Rights campaigners and politicians have condemned a video showing women from a
protected and primitive tribe dancing for tourists in exchange for food on
India's far-flung Andaman Islands.
British newspaper The Observer released the video showing Jarawa tribal women -
some of them naked - being lured to dance and sing.
A bribe was allegedly paid to a policeman to film them dancing.
Under Indian laws designed to protect ancient tribal groups susceptible to
outside influence and disease, photographing or coming into contact with the
Jarawa is illegal.
The tribe, thought to have been among the first people to migrate successfully
from Africa to Asia, lives a nomadic existence in the lush, tropical forests of
the Andamans in the Bay of Bengal.
Survival International, which lobbies on behalf of tribal groups worldwide,
said the video showed tourists apparently enjoying "human zoos".
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In June last year, Survival International accused eight Indian travel companies
of running "human safari tours" so tourists could see and photograph the Jarawa.
A man was recorded saying in the video: "I have given it, you can eat it."
A man in the recording said in a local dialect: "I have given you the
food...you eat it...you should eat it."
The man tells the tribal women to share the food with everyone.
London-based lobby group Survival International called for tourists to boycott
the road used to enter the reserve of the Jarawa tribe, who number just 403 and
are in danger of dying out.
India's Tribal Affairs Minister V. Kishore Chandra Deo promised to take action
over the incident, terming it "disgusting" on Wednesday, and the home ministry
has sought a report.
Apparently, there was more than one vehicle visiting the Jawara tribe in the
recent "human zoo" incident.
In the video, one tribal woman was unclothed, while others danced topless but
with hula skirts.
The men in the vehicle asked the naked woman for her name. Shy, she covered her
private parts with an object which looked like a purse.
