Bonda people

2. An Ethnic group is a category of
people who identify with each other
based on similarities such as
common ancestry, language, history,
society, culture or nation.

3. In Odisha more than 62 types of
tribal people live. Their culture and
traditions are different from each
other.

4. 1. BONDA People
2. SABAR People
3. KHONDS
4. SANTAL People
5. JUANG People
6. DANGARIA KANDHA
7. SORA People
8. GONDI People
9. BHUMIJ
10. MAHALI

7.  The Bonda people are a tribal people who currently live in the
hills of Odisha’s Malkangiri district in India.
 The Upper Bondas with a population of 6,700 who are the
most isolated from mainstream Indian society, and the Lower
Bonda with a population of 17,000.
 Upper Bondas have almost no connection to the outside
world.
 Dambaru Sisha took the oath of office to become the first
MLA{Member of legislative assembly} to the Bonda tribe, to
which he traces his ancestry.

8.  Sisha attempts to protect the traditions and culture of the people while
providing them with educational opportunities. Only 6% of Bondas are
literate.
 According to Pati, a male bonded labour is called Gufam-Rem whereas a
female laborer is a Gufam-Boy. Bonda people are often led to bonded
labour through marriage, also known as diosing.
 Divorce, also known as “Lung Sisi” is also an issue with in the Bonda
people. In some extreme circumstances, such as if a Bonda woman is
divorced for adultery, the former husband demands double the price that
was paid for their marriage.
 When a death or more occurs, it is custom to sacrifice a cow on the tenth
day, a practice also known as “Gaitang.”
 Poverty, however, became a fundamental issue among the Bonda people
due to social customs regarding obligatory marriages and deaths, along
with myriad other socio-religious practices.
 These customs did not improve health condition nor economic status,
which has created much poverty for them.

9.  The Bonda are a scheduled tribe of India and are also known as
the Remo (meaning "people" in the Bonda language).
 They are one of the 75 Primitive Tribal Groups identified by
the Government of India.
 Their isolation and known aggressiveness continue to preserve
their culture despite the pressures of an expanding Indian
population.
 Their language belongs to the Munda branch of the Austro asiatic
language family. It is most closely related to the Gutob language.

10.  Two of the most important phonetic features that
characterize the Bonda language are the glottal stop,
which is a glottal plosive produced by the release of the
breath behind the vocal chords, and checked
consonants.
 Those sounds are also featured in Munda languages as
a whole. It is the checked consonants k’ and p’ that
occur in Bonda, found mostly in the final position of
native words.

11.  The Bonda are generally semi-clothed, the women wear thick
silver neck bands.
 The Bonda attire is explained in a legend relating to
the Ramayana.
 According to it, some Bonda women chanced upon Sita who was
bathing at a pond in the Bonda hills and, seeing her naked, they
sniggered.
 Enraged, Sita cursed them to a life where they would be
condemned to remaining naked and having their heads shaven.
 When the Bonda women pleaded forgiveness, Sita gave them a
piece of cloth she tore off her sari.
 Bonda women have their heads shaved and adorned with two
types of headbands, called turuba and lobeda.

13.  They are the primary workers and providers of food for
the community.
 This matriarchal dominance is also seen in the marital
norms of the community.
 Bonda girls largely marry boys who are at least five to
ten years younger than them.
 In contrast with many other populations in India, the
number of women among the Bonda greatly exceeds the
number of men.

14. Marriages among Bondas are linked to the
influential position that their women have.
Bonda girls traditionally marry boys at least five
years younger to them, sometimes even 10.
This arrangement allows the girl to look after her
husband while he grows up and then, in turn, he
cares for his elder wife. Some believe this age
gap is partially responsible for bringing their
population down.

15. Food has been a basic part of existence. B
onda have their own traditional machanism of
food production. According to the nature of food
the Bonda food production can be divided as a)
production of crop ,b)collection of edible food
from forest ,c) collection of hunted food, d) and
purchase of food.

16. Bonda tribal people celebrate ‘PATKHANDA
YATRA’ at Mudulipada in the summer
season, basically in between the months of
April and May. Even they celebrate ‘Chaitra
Prabha’ in the month of march. This festival
is also known as ‘PANGAL’. In this festival
the Bonda men move into the forest for
hunting purpose and won’t return back
without hunting anything.

17. The government of odisha has over the years tried to
bring the bonda into the mainstream and set up the
Bonda Development Agency(BDA) in 1977 with this
aim. Outside influences resulted in the Bondas being
given new gods. Thus, Jagannath had been punished
into their life and their gods has been gradually
erased from their lives.The curriculum in the
govt.school also seeks to inject this process through
prayers and songs.The Bonda have begun to take up
non traditional occupations as migrant labourers and
as peons and clerks in government offices.

18. 1. SCA to TSP :
The special central assistance(SCA) is
primarilymeant for family oriented incoming
generating schemes in sectors of
agriculture, horticulture, sericulture, animal
husbandry and cooperation and a part of
SCA is permitted to be used for
development of infrastructure incidental to
such generating schemes.

19. 2. ARTICLE 275 :
Article of the constitution of India guarantess grants
from the consolidated fund of India each year for
promoting the welfare of scheduled tribes.
3. Integrated Tribal Development Agency(
I.T.D.A):
I.T.D.S as nodal Tribal development Agency were
set up during the 5th five year plan. As many as
118 blocks of Odisha state having 50% or more
ST populationhave been covered by 21 ITDAs in
the state viz.

20. 4. MICRO PROJECT :
The particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups(PTG) are
considered as a special category in view of their
distinctly different social, cultural, occupational
practices and traits.
5.Conservation-cum-Development(CCD) Plan :
In the parameters of the guidelines from MOTA, govt.of
odisha in ST and SC Development Department has
formulated a CCD plan for 13 PTGs located in 17
Micro Projects of Odisha state.
The CCD plan for the development of the PGTs of
odisha prioritised activities in the area like, education
giving stress on pre-primary education, housing and
connectivity and safe drinking water, etc.

21. 6. M.A.D.A
MADA scheme has been operating since the sixth plan
for the total development of the dispersed tribal
population residing outside TSP area, which are
contiguous smaller areas having a population of
10,000 or more, with 50% tribal concentration 46 such
MADA pockets in 47 blocks in 17 districts having
5.68 lakh tribal population, are functioning in the state.
7. CLUSTER :
The cluster approach has been introduced from the
middle of the 7th plan period in order to bring smaller
areas of tribal concentration beyond the MADA
pockets into the mainstream of development.

22. 8. D.T.D.P :
As an extension of TSP strategy, the dispersed ST
population of the state located outside the
ITDA/MADA/ Cluster Pocket/ Micro Project
areas is covered under a special project for tribal
development called ‘ Dispersed Tribal
Development Project.
9. SPECIAL PLAN FOR KBK DISTRICTS
(RLTAP) :
Ever since implementation of the RLTAP , a major
thrust area of activity has been promotion of
literacy among the ST and SC in general and
promotion of female literacy in particular by way
of providing scholarship to SC/ST.