COVER STORY

Undermining the laws

ASHA KRISHNAKUMAR

Despite the existence of a plethora of Central and State laws to protect the tribal people, they are forced to live in deprivation.

THE Eastern Ghats, a long chain of broken hills and metamorphic rocks with dense forests, grassy knolls, fertile farms, rich orchards and innumerable waterfalls, run from Orissa to Tamil Nadu via Andhra Pradesh. In Orissa and Andhra Pradesh, the Ghats are home to hundreds of tribes, which have lived in forests for generations.

K.R. DEEPAK

Tracts of land under shifting cultivation in the primitive tribal hamlets near Chintapalli in Visakhapatnam district.

Under the British, the north coastal districts of Madras Presidency were called "Agency tracts", as an Agent of the Governor was in charge of their administration. The tribal communities resisted the British, especially their forest laws, and they were compelled to re-enact a set of laws to meet the communities' needs. These special laws protected the tribal people from usurious moneylenders and their lands from non-tribal people from the plains. After Independence, these areas were brought under the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution and the special laws continued to remain in force, though with some changes.

Andhra Pradesh has the Scheduled Area Land Transfer Regulation Act, 1959, which makes any transfer of land or immovable property from tribal to non-tribal people null and void; the Regulation 1/70 and the amendment to Section 11(5) of the Mines and Minerals Act of 1957, which prohibit mining activity in Scheduled Areas by non-tribal people; and the Andhra Pradesh Scheduled Area Land Transfer Regulation (Amendment) Act, 1970, which prohibits transfer of land in the Scheduled areas to non-tribal people.

Various Articles of the Constitution provide for the socio-economic development and empowerment of the Scheduled Tribes (S.T.s). But there has been no national policy that could help them realise these benefits. The Constitution provides for special representation for the S.T.s in the Lok Sabha and the State Assemblies until January 25, 2010 (Articles 330, 332 and 334) and enjoins the setting up of separate departments in the States and a national commission at the Centre to promote their welfare and safeguard their interests (Articles 164 and 338). Also guaranteed are special provisions for the administration and control of Scheduled Areas and Tribal Areas (Article 224, and the Fifth and the Sixth Schedules) and grant-in-aid to the States to meet the cost of the schemes of development they may undertake to promote the welfare of the S.T.s or raising the level of Scheduled Areas (Article 275-1).

To deal with the crimes against the S.T.s effectively, two special laws - the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955, and the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 - were enacted.

To ensure that the constitutional mandates translate into policies and programmes and are put into effective action, high priority was given for the welfare and development of S.T.s right from the First Five-Year Plan (1952-57).

The Second Plan saw the creation of 43 Special Multi-Purpose Tribal Blocks (SMPTBs). Morphing into Tribal Development Blocks (TDBs), each with about 25,000 people against 65,000 in a normal block, a TDB got Rs.15 lakhs from the Centre.

Under the Fourth Plan, six pilot projects were set up in the Central sector in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa. A separate Tribal Development Agency was established for each project and Rs.2 crores was allotted to these agencies. Various commissions and committees brought to the government's notice that the tribal people had not got their due share and that much more needed to be done to bring the living condition of S.T.s on a par with that of the general population.

The Fifth Plan brought about a shift in the approach with the launching of the Tribal Sub Plan (TSP) to benefit the S.T.s directly. It is an umbrella scheme under which all schemes implemented by State and Central governments are dovetailed to address the needs of the S.T.s. It is basically an area scheme focussing on tribal people, under which infrastructural development and family-oriented programmes are undertaken. The strategy has been successful in garnering large funds for the development of the S.T.s - from Rs.759 crores during the Fifth Plan to about Rs.16,902.66 crores by the end of the Eighth Plan (1992-97).

The Ministry of Tribal Affairs, besides providing Special Central Assistance to raise the level of infrastructure in the Scheduled areas and to bring the S.T.s' standard of living to the level of the general population, is also implementing various Central sector schemes, under which financial assistance ranging from 50 to 100 per cent is given to the States and Union Territories to construct hostels for S.T. students and to coach them for competitive examinations, research and training; to set up ashram schools, vocational training centres, village grain banks, and educational complexes for S.T. girls in low literacy pockets; and for the development of primitive tribal groups.

Further, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have also been involved in the development of S.T.s. Their developmental and financial needs are being met, over and above the credit available through priority sector lending of banks and other institutions, by the National Scheduled Castes Finance and Development Corporation (NSFDC).

With the prime objective of providing marketing assistance and remunerative prices to tribal people for their minor forest produce (MFP) and surplus agricultural produce (SAP) and to protect them from exploitative private traders and middlemen, the Centre set up the Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation (TRIFED) in 1987.

Andhra Pradesh, as a result of a series of revolts by the tribal people (fituries) since the British period, has enacted a series of protective laws for them such as the Scheduled Area Moneylenders' Regulation (1960), the Andhra Pradesh Scheduled Tribes Debt Relief Regulation (1960) and the Land Transfer Regulation Act (1959).

The Integrated Tribal Development Agencies were created in the 1950s to provide tribal people prompt and accessible government services. Legal provisions such as the special agency courts were set up to give them speedy justice. The Tribes Advisory Council was formed with political representatives and administrators to advise and guide the State government on issues relating to tribal people. Administration improved with the setting up of these institutions but they have not addressed the critical issues of land alienation and basic human rights violation suffered by the tribal people, ironically largely because of State policies.

Recently, for the first time since Independence, the Centre proposed a National Policy on Scheduled Tribes. But it seems largely to be a repackaged version of the existing programmes without a broad focus on the real issues and appears insensitive to the tribal people's situation. For instance, in a bid to bring tribal people to the mainstream of society, the document mentions that they are to be "assimilated" with the general population, "shedding their primitive traits". The document also states: "The tribals suffer from diseases, malnutrition and are vulnerable to displacement." This implies that displacement is a disease and the state has no role to play in it. Further, the document states: "Tribals involved in shifting cultivation do not seem to have any emotional attachment to the land as an asset or property needing care." On the contrary, the tribal people, whose lives revolve around land and forests, consider them sacred.

There is no dearth of policies, principles and rules to protect the tribal people. But all remain on paper, implemented not even in spirit leave alone the letter.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail