News: Champa Raspeda, hailing from Odisha’s Malkangiri district, has created history by becoming the first individual from the Didayi community to qualify in NEET 2025.
About Didayi Tribe
- It is an indigenous community of Malkangiri district, Odisha.
- They are recognized as one of the 13 Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) in Odisha.
- They belong to the Proto-Australoid racial stock.
- Their language belongs to the Austroasiatic language family.
- Society is patriarchal, with men holding primary authority in family and community matters.
- Their religion is animistic, centered on nature worship and reverence for the natural world.
- Settlements are in small, remote forest villages, mostly in the Eastern Ghats hills.
- Governance within villages is managed by a traditional council of elders that resolves disputes.
- Housing style: thatched huts made with mud walls and bamboo.
- Livelihood practices include: Agriculture (shifting cultivation and small farming), Hunting and gathering and Fishing in local streams and rivers.
