Jarawa community
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Andaman Jarawas say they are sexually exploited by poachers
Arun Janardhanan,TNN | Feb 4, 2014
The Jarawas: basic facts
There are 420 of them at the last count
Ancestors of Jarawas arrived at Andaman 60,000 years ago
They live along the western coast of the south and middle Andaman islands
Mostly hunters and gatherers, they are dependent on terrestrial and aquatic resources
Jarawas live in 1,025sq km in Southern Andaman. It's been hardly two decades since Jarawas, one of the four tribal groups on the islands, started coming out of the forest. Sentinelese, the Onge and the Great Andamanese are the other three tribes in the Andaman forests.
Trivialisation
Earlier, tourists made them dance and pose for food; now poachers sexually assault them. Jarawas, whose population adds up to 420 in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, are being exploited by poachers who have introduced alcohol and ganja into the reserve forests, the Andaman Chronicle has reported.
A Jarawa man told the paper-which it shared with The Guardian, London-that their women and girls are being forced to have sex with poachers and fishermen. An unidentified Jarawa man said poachers have established a barter system with a section of the community. They offer them alcohol and marijuana to poach resources in the tribal territories and sexually abuse the women and girls.
In one of the audio clips, the Jarawa man, speaking in Hindi, says the poachers regularly visit the reserve forest and under the influence of alcohol and ganja, they "chase and hurt the girls and sleep with them in the Jarawa Chadda (hut)." Andaman Chronicle said most of the Jarawas being sexually exploited by outsiders are either orphans or widows.
"They press them using hands and nails, when the girls get angry. They chase them under the influence of alcohol. They also sleep in Jarawa's house," said the Jarawa man naming a few poachers who come often.
"This has been going on for a long time," said Zubair Ahmed of Andaman Chronicle, who did the interview along with his colleague Dennis Giles. "The administration here has failed to take action against poachers claiming lack of evidence." The Supreme Court had banned tourists on the Andaman Nicobar Trunk Road after media showed Jarawas being lured with food to dance for tourists in early 2013.
Authorities had [in 2013-14] arrested seven poachers for entering the Jarawa territory. The administration has a system in place using local volunteers to prevent exploitation of Jarawas.
