The organisation, whose name means forum to protect tribal people’s religion and culture — Janajati Dharma Sanskriti Suraksha Manch (JSM) — announced last week of November that it will hold the rally on Dec. 25 at Agartala, the state capital of Tripura in northeast India reported UCA News.

An associate of pro-Hindutva, supremacist, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the JSM says Christianity and Islam are “foreign-origin religions”, and hence indigenous tribal people converted to these faiths should be removed from the official Scheduled Tribes (STs) list to deny them education and job quotas, besides other welfare benefits, under India’s affirmative action programs.

Father Ivan D’Silva, secretary for social communication at Agartala diocese, which covers the entire Tripura state, said he was not aware of “the motive behind the planned rally on Christmas Day, the holiest and most sacred festival for Christians across the world.”

“It looks like it is being done deliberately. We called a meeting of all Church denominations in the state and have decided to oppose the rally” on Christmas day, he told UCA News on November 29.

The priest also said they have also launched a campaign to make tribal people in the state aware of their constitutional rights. More than 50 percent of Tripura’s population belongs to various indigenous tribes.

Father Nicholas Barla, secretary of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India’s Office for Tribal Affairs, said the planned rally appeared to be part of “a political program ahead of the national elections to be held next year.” “The demand for de-listing tribal Christians from the beneficiaries list for STs is being raised in various states and provinces of India with sizeable tribal populations,” he told UCA News.

Barla called it “a conspiracy to divide tribal people in the name of religion” for the electoral benefit of pro-Hindu parties.

“According to our constitution people are free to practice and profess any faith according to their choice and free will,” he reminded.

Tripura is ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is the parliamentary wing of the RSS, which is wedded to the idea of India becoming a majoritarian, theocratic state. Opposition parties including the Congress and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and regional secular outfits have opposed the rally as “unconstitutional” and “a conspiracy” to foment sectarian divide in the state. Congress leader Sudip Roy Barman is reported to have said the demand to de-list tribal Christians from the ST list “was floated to disturb the peace and foment ethnic discord and tension in the state.”

He warned that these supremacist political parties and their affiliate organization were “risking mutual co-existence on the lines of Manipur,” where over 170 people have been killed and several hundred injured since ethnic violence first broke out on May 3.

Pradyot Kishore Manikya Debbarma, chief of the regional outfit Tipraha Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance, also “suspected a conspiracy to use religion to divide the Tiprasa [tribal people of Tripura].” Christians make up 4.35 percent of Tripura’s 3.7 million people. Most of them belong to indigenous tribal communities such as the Tripuri, Lushai, Kuki, Darlong and Halam.

A sizable number of Tripura Christians are Baptists, Presbyterians and Catholics while there are also those belonging to Assemblies of God, Evangelical Church, and other neo-Christian groups.

Related:

Christmas of the 2% is being imposed on the 98%, says Suresh Chavhanke

Farmer leaders call for Dec 26 as ‘Dhikkar Diwas’ & a corporate boycott

False allegation of Conversion leads to the continuing Abuse against Christians

Christian Group in Bengaluru Approach the DG of Police to seek protection against targeted violence

Over 300 attacks on Christians reported this year, over 2000 women, Adivasis and Dalits injured

Survey of Churches, anti conversion laws only empower radical mobs: Archbishop Peter Machado

The post Tripura: Indian Christians voice protest on rally on Christmas Day appeared first on SabrangIndia.

These are some visuals showing the shutdown in the region. Reports attest that vehicles were turned away and businesses were shut and barriers were erected by youth to prevent movement.

#Manipur: Indefinite shutdown at #Churachandpur (Lamka) following the arrests of four persons by CBI yesterday. #ITLF pic.twitter.com/ewVr8lcPnk

— Pooja Mehta (@pooja_news) October 2, 2023

The accused arrested by the CBI are 4 people from the Kuki-Zo community, which includes two women, in connection with the abduction and murder of two Meitei students who had gone missing in July. The arrests have stirred unrest and have led to protests and once again rising tensions in the hill districts of Manipur.

According to Outlook India, the agency has obtained five-day custody of the accused persons from a Guwahati court in Assam. The court has notably upon reviewing the records found the arrests to be justified and in compliance with the required procedures and has slated that the accused will appear before the court on October 7.

The arrested accused have been identified as Paominlun Haokip, S. Malsawm Haokip, Lhingneichong Baitekuki, and Tinneilhing Henthang. They were apprehended in Churachandpur, Manipur, as announced by CM N Biren Singh. 

