T

he nomadic Suku Anak Dalam tribe, also known as the Orang Rimba, dwelling in the Bukit Duabelas National Park (TNBD) in Jambi is demanding the government provide them with health and education facilities in neighborhoods easily reachable from their jungle.

One of tumenggung (clan leaders) of the tribe, Jelitai, said that the deaths among his people in the last few months were due to the inability to get them to medical care as soon as possible. He said a member of his own family also died because of a sickness.

'€œHe died on the way to the hospital,'€ Tumenggung Jelitai said Sunday.

Jelitai said it took one full day of walking to get to the nearest community health center from the place where his clan dwells in Makekal.

No wonder, he said, that an Orang Rimba member could die from not getting medical attention on time. Not only were health centers not easily reached, the government'€™s medical team has also never visited their dwelling site located deep in the national park.

Responding to an offer from the central government for the establishment of a customary village for the Orang Rimba tribes located near to their dwelling place, the tumenggung said that such a village would help them live a decent life.

'€œWe hope the village will also come with education and health facilities so that we won'€™t need to walk long to get medical help,'€ he said.

Jelitai, however, denied reports that many of the Orang Rimba people had died because of famine.

'€œNo one has died because of starvation. There are some, however, who died because of sickness,'€ he said.

Metak, an Orang Rimba member of the Tumenggung Girang group, agreed, saying that a toddler and a teenager in his group had died recently because of measles, not from starvation.

The spokesperson of the non-governmental organization Perkumpulan Hijau (Green Association), Willy Azan, said separately on Sunday that Orang Rimba members who died because of starvation were those living in plantation areas who had no sources of livelihood.

'€œThose who died mostly dwelled on the outskirts of the TNBD,'€ Willy said, adding that Orang Rimba dwelling in the middle of the forest could satisfy their daily needs by hunting and looking for tubers.

Willy expressed support for the establishment of a kampong adat, as long as it was undertaken with the intention of returning them to the middle of the forest to let them live their lives based on their own local wisdom.

Earlier this month, Social Affairs Minister Khofifah Indar Parawansa offered the tribe a designated customary village during a meeting with a number of tumenggung in the Batanghari regency. Khofifah said that if tribal leaders accepted the offer, the government was ready to modify its social protection programs to adjust to the Orang Rimba'€™s way of life.

Eleven tribespeople were reported to have died during melangun over the past several months, with dozens of members, especially children, suffering from high fever, coughs and malnutrition.

Melangun is a strong tradition among the Orang Rimba and it involves moving from one place to another, especially after the death of a relative, so as to physically put their sorrows behind them.