The Gumla district administration in Jharkhand has announced that the Asur community, a particularly vulnerable tribal group (PVTG) residing in the Netarhat plateau region of Gumla, will soon benefit from the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006.
About Asur Community:
- The Asur’s are a very small Austro-Asiatic ethnic group living primarily in the Indian state of Jharkhand, mostly in the Gumla, Lohardaga, Palamu and Latehar districts.
- A small minority lives in the neighbouring states.
- They are included in the list of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs).
- As per the 2011 census, the tribe has a population of around 23,000.
- They speak the Asur language, which belongs to the Munda family of Austro-Asiatic languages.
Occupations:
- Asur’s are traditionally iron smelters.
- They were once hunter-gatherers, having also been involved in shifting agriculture. However, the majority of them shifted into agriculture, with 91.19 per cent enlisted as cultivators in the 2011 census.
- Their indigenous technology of iron smelting gives them a distinct identity, as they claim to have descended from the ancient Asuras, who were associated with the art of metal craft.
- When smelting, the Asur women sing a song relating the furnace to an expectant mother, encouraging the furnace to give a healthy baby, i.e., good quality and quantity of iron from the ore, and were thence, according to Bera, associated with the fertility cult.
- But nowadays, a major section of the population is also attached to mining work.
Social Structure of Asur Community:
- The Asur society is divided into 12 clans. These Asur clans are named after different animals, birds, and food grains.
- Family is the second-most prominent institution after the clan.
- They have their own community council (Jati Panch) where disputes are settled.
- They maintain putative kinship ties with Kharwar, Munda, and other neighbouring tribes.
- Except for the burial site, they share all other public spaces with their neighbours.
- Traditional male clothing is dhoti, while females wear tattoo marks (depicting totemic objects) upon their bodies as ornaments.
- The Asur follow the rule of monogamy, but in cases of barrenness, widower and widow hood, they follow the rule of bigamy or even Polygamy. At the time of marriage, they follow the rule of tribe endogamy.
Religion:
The Asur religion is a mixture of animism, animatism, naturalism, and ancestral worship.
Forest Rights Act, 2006
UPSC Prelims PYQ : 2019
Ques : Consider the following statements about Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) in India:
1. PVTGs reside in 18 States and one Union Territory.
2. A stagnant or declining population is one of the criteria for determining PVTG status.
3. There are 95 PVTGs officially notified in the country so far.
4. Irular and Konda Reddi tribes are included in the list of PVTGs.
Which of the statements given above are correct?
(a) 1, 2 and 3
(b) 2, 3 and 4
(c) 1, 2 and 4
(d) 1, 3 and 4
Ans: (c)