#WATCH | Manipur CM N Biren Singh says “In a major breakthrough today, we have arrested the main culprits responsible for the abduction and murder of two youths in the state. Union Home Minister Amit Shah had sent the Special Director of CBI along with some senior officers to… https://t.co/DI9OqjZEw8 pic.twitter.com/uIUPrrmfjR

— ANI (@ANI) October 1, 2023

I’m pleased to share that some of the main culprits responsible for the abduction and murder of Phijam Hemanjit and Hijam Linthoingambi have been arrested from Churachandpur today.

As the saying goes, one may abscond after committing the crime, but they cannot escape the long…

— N.Biren Singh (@NBirenSingh) October 1, 2023

Thereonwards, they were subsequently transported to Guwahati via a special flight, in coordination with local police and paramilitary forces. The CBI is noted to be intent on extracting information that may lead to the discovery of the victims’ bodies.

On the other hand, the Kuki Students Organisation (KSO) has condemned the arrests and claimed that the two male detainees were the president and general secretary of KSO Leimata block, and have asserted that they are not part of any murder case. They assert that the arrests are arbitrary and “driven by discrimination.” Furthermore, according to a KSO representative, the four individuals, along with two children, were traveling together from Leimata to Churachandpur town when they were intercepted and taken into custody by security forces. 

CONDEMNATION

The Kuki Students’ Organisation Delhi & NCR register its strong condemnation over the arrests of six Kuki-Zo civilians, including two minors by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on the 1st of October 2023 between Kangvai and Molhoi village, Manipur. pic.twitter.com/P5PaQ8YQ1s

— KSO Delhi & NCR (@KSODelhi) October 2, 2023

The Indigenous Tribal Leaders forum has questioned the alleged swiftness in the arrests, aand ask why no actions has been taken for several incidents of violence against tribals in the state. The Kuki Women’s Organisation for Human Rights has further demanded the release of those arrested. 

AN APPEAL FOR EQUAL JUSTICE

Dear Honourable PM @narendramodi

The Kuki Women Organisation for Human Rights (KWOHR) demands the safe and immediate release of the arrested individuals in connection with the alleged murder of 2 Meitei students in Manipur

The KWOHR is… pic.twitter.com/pwaOgfyx49

— Sumkawn (@Sumkawn) October 3, 2023

The two minor children who had accompanied the accused during their transit from Imphal to Guwahati have been handed over to the District Child Protection Officer, Kamrup Metro District. The children, aged nine and eleven, are the reportedly the offspring of one of the suspects.

In response to these events, the Committee on Tribal Unity based in Kangpokpi earlier announced plans to impose an emergency shutdown on National Highway-37. 

Manipur: Total shutdown in #Kangpokpi hill district begins

The Committee on Tribal Unity (COTU) Sadar Hills begins its 15-hour total shutdown in Manipur’s Kangpokpi district from 6:00 a.m. this morning to mark the fifth-month unrest in #Manipur

Following the commencement of the… pic.twitter.com/AQZFMER41k

— The New Indian (@TheNewIndian_in) October 3, 2023

This is also to put pressure for the release of Satthang Kipgen, a teacher and resident of Bijang village in New Keithelmanbi who was arrested earlier. 

The National Highway-37 is important as it connects Silchar in Assam with Imphal in Manipur and serves as one of the crucial routes for supplying essentials to the valley areas primarily inhabited by Meitei people. Another important highway, Dimapur-Imphal National Highway-2, also traverses through the hill districts of Manipur and has been susceptible to frequent blockades, further complicating the situation. NH-2 has also reportedly been blocked. The block, according to reports, is supposed to last till 9 PM today after the 48-hour ultimatum was given. 

Meanwhile, the CBI and NIA have denied any accusations of partiality against any community, and have said that the arrests are purely based on evidence, and due course of law is being followed. As of official records, around 180 lives have been lost in Manipur ever since the conflict started in May, 2023.

Meanwhile, students of the Kuki-Zo community have demanded a change in administration, arguing that they cannot live under a Meitei dominated polity during a meeting with valley MLAs in Delhi earlier this week. However, their demands were denied. Earlier last month, N Biren Singh also tweeted in clarification that he was not resigning from his post.

