The Jharkhand State Assembly sent a resolution to the Union government asking for a separate religion code for the tribal population in the upcoming Census 2021 exercise.
Context
- The Jharkhand State Assembly sent a resolution to the Union government asking for a separate religion code for the tribal population in the upcoming Census 2021 exercise.
What is about the Sarna resolution?
- The resolution named it ‘SarnaAdivasiDharam’.
- The followers of ‘Sarna’ are usually nature worshippers.
- They have been demanding recognition of it as a distinct religion for decades.
Why they are demanding it?
- At present, under the census, there are codes for only six religions: Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism and Jainism.
- While filling in these columns, a tribal resident has to identify himself or herself as one of these or as ‘others’, but cannot specify his / her religion as a different one.
- In census surveys during 1871-1951, there was a separate category for the tribal population. But later, this was dropped.
- For the Census 2011, the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes did recommend the addition of this code.
- It is believed that 50 lakhs tribal in the entire country put their religion as ‘Sarna’ in the 2011 census, although it was not a code.
What is the Sarna religion?
- The followers of Sarna faith believe pray to nature.
- The holy grail of the faith is “Jal, Jungle, Zameen”.
- Its followers pray to the trees and hills while believing in protecting the forest areas.
