Paper short abstract:

People belonging to different ethnic communities, self-styled indigenous people, are subject to long standing denial and discrimination in Bangladesh. The meaning and application of the age old traditional concept of state focused security is useless for them as the security of the state does not ensure their security.

Paper long abstract:

Bangladesh is a multi-nation country, Bangalees being the dominant group. Others are small nations in terms of population. There are at least 45 ethnic communities living throughout the country.

These ethnic communities, self-styled indigenous people, have perpetually been discriminated and denied their rights. They are divided into two categories, under the indigenous umbrella term, on the basis of their geographic locations. One category is known as 'hill people' as they live in the hilly region of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, the other as 'plain people' who live on the plain-lands of the country. However, they are equally deprived of their rights irrespective of the ruling regimes starting from the British colonial regime to the present day Bangladesh government via 25 years of Pakistani 'internal colonial rule'.

The state of Bangladesh is currently secure from the external insecurity threats. But this security does not provide any security to the indigenous people, rather hinders their total development. Therefore, it is imperative and a cry of the time that security be conceived as human security and implemented in Bangladesh so that the people of the small ethnic communities in the hilly and plain regions may prosper and develop.