However, what is important to note is that their demands reflected the rising undercurrent of dissatisfaction and anger against the government with regards to thee ongoing conflict which seems to be having no end in the near future. Manipur has had N Biren Singh as its. Chief Minister since the BJP formed a coalition government in 2017. Manipur remains on edge, with ethnic tensions reaching a critical height with each incident. The closure of schools and colleges in the state has been declared to continue till October 5. The mobile phone internet ban has been extended till October 7. 

Related

Manipur is Burning but who cares?

Young students recuperating from deadly pellet gun injuries as Manipur once again witnessed brutal unrest

Bishops of India must protest & speak out for peace, against injustices in Manipur & India: Jesuit priest

Freedom of Expression: Driver for All other Human Rights

The post Manipur under shutdown as tribal organisations assert bias appeared first on SabrangIndia.

At least thrice a year, Warli artist Meena Parhad prepares her artworks for the Dahanu district exhibition. Organised close to the community’s homeland, the exhibition showcases many women Warli artists who otherwise struggle to present their works to the world. For Parhad, these local exhibitions are especially important because they portray original Warli paintings that convey a story for those able to read the “lipi” (language). 

Warli is an art form created by the tribal women of Warli and Malkhar koli tribes, residing on the northern outskirts of Mumbai, Maharashtra. According to the local collective Adivasi Yuva Shakti (AYUSH), Warli was the only means of transmitting folklore within a community unacquainted with the written word – thus inspiring the notion of ‘a lipi’. 

The paintings use rudimentary geometric shapes such as circles, triangles and squares to talk about community life. The circle represents the sun and moon while the triangle was derived from mountains and pointed trees. While the square shape represents human invention like a sacred enclosure or a piece of land. 

Another important feature of traditional Warli art is that the paintings were made by women during auspicious events or during celebrations. Rather than mythological characters, these paintings depict social life. Parhad recollects how she learnt the art from her mother and grandmother who sat together and painted a “lagnachi chauk”. Men began practicing Warli art once it became a source of livelihood. However, the lagnachi chauk is still created by women while the men depict daily life. 

“We also paint Warli art on house walls when a child is born in a house or when the first harvest arrives, basically any big celebration,” Parhad said to Sabrang India. 

Having learnt to paint since 2012, Parhad knows how human beings and animals are to be painted in a rhythmic pattern rather than in monotonous straight lines. In ritual paintings, the square is the central motif as the chauk inside which we find the tribal mother Goddess Palaghata symbolising fertility. 

Fellow Warli artist and Parhad’s husband Sanjay Parhad says these rules are important because they distinguish Adivasi art from non-Adivasi art. Speaking to Sabrang India, he says the absence of a tarpa (musical instrument) in a tarpa dance painting is the same as forgetting the Ashoka chakra in the tricolour flag. 

“It is insulting to the painting too. Warli is not drawn but written. It is our language. The chauk is not a design but each aspect has a message. That chowk is worshipped,” says Parhad. 

Similarly, Meena Parhad talks about how she often has to explain and narrate the story in her art when at the exhibition. However, non-adivasi artists do not bother with such details. 

“Adivasi Warlis have an understanding of the art. Meanwhile, non-adivasis create anything, put any feature anywhere. There is no meaning to it. I feel if they are making the art, they should at least have a story behind it,” she says. 

It is for such reasons that the community, disappointed by the lack of recognition for indigenous artists, resolved to claim a Geographical Indication (GI) tag. 

Warli adivasis’ struggle for GI tag 

A GI tag is a name or sign used on products which corresponds to a specific geographical location or origin under the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999. It was enacted by India as a member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). 

The story of Warli’s tag starts with the AYUSH group. According to founder Sachin Satvi, the group originally only wanted to create awareness about Warli art via a blog. Earlier, the collective had provided career guidance and information to community youths. Later, members decided to help the Adivasis who couldn’t complete their education. 

They resolved to experiment with traditional knowledge like art and medicinal tactics. Since Warli art was already popular with the NGO’s establishment in 2011, members resolved to promote it as a form of employment. 

“We found a neighbor’s painting online and copy-pasted it with credit [to the artist]. A day or two later we received a letter from French and German galleries asking us to remove the image or they will take legal action. We were shocked,” says Satvi. 

Although AYUSH removed the image, members were unsettled that their cultural heritage was owned by other countries under copyright. Satvi says that it was then that AYUSH decided to apply for a GI tag. 

However, doing so was an uphill task. Although AYUSH applied to government ministries everywhere, they received no support. The little help they got was by way of maps marking tribal areas although these were already in public domain. The organisation considered getting a consultant but then decided against it. 

