The whole family and neighbourhood goes to a celebratory mood if a baby is born in a family in India. People rejoice and make merry to welcome the newborn.
Everyone has the satisfaction of becoming a father, mother, grandfather, grandmother and likewise. People feel happier when the baby is fair and more beautiful.
However, In Andaman Island, tribes identified as Jarawa believe that ‘fair’ babies are a bad omen and kill them soon after birth. They kill the white skinned newborns because they believe that is unlucky for them.
“The Jarawa tribes have their own systems and traditions that they have been following for more than 50,000 years now. Not only fair babies, in fact the tribals also keep white people who dare to travel to their area.
Recently, an American preacher was killed by the tribes while he had gone to help them. They live in parts of South Andaman and Middle Andaman Islands, and their present numbers are estimated at between 250–400 individuals.
Jarawas are a nomadic tribe, they hunt endemic wild pigs, monitor lizards and other quarry with bows and arrows. They have kept dogs to help with hunting, until recently to become more similar to the Onges and Andamanese.
But the tribe is facing threat from the building of the Great Andaman Trunk Road through their newer western forest homeland.
PNN/Agencies