Sawar, Sawarna and Saunra: one and the same tribe now: Spelling – countless “trials and tribulations” comes to an end.
“Not having my ST certificate, brought my career to an end. Seeking help from the higher authorities went in vain. Now I have no other choice but to do farming,” says Mr Bhoi
Shivprasad Bhoi 39, from the Sawar tribe, joined as a government school teacher in Bastar in 2010 and has now been dismissed from service due to a spelling variation in his tribe’s name.
“The problem in the caste certificate comes as a result due to the lack of awareness of the illiterate people who did not know what was entered in the documents which they had been issued or inherited from their parents and also in some families they didn’t bother to keep the documents safe,” says G.M. Jha a former Deputy Director at the TRTI.
Mr Sidar said that “ At around 2004 the director of the TRTI issued a book that wrongly interpreted the supreme court order and the terms ‘synonym’ and ‘synonymous’ in it. This then become reference point for officials for rejecting applications with spelling variations. This results as one of the root causes for the tribes enduring battle with spelling”
Lately, the Union Cabinet has listed the inclusion of spelling variations for 11 tribes of the Scheduled Tribes of Chattisgarh and ‘Sawar’ or ‘Sawara’ was one of those.
