JDU Nagaland urges for adoption law to protect indigenous rights

DIMAPUR — The Nagaland Janata Dal United (JDU) has written an open letter to Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio urging the state government to enact an adoption law to safeguard indigenous Naga rights.

In the letter released on Tuesday, the party expressed concern over the “serious ramification that is bound to be caused due to the random adoption of non-Nagas by Nagas,” particularly regarding the inheritance of indigenous rights.

The JDU Nagaland acknowledged that Article 371A of the Indian Constitution grants Nagaland special legislative protections, requiring state assembly consent for parliamentary legislation on matters such as religious and social practices, Naga customary law and procedure, administration of justice involving customary law, and land and resource ownership.

And as far as adoption is concerned, Nagas have every right to adopt anyone of their choice and bestow upon all rights of inheritance and beyond. “However, when it comes to the indigenous rights, do these adopted non-Nagas get the entitlement?” it questioned.

The party argued that since Naga customary law is constitutionally recognised, adoptions conducted according to custom become legally binding; “Therefore, the genuine need of the hour is for the state of Nagaland to legislate law on adoption urgently to address this complication so as to curb unscrupulous adoption of non-Nagas by Nagas.”

“If this matter is not attended to at the earliest, vested interest of non-Nagas could be manifested by luring vulnerable Nagas to randomly adopt non-Nagas so as to subservient the manipulative objectives of those people seeking entry into the Naga community by default”, it added.

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