National

Forest Assured?

There’s a waking up to adivasi needs, but their nightmare endures

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Forest Assured?
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It’s a lesson learnt the hard way perhaps, but the government is wasting no time in putting it to use. With Operation Green Hunt going nowhere and the Maoists gaining a very obvious upper hand, the government is now changing tack and shifting the war footing to an area where it should have started from: social development for India’s tribals and forest-dwellers.

So where it didn’t think twice about obliging big corporates for mining licences in the mineral-rich tribal lands, the government is now rethinking policy in the area. If indiscriminate mining led to the displacement of the adivasi and left him absolutely impoverished, it is now devising ways to ensure a stake for him. If such displacement is what led the tribals into Maoist arms, then by addressing their grievances, however belatedly, the state hopes to reverse the process.

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It is therefore dangling every carrot to win the hearts and minds of locals—from policy and legislation to grassroots development. There is some activity at last on the Forest Rights Act, 2006, which recognises the rights of forest-dwelling communities to land and its resources. After a lag of two years, hasty steps are being taken to grant land deeds to forest-dwellers. Never mind the catch: the need for the adivasis to ‘prove’ that they are indeed the rightful inheritors of their forefathers’ land.

The government is also giving serious assurances on the issue of displacement due to mining activity. A new draft legislation on mining is being framed not just to make it more investor-friendly, but also to help the central government ensure “responsible” mining while giving tribals a stake, according to Union minister of mines, B.K. Handique.

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Given that Maoists have a firm foothold in 230 districts today from 50 in 1995, the Planning Commission is undertaking a general review of development work in all the Maoist-affected districts and formulating an integrated action plan for the 34 “most infamous” districts in coordination with the eight affected states.

And while there are already substantial funds available for development work in Maoist-affected regions, “we are trying to review the expenditure,” says Arun K. Mishra, principal advisor, Planning Commission. “We have engaged six NGOs/civil organisations and an inhouse team to conduct an onfield study in 34 of the left-wing extremist-affected districts. We hope to get the study reports by the end of the month.”

How effective will the new strategy be? Will these social development initiatives improve the lives and livelihood of the locals in a real sense? Very few share the government’s enthusiasm. “If the idea is to promote a self-governed, self-sufficient village system, then the new schemes are a disaster,” pronounces P.V. Rajagopal of Ekta Parishad and member of the National Land Reforms Council headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. “It is good news that the government is introducing a lot of welfare schemes—right to work, right to food or old age pension. But these are not permanent solutions.”

How Juicy The Carrots?

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Recent development initiatives in Maoist-affected areas, and, Outcome

  • Allotment of land deeds under the Forest Rights Act: Overall disappointing with claims of many deserving people having been rejected
  • Panchayat role being enhanced: Devolution of power in many areas still awaited
  • Attempt to address fears of evacuation for mining, infrastructure projects: Illegal mining, poor implementation of environment norms harming agriculture, displacing people
  • Attempt to provide more work under NREGA: Payment problems and zeal in meeting project targets is leading to a poor response
  • Focus on reviving traditional crafts, skill development: Some revival in local silk and handicraft industry: too few training centres
  • Step-up in social development spending: Enhanced funds not trickling down to the most deserving
  • Social inclusion through NBFCs: Rise of women self-help groups ushering new awareness

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Having neglected tribals and forest-dwellers for decades, the government can hardly change things overnight. Social development experts across the eight Maoist-affected states spell out the enormity of the government’s task. In many of the mineral-rich regions, there are hardly any good roads, hospitals, schools or any other infrastructure despite the presence of large industries. Pramod K. Das of the Orissa Professional Development Service Consultants says his state has many pockets of total neglect, especially in the interiors of Chandrapur, Gudari and Malkangiri disticts, making the youth easy targets for Maoist indoctrination. “There is no specific development agency working for the youth in Orissa,” Das says. “In some of the interior regions, no social development or skill enhancement programmes are being provided.”

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Civil rights activists are also disappointed with government moves on the Forest Rights Act so far. In a letter to the Union minister for environment and forests, Jairam Ramesh, Ashish Kothari of development NGO Kalpavriksh pointed out that many state authorities are violating central norms under the Forest (Conservation) Act while giving project clearances. “In many parts of the country, where proposals for forest diversion are coming, implementation of the Forest Rights Act is seriously lagging, and in many places not started at all,” he alleges.

Even in states where there is some sort of movement on the issue, the results are far from satisfactory. In Chhattisgarh, for instance, only 44 per cent of the 4.86 lakh applications received for land allotment till March 31 this year have been accepted and given title, according to a field report by Naresh C. Saxena, member of the National Advisory Council.

The scenario is much the same in other states. In Madhya Pradesh, of the 80,000 applications filed by adivasis for land deeds in 2008, a mere 17,000 have got the document. “For the rest, there is no respite,” says Shraddha Kashyap of the Malwa unit of the Ekta Parishad.

The biggest mockery is of rights to community land (normally used for cattle-grazing), which, according to Saxena, is “deliberately being ignored or being occupied forcibly by industries”. Das thinks government enthusiasm for settling the land issue is waning “as either there is no land available or it has been encroached upon with political support”.

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Displacement due to mining, however, remains the biggest concern. Virendra Kumar, a development activist from Jharkhand, puts things in perspective. If all 104 MoUs the state government has signed with 66 companies result in mining licences, 1.33 lakh acres of land would have to be evacuated, he warns. This means around 20 lakh families would be displaced. And the biggest irony of it all! Tribals cannot get even 50 grams of coal per day in coal-rich Jharkhand, resulting in a flourishing illegal trade.

The only silver lining so far is that the revival of the local cottage industry and traditional crafts in many of these regions is helping improve incomes. Some of the health programmes too are showing encouraging results. “Only in cases where communities are active and there is no government involvement are the results good,” says Murari Choudhury, the executive director of NGO NEEDS. Women’s self-help groups are a classic example. The government better put more thought and serious intent behind its strategy lest its halfway measures lead it further on the road to disaster.

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