“We had no money for that. Also, we wanted to understand this process because there are many other art and craft skills that we want to promote. We want to design programmes that create an ecosystem for skill development and alternate livelihood so there’s no need to move out,” says Satvi. 

Why do tribals want community recognition? 

The threat of ‘moving out’ from their homeland is ever-present for India’s tribals. Adivasi history is filled with struggles to protect their traditional land. For them, a change in place of residence affects their livelihood and cultural identity. 

Satvi says this is especially true for Warli art. The paintings often depict how natural resources impact Adivasi life. As such, the image is affected once the environment changes. 

“When the homeland is taken away, lifestyle changes. Warli art has geographic relevance. If no mountains or rivers are left to show, will Warli art stay the same?” asks Satvi. 

Satvi says that one of the reasons the community promotes Warli art is to help non-Adivasis understand tribal outlook of the world. He points out that while the media and government officials talk about ecological impact alone, there are other ‘impacts’ that cannot be quantified. 

For example, the younger generation of adivasis struggle to get jobs after their graduation despite reservation. They are forced to take the money offered for their land. However, even this money is lost since tribals do not have access to financial planning. Moreover, many older generations are unwilling to leave their land. 

“It worries me whether the GI tag will be of any use if our land is taken away for development project… I feel that the administrative and the general public needs to understand such things,” he says. 

Currently, Palghar and Dahanu’s tribals face an uncertain future owing to the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project that (once commenced) will pass through the indigenous community’s land. However, with regards to the project’s rehabilitation plan, Satvi says that the document is not explained in an accessible manner as mandated in various forest rights acts. Further, he says there is no provision of skill development for their future livelihood. 

What next for the Warli folk? 

By 2014, AYUSH got the GI certificate. However, it wasn’t until recently that the move proved to be profitable. Until 2020 or so, AYUSH received a lot of criticism for investing time and money in this project. This was because the GI’ effect depends on authorized user registration but the community received no support for this. 

“But in recent 3-4 years there’s a change. Ministries dealing with commerce and corporate affairs are slowly taking GI-related exhibitions,” says Satvi. 

Still, he emphasizes that there is much more that the government needs to do such as implement direct funding, raise awareness and redesig existing schemes. He recalled how Maharashtra’s Tribal Ministry gave the local artists a chance to portray their work in Kolhapur. However, the community did not have the monetary means to go to the city. 

“Some schemes’ eligibility criteria are also irrelevant on-ground. So on paper, it seems like the scheme is not being used,” he says. 

When asked what customers interested in Warli art can do to help with tribal empowerment, Satvi spoke about the need for a lucrative vending platform. 

“Many artists make what comes to their mind. But if you can tell them about demand, financial transactions, where raw material is available cheaply, that will help. Also, give presence to Warli art. Even that will have a huge market. The layers between the artist and market will be reduced and artists will talk directly to customers,” he says. 

He also stresses the importance of fiscal support for an inventory. This helps customer-vendor communication as people will be able to see the product first. Currently, AYUSH is working with a cluster of 500 artists and has organised activities in Palghar, Dahanu and Talasari. The products of these artisans are available on AYUSH’s website. 

Image Courtesy: SANJAY AND MEENA PARHAD  

Related: 

75 years of Warli revolt 
Godavari Parulekar: A source of inspiration for the Warli community 
The Adivasi communist who made it to the Maha assembly 
Understanding the Aarey issue #SaveAarey 

The post Understanding Warli culture. appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Expressing solidarity with Assam’s tea estate workers, the All India Union of Forest Working People (AIUFWP) and Bhoomi Adhikar Andolan on May 18, 2022 condemned the state government for bulldozing a part of Doloo Tea Estate to pave the way for a Greenfield Airport project.

On May 12, 2022 thousands of police and CRPF personnel, public administrative officers, along with hundreds of bulldozers barged into the Doloo tea estate, located in Cachar, Assam. Their mission was to evict nearly 2,000 tea estate workers to build an international airport. This will effectively dismantle the tea state comprising 30 lakh trees and 2,500 hectares of fertile land.

“Labourers and plantation workers of Doloo tea state are in grief. Their many videos being circulated it is observed that they are demanding the officials and paramilitary forces to leave their tea state. On ground at this moment the only ally of the tea workers struggle has been led by Assam Majoori Shramik Union (AMSU), an affiliate of NTUI,” said the AIUFWP.

According to the government, the MoU for the project was signed between the Doloo Tea Company Limited and three major unions in the region, namely: the Bhartiya Cha Shramik Union (BCSU), the Akhil Bhartiya Chah Mazdoor Sangha (ABCMS) and the Barak Valley Cha Mazdoor Sangh (BVCMS).

However, the AMSU pointed out that the MoU did not provide any concrete assurance to workers. Further, it does not mention the exact compensation that the state government will pay to the company.

In response to this, the AIUFWP appealed to other rights groups to mobilize and resist the “anti-people bull-dozer government” at the central-level and state-level. Members condemned the Centre amending labour laws and introducing three labor codes. This has allowed for rampant abuse, putting the dignity of labour of all working people at peril, said the AIUFWP.

Similarly, the Bhumi Adhikar Andolan condemned the state repression and illegal land grab affecting marginalised folk in other states like Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha as well. In Delhi, AIUFWP’s Ashok Choudhury and Roma Malik, AIKS’s Hannan Mollah, Krishna Prasad and N. K. Shukla, AIKM’s Prem Singh, and other Delhi Solidarity Group members attended the meeting.

The group recollected and condemned the alarming wave of violent repression of land defenders across the county this year. The extractive industrial model together with the state repression is destroying the forest, land and water, said the leaders in a joint press release. The meeting also discussed on-going issues of the government allegedly communally attacking the working class via bulldozer demolitions for corporate benefits.

“This act of govt was condemned and it was resolved that BAA will oppose this kind of politics tooth and nail,” said members.

They resolved to organize state-level conventions in June followed by a national-level convention in July at Raipur Chhattisgarh. Mollah announced that a detailed report compiling all land grab issues titled “land grab issues in the interest of corporate” will be released before the national convention.

Singh called for unity of activists, social movements urgently against the state repression and present model of land grab. Meanwhile, Roma Malik from the extended solidarity to the prolonged organized struggles against eviction of the indigenous communities and marginalized sections across India by the state governments.

Indigenous struggles in other regions

Members also talked about how over 4.5 lakh plants covering 1,70,000 hectares of land in Hasdeo Aranya, Chhattisgarh is being brought down by the state government for coal mining. In Deocha, Birbhum, West Bengal the state government proposed for open cast mining without any consultation with affected families or environmental experts. This despite the project affecting 4,314 households and displacing 21,000 people, of whom 9,034 are from the Santhal community (Scheduled Tribe) and 3,601 from the Scheduled Caste.

In Odisha, seven untouched forests were auctioned by the state government for bauxite and iron ore mining. Similarly in Dhinkia, tribals report brutal police repression on the anti- Jindal protestors, who refuse to hand over their land to the Jindal group. In Koraput, the government conducted a public hearing for getting the environment clearance without allowing dissenting voices in the public hearing. In 2021 a fresh lease for 6 million tons bauxite for 50 years was given without any consent from the Gram Sabha.

In Bihar, Adivasis, who were residing in what the members called the government waste-land, were recently being forcefully evicted without giving any notice. Gujarat’s indigenous folk near Narmada district are allegedly being harassed by the state machinery for upgrading the area surrounding the ‘Statue of Unity’.

Meanwhile, the Rajasthan government proposed a nuclear plant at Banswara which will acquire 107.3 Ha forest land for Mahi Banswara Rajasthan Atomic Power Project. Lastly, in the southern region, the Madras High Court banned cattle grazing inside forest area, and directed the Tamil Nadu government to prohibit cattle–rearers from using forests for grazing.

Related:

Doloo tea estate workers protest Greenfield Airport project
Chhattisgarh police arrest tribal rights defender, allegedly on fabricated charges
Were only 1,064 Tribal families displaced in Odisha for mining in the last 10 years?
SC sets aside NGT order shutting down factories operating without Environmental Clearance
Dhinkia: A story of perseverance against administrative oppression

The post India’s tribal groups demand justice for Assam’s tea estate workers appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Accusing an officer from the forest department of allegedly subjecting a tribal to harassment in regards to a seizure case, villagers in Dhana area of Sagar district, Madhya Pradesh, staged a road blockade and place the body of the deceased tribal on the road, the Hindustan Times reported.

Sequence of events

Gond’s younger brother Mukesh told HT that the forest officers had seized his tractor trolley on accusations of encroachment of forest land and promoting encroachment. Mukesh said that Maniram had requested the forest officer to not take away his equipment as it was the time to sow seeds as per his contract of farming 5 acres of land. However, the officer didn’t listen to him and later allegedly demanded a bribe of Rs. 1 lakh.

Gond’s wife, Ashok Rani, who is also the Sarpanch of the Belai Mafi Panchayat said that Gond had gone to get back his tractor on Saturday evening. He had arranged Rs. 30,000 to free the same, but Gautam demanded nothing less than Rs. 1 lakh. Allegedly, the officer scolded at him and Gond suffered a cardiac arrest on his way back due to which he passed away.

HT reported Ashok Rani as saying, “My husband was mentally disturbed and couldn’t bear the trauma.”

Gopal Bhargava, the PWD minister who supported the blockade said that he had spoken to CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan in the matter and promised monetary compensation to Gond’s family said that he himself had intervened in the matter and asked the forest officer to leave the tractor but to no avail, HT reported. Bhargava also said that he had spoken to the District Forest Officer (DFO) in the matter too but no heed was paid. HT reported Bhargava as saying, “Being a minister when they are not listening to me, I can understand how they are harassing tribals. That’s why I joined the protest against the officer of forest department. Suspension is not enough, we want FIR against him.”

However, MS Uika, the DFO Sagar south range was said that while he was aware of the matter and had spoken to minister Gopal Bhargava, he wasn’t aware of the fact that Devesh Gautam had demanded a bribe.

As per HT, the police said that the villagers accused a forest range officer Devesh Gautam of harassing the deceased tribal, Maniram Gond and allegedly demanding a bribe of Rs. 1 lakh to free his seized tractor trolley. Gopal Bhargava had also threatened to call over 10,000 people if the matter wasn’t investigated promptly. A police complaint was also registered at the Dhana police outpost 15 days ago when Gond’s tractor was seized.

आज मेरे विधानसभा क्षेत्र की ग्राम पंचायत बेलईमाफी के सरपंच पति श्री मनीराम गौंड उम्र 40 वर्ष के दुखद निधन की सूचना 9 बजे प्राप्त हुई। सूचना मिलते ही मैं तत्काल घटना स्थल पर पहुँचा। ग्राम के सभी लोग ढाना के मुख्यमार्ग पर धरना देकर बैठे थे। pic.twitter.com/0yHXI4nN0W

— Gopal Bhargava (@bhargav_gopal) July 19, 2020

It was also reported by HT that Sagar district collector Deepak Singh had ordered a magisterial inquiry into the matter and that the Chief Conservation of Forests (CCF), Amit Dubey had suspended Devesh Gautam for not handling the case adequately.

Related:

Dalit couple attempt suicide after forceful eviction, police brutality
MP Forest Department allegedly burns down tribal family’s home  

The post Tribal’s death prompts protest in MP, family alleges harassment by forest department appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Veteran social activist and Lokshakti Abhiyan president Prafulla Samantara has written to the Odisha Chief Minister requesting him to suspend mining and industrial activity in tribal areas to protect tribals from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Samantara writes that thousands of tribal people and others working in the mining sector in Odisha are vulnerable to the Coronavirus given how they lack preventive or protective measures. The letter says, “In Keonjhar district, people of Joda and Badabil have been protesting to stop thousands of trucks transporting mineral ores. It is dangerous as the virus is transported from different states to tribal areas.”

The letter lists OMC, Tata, JSW, Vedanta etc. as the key players in the mining sector and pleads with the CM to “stop the open industrial and mining activities” and offer “economic package to all people there.”

Samantara also urges that health check-ups be conducted for every worker, as well as for villagers who live near the mines.

Odisha is rich in chrome, iron ore, coal, bauxite and manganese ore, and many of the mines are located in areas inhabited by tribal populations. According to ENVIS Centre of Odisha’s State of Environment, “Major industries in Orissa at the moment include an integrated steel plant at Rourkela, NALCO (National Aluminium Company Ltd.), Thermal power plants, Fertilizer plants, Pulp and paper industries, Ferro alloys plants, cement plants etc.”

The state can be divided into twelve industrially active zones / areas namely:

1.   Rajgangpur Area (Iron & Steel, Sponge Iron, Cement, Secondary steel. Melting and rolling mill & refractories and chemicals).

2.   Ib valley area (Thermal power, Sponge iron, refractories, and coal mines)

3.   Hirakud area (Aluminum & rolling mills)

4.   Talcher-Angul area (Thermal power, Aluminum, Coal washeries, Ferro alloys, Coal mines).

5.   Choudwar area (Ferro alloys, Thermal power, pulp and paper, coke oven)

6.   Balasore area (pulp and paper, ferro alloys, rubber industries)

7.   Chandikhol (stone crusher, coke oven)

8.   Duburi (Integrated steel, ferro alloys, rubber industries)

9.   Paradeep area (fertilizer, sea food processing, petroleum coke)

10. Khurda – Tapang area (stone crusher)

11. Joda – Barbil area (iron, sponge iron, ferro alloys, iron ore crusher, mineral processing).

12. Rayagada area (pulp and paper, ferro alloys).

The post Stop the open industrial and mining activities in tribal areas: NGO to Odisha CM appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Ratlam (Madhya Pradesh): “Wheat, corn, pulses like pigeon pea and gram, green chillies, even vegetables like okra and potato…”

Vishna Bai, a farmer from the Bhil adivasi community, grew all her family’s food on a tiny farm in Ratlam in western Madhya Pradesh. But in 2016 she was evicted from her farm to make way for a project to promote namkeen industries. Now, 21 Bhil families are fighting the state government in various courts for the right to cultivate their subsistence farms, revealing gaps in India’s land laws governing the poorest.

Vishna Bai’s eye lit up, as the portly, cheerful farmer rapidly listed the year-round bounty her hectare of land produced until February 2016, when the excavators came and razed her beloved crops.

Illiterate, Vishna Bai is in her 40s–she was not exactly sure–and like 20 fellow Bhils from India’s largest tribe, is now officially an “encroacher”. Their farms were classified “small and marginal” with an area less than 2 hectares, much like 86% of India’s farms, according to the Agricultural Census, 2015-16.

Here on the southern outskirts of Ratlam, the Bhils, after tilling the land for at least half a century, were evicted from nine of a 32-hectare spread of rocky, undulating land–the size of 60 football fields–that was marked for an industrial park in 2009. The Bhils claim to have farmed over 20 hectares of the land.

Though the industrial park never came up, in 2013, the government carved out 18 hectares of the property for a cluster of namkeen (snack) industries, primarily to make the spicy local savoury unique to the region, called Ratlami sev.

Evictions began three years later over the nine hectares of Bhil farms that fell within the proposed cluster. Further evictions were stopped after a three-year legal battle by the Bhils led to two court stay orders, one from the Supreme Court.

The 21 Bhils have neither been paid compensation nor offered rehabilitation because of a legal situation we could call the tragedy of the commons, which now features in 456 land conflicts affecting more than 3 million Indians.

As for the sev, the irony is that it was invented by the Bhils more than 200 years ago. But more on that later.

The tragedy of the commons

The land that Vishna Bai and the rest of the Bhils have been farming for 50 years or more–some farmers said their families have been here for 80 years–are part of a village commons, whose title is held by the district administration.

Such commons are not covered under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, better known as the Land Acquisition Act, 2013, which provides for compensation to people whose land is taken over for public projects but only when the land is privately owned.

The law protects people farming on commons in only two cases: One, in forests where the Forest Rights Act, 2006, recognises the rights of tribal adivasis–as India’s original people are called–and other forest dwellers to the land; and two, in so-called “scheduled areas”, adivasi-dominated regions where projects need collective consent of the community under the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996.

Ratlam is not a scheduled area, and the Bhil fields are not near forests. So, they were treated as encroachers on public property.

Despite a perception that land conflicts in India are driven by acquisition of private land, growing evidence shows that a large number of conflicts involve diversion of common land. Nearly a third of over 200 ongoing land conflicts in 2016 involved common lands, according to an analysis by Mumbai’s Tata Institute of Social Sciences, a research institute, and the Rights and Resources Initiative, an advocacy based in Washington D.C., USA.

There are, currently, 456 land conflicts in India involving commons, as we said, affecting over 3.3 million people and 19,000 sq km, equivalent to half the area of Kerala, according to Land Conflict Watch,  a network of researchers tracking land conflicts nationwide. These conflicts constitute two-thirds of all the 678 ongoing general land conflicts reported by the network.

In the absence of mandatory resettlement or compensation, people dependent on commons, such as the Bhils in Ratlam, are simply evicted. The Housing and Land Rights Network, an advocacy that campaigns against forced eviction of the poor, recorded more than 200 cases of forced evictions in 2017 alone, affecting 260,000 people. Evictions for industrial and infrastructure projects accounted for 53 cases, the second most common reason for eviction after slum evictions in cities.

