Ranchi
Noted academic and social scientist Sona Jharia Minz has advocated for holistic, knowledge-driven solutions to tribal challenges like migration and climate change.To her, the stakes are far higher than economic stability. Migration, she warns, is steadily eroding indigenous knowledge, culture, and languages.
Tribal Migration Should Stop
Minz made an earnest appeal to all sections of society to devise effective strategies to check the migration of tribal communities.
“Today, the tribals are not only migrating to big cities in search of bread and butter or quality education, they are also going to far-flung remote areas to work in brick kilns and various construction sites. Their offspring, in particular, are gradually forgetting their roots,” she told The Indian Tribal in a telephonic conversation.
Thus, she said , the pressing challenge lies not in codifying religion but in stemming the tide of migration among tribals.
Census data shows that by 2011, 31.4 million tribals were intra-state migrants (either intra-district or inter-district)—about 30% of the tribal population. This marks an increase of nearly 8 million from 2001.
Recent data from Jharkhand underscores widespread migration among the youth. A 2023 Indigenous Navigator survey found that 42% of young men and 50% of young women (ages 15–24) have left their villages in search of work.
Climate Change: A Silent Threat
Pointing to tribal-dominated areas of Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha, and Chhattisgarh, Minz said these regions enjoy a unique wealth—dense forest cover above and rich mineral reserves below. Yet, the reality is sobering.
“Climate change has become a cause of serious concern. Lands are steadily losing fertility,” she said. “No mechanism has been developed to involve institutions of higher education to put in their knowledge and expertise to work out viable alternatives. In Jharkhand too we have centres of academic excellence like IIT-ISM and NIT. We should take their help for the integrated growth of the State.”
Many tribal districts in Jharkhand are already showing declining forest health and reduced agricultural productivity under projected climate scenarios. In West Bengal’s Sundarbans and other low-lying coastal belts, sea-level rise, saline intrusion and land erosion are already altering mangrove ecology, fisheries and agricultural land — undermining livelihoods of tribals.
While Odisha is a climate hotspot with increasing cyclone frequency/intensity, recurrent floods, and unpredictable rainfall patterns creating repeated food-security and displacement cycles for tribal communities living near coasts and uplands, Chhattisgarh’s tribal regions face a double burden: climate stress (heat, variable rainfall) and large-scale land cover change driven by mining and deforestation.
A Journey From Gumla To JNU
A former Vice Chancellor of Sido Kanho Murmu University in Dumka, Minz is now a professor at the School of Computer & Systems Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Her academic specialisations span Geo-spatial Informatics, Spatio-temporal Data Analysis, Data Mining, Machine Learning, and Rough Sets.
Her own path to higher education was shaped by her upbringing in a remote village in Gumla district and inspired by her father, Dr Nirmal Minz—a Bishop and social activist. “He encouraged all his four daughters to excel in subjects of their choice. None of us chose a common subject. All are well settled in their respective fields. One of my sisters is a professor at a reputed medical college. My Sanskrit too is not very bad. I was also good in games and sports,” she said with a smile.
Advocacy On The Global Stage
Beyond her academic role, Minz has been a tireless advocate for mainstreaming tribal languages, art, and culture. In 2022, she addressed the UNESCO Barcelona Conference, where her speech on ‘The Role of Indigenous Knowledge in Higher Education’ resonated deeply with global policymakers.
Since July 2025, she has served as UNESCO Co-chair in Indigenous Knowledge, Research, Governance, and Transformative Reconciliation, a four-year initiative conducted in collaboration with Dr Amy Parent of Simon Fraser University, Canada.
For Minz, the preservation of tribal identity cannot be left to chance. It demands urgent attention to stem migration, confront environmental challenges, and harness academic expertise—while ensuring that the wisdom of the past informs the path to the future.
