About Adivasi Divas
Adivasi is the collective term for tribes of the Indian subcontinent. According to the 2011 census, They make up 8.6% of India's population or 104 million people. The central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh has a large number of ethnic tribes, with Adhivasi accounting for 20% of the population or 15 million people.
To honour the tribes and recognise the specific challenges they face, Adivasi Divas (Day of the Adivasi) is a regional public holiday on August 9th, as that is the date of the UN's International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples.
In December 1994, the United Nations General Assembly decided that the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples should be observed on August 9th each year. The date was chosen in recognition of the first meeting of the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations of the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights held in Geneva in 1982.
The day is needed, as across the world, indigenous peoples are often among the poorest ethnic groups in society. According to the UN, indigenous people make up less than 5 per cent of the world's population but account for 15 per cent of the poorest.
