| New Delhi, Jan. 13: The Sonia Gandhi-headed National Advisory Council had reported sexual exploitation of Jarawa women and recommended action six years before the current furore over a video of half-naked, dancing Jarawa girls. However, it took more than five years — and letters from Sonia to the home and tribal affairs ministries — for the Centre to consider some action in the shape of amendments to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Protection of Aboriginal Tribes) Regulations, 1956. The amendments to the so-called "PAT regulations", envisaged by the home ministry last November, are still to be promulgated, though. Anyway, they fall far short of the National Advisory Council (NAC) recommendations. An NAC experts' sub-group had suggested eventual closure of the part of the Andaman Trunk Road that passes through the Jarawa Reserve. The government's amendments look to merely restrict but not ban tourist entry into the reserve. They provide for punishment if "unauthorised entry" into the reserved area "is found to be for purpose of taking photographs or making videos" of the tribals. To sceptics, the stress may seem as much on preventing exploitation as on keeping evidence of any exploitation from getting out. The video that has brought international glare on the abuse of Jarawas was released by the UK-based Observer newspaper and purportedly shows tour operators and a policeman making semi-naked Jarawa girls dance for tourists' amusement. Home minister P. Chidambaram has called for the "interrogation" of the tour operator responsible as well as the videographer. The home ministry, though, had done little when the NAC experts' sub-group, led by Sayeda Hameed and Jairam Ramesh, came out with its report in 2006. The findings related to a band of young Jarawa women, orphans and old people who had broken away from the main tribe and set up huts close to "settler villages and police outposts". "The vulnerability is proven by the fact that a Jarawa girl from this group delivered a non-Jarawa child…. We have also heard reports that Jarawa girls from this group are frequenting police chowkis at night. This has grave implications," said the experts, who included Aruna Roy and K.B. Saxena among others. The report continued: "Recent studies by the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology show that the Jarawa and other Negrito groups of the Andamans have the susceptibility gene for HIV, making them extremely vulnerable to AIDS." The Jarawas are a hunter-gatherer tribe in the southern Andamans, of whom only 400-odd survive following habitat destruction and disease. They are among the six major tribes on this group of islands. With no action forthcoming, Sonia had ticked off the home and tribal affairs ministries in January last year. On January 18, she wrote to Chidambaram reminding him that the home ministry needed to act. The Telegraph has a copy of the letter. "I feel the home ministry as a nodal ministry responsible for the administration of (the Andaman and Nicobar Islands)... should come out with a time-bound action plan on decisions already taken and review further measures at regular intervals," Sonia wrote. She sent a similar letter the next day to then tribal affairs minister Kantilal Bhuria. Six years on, there has been no action against any police officer on the islands, a senior home ministry official said. "No action has been taken against any policeman in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands," corroborated the local MP, Bishnu Pada Ray. Now, with the Observer video having made headlines, home ministry sources say the PAT regulation amendments will come into force soon. The proposed amendments, however, look mainly to regulate the "buffer zone" around the Jarawa Reserve. One of the provisions is that tour operators who try to attract tourists through advertisements about the tribes can be jailed for three years. The NAC sub-group had suggested the establishment of a Jarawa Tribal Development Authority, a sort of think tank made up by experts. As Sonia's letter reflects, the going has been slow. Asked about this yesterday, Chidambaram skirted the question. "A 5km buffer zone has been established and movement of convoys has been regulated," he said. Tribal affairs minister V. Kishore Chandra Deo today said the government wanted neither to keep the Jarawas in a "beastly condition" nor to expose them to "mall and junk" culture. He said there was a need for discussion with "all stakeholders", raising fears of a further delay in implementing the amendments. | 
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