Katkari Tribe

Katkari Tribe Latest News

To highlight the plight of the Katkari Tribe, the Shramjeevi Organisation will hold a two-day protest featuring silent fasts and symbolic lamps, demanding land rights, unpaid wages, and dignity for the marginalised community.

About Katkari Tribe

• It is a primitive tribe found in Maharashtra (Pune, Raigad, and Thane districts) and parts of Gujarat. 
• It is one of the 75 Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) in India.
• They were historically forest dwellers.
• Katkaris are also known as Kathodis because of their old occupation of making Katha (Catechu), the thickened sap from wood of Khair (Acacia catechu).
• The Katkaris were also one of the few tribal communities of India that consumed rodents. 
• Many of them still live in their traditional huts made of bamboo and anything they can find in the forest.
• Despite having a patriarchal system, does not follow the joint family structure, preferring the nuclear family model.
• Language: 
  • They are bilingual, speaking the Katkari language amongst themselves and Marathi with others. 
  • A few of them speak Hindi as well.
• Occupation:
  • They serve as agricultural labourers and sell firewood and some jungle fruits.
  • They also take up fishing for domestic consumption, coal making, and brick manufacturing.
• They have tremendous knowledge about uncultivated foods like fish, crabs, animals, birds, tubers/rhizomes, wild vegetables, fruits, nuts, etc.
• A majority of the Katkari families are landless. The landless rate of 87% among the Katkari is much higher than 48% for rural households in India as a whole.
• As a result of landlessness, migration is rampant, and livelihoods are seasonal.

Source: FPJ

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