, South Chotanagpur, Kolhan and Santhal Pargana) in a phase-wise manner by Soren till December 29.