The Indian government has ordered a probe into a controversy over police allegedly forcing women of a primitive tribe to dance semi-naked before tourists for food. The UK newspaper The Observer released the video on January 7 to accompany a report saying its journalist had recently seen tourists throw bananas and biscuits to tribespeople on the roadside and had been told by local traders how much to bribe the police to spend a day out with the Jarawa. The Jarawa tribe has just 403 members, who live in deep jungles in south Andaman. They are among endangered tribes of the island who came in contact with the outer world only in 1998. In 2007, the government created a buffer zone to protect the community from outside contact and exploitation. The video obtained by The Observer showed a group of Jarawa women being ordered to dance for tourists by a policeman, who had reportedly accepted a £200 bribe to take them into the reserve. Federal tribal affairs minister V. Kishore Chandra Deo yesterday ordered the chief secretary and the director general of police in Andaman and Nicobar to investigate. Calling the incident “deplorable”, he told reporters his ministry would take “stringent action” against anyone found guilty. The video shows a group of women dancing topless. But the Andaman and Nicobar police have downplayed the incident and questioned when the video was shot. State anthropologist A Justin, who works on the Andaman Islands, told ABC News he thought the scenes may be outdated. Justin said the video appeared to be several years old, while police in Port Blair also suggested it was taken some time ago. But rights group Survial International has called the tourist attraction a human zoo. Director Stephen Corry said in a statement on January 9: “Quite clearly, some people’s attitudes towards tribal peoples haven’t moved on a jot. The Jarawa are not circus ponies bound to dance at anyone’s bidding.”