Communities evicted from commons are typically landless and marginalised, so getting legal protection can be a long, expensive adventure, as Ratlam’s Bhils can attest.

Their plea before a local court to let them use the commons meandered through four stages of appeals over three years before ending up as a contempt petition before the Supreme Court in New Delhi.

The Bhils are pitted against a resourceful, determined district administration and the makers of Ratlami sev, who are equally keen on the food-processing park. For the sev makers of Ratlam, a legacy and their livelihoods–much like the farmers–is at stake.

The sev makers and their dreams

Once the seat of a kingdom, Ratlam is today a town in western Madhya Pradesh, a has-been commercial hub known for sarees, gold and Ratlami sev. Only the sev is truly unique to the town–its recipe was developed here over the last two centuries. Its history was revealed when Ratlami Sev was granted a geographical indication (GI) status in 2014.

In Ratlam, the sev occupies a unique place. It is a snack, a side-dish, a garnish and an ingredient. The local breakfast favourite, poha, is served with sev, preferably of two kinds. Curries are prepared with sev. Even if the food does not normally require sev, a handful is served on the side.

For all its popularity in the district, Ratlami sev has been left out of the nationwide growth in packaged snacks, from potato chips to Haldiram’s-style Indian savouries.

“Ratlami sev is famous the world over because our customers travelled there, not because the industry exported it,” said Shailendra Gandhi, president of the Ratlam Sev Namkeen Mandal, a group of 60 of the oldest and biggest sev makers in town. “We wanted to change that.”

Gandhi is concerned that Ratlami firms are losing out to companies from neighbouring Indore and Gujarat, which have built big savoury businesses and even capitalised on the Ratlami sev brand. The turnover of Ratlam’s namkeen makers, Gandhi estimated, is about Rs 15 crore or a tenth of what one big company in Indore makes.

Although nearly 2,000 businesses make and sell sev in Ratlam, all are backyard operations, none has a supply chain outside the district and nearly all the product is sold at storefronts to local customers.

In Ratlam’s market, it is hard to miss the namkeen shops, their glass displays of yellow-gold-brown savouries framed against men hunched over giant, street-side woks of boiling oil. Surrounded by pedestrians and traffic, the cooks press yellow dough through a sieve placed above the oil.

Ratlami sev is fried outside a namkeen shop in Ratlam’s market.

The larger namkeen establishments, such as Janta Sev Bhandar, which belongs to Gandhi, fry sev in enclosed kitchens near the shops. Since 1977, Gandhi has run his shop on a lane barely three-metres wide in a cloth market. His sev-making unit on the third floor of his building caught fire last year. Gandhi said it was necessary to move out of backyard kitchens to grow business and maintain safety.

In 2013, the government agreed to the Namkeen Mandal’s demand for an industrial area where sev could be manufactured in bulk and its quality certified in laboratory. In its funding application to the union ministry of micro, small and medium enterprises, the Madhya Pradesh government said the Ratlami sev industry was hampered by “lack of basic infrastructure”, “inefficient production process” and “lack of quality and standards”.

In June 2014, then chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan laid a foundation stone for the namkeen cluster in Karamdi. A contractor was selected and on February 10, 2016, tractors and earth movers headed to Karamdi, to the fields of ripening gram and green chillies of Vishna Bai and her 20 fellow Bhils farmers.

Farmers to labourers

“I still remember the contractor, that thin man,” Vishna Bai said, glancing furtively at what was once her farm, now an empty plot. Its borders were paved with concrete, street lights arched over where her crop thrived, and high-capacity electricity wires criss-crossed what was once open sky.

A bucket-sized water pump, an axe, a sickle and one hectare land: This was all that she once needed to feed her family of seven and build a two-room concrete house for herself. The outer room was bare, save for two beds, and a small television set was placed on a pedestal next to posters of Hindu gods.

When the tractors and a backhoe excavator arrived that morning, women were working on the fields.

“There were just the few of us in front of all those men,” Vishna Bai recalled. One of them, Kodri Bai, said she stood resolutely in front of the excavator, but the officials were adamant. “They almost ran the JCB over me,” she said.

With the land gone, an important source of food and income has been lost.

The Bhil families now work as labourers on the farms of large landowners of the higher-caste Patidar community. While these jobs earn them cash, their own farms provided a year-round supply of food. “Something was always growing each of the 12 months,” said farmer Lila Bai. “All we ever needed from the market was oil and salt.”

“Something was always growing (on the farm) each of the 12 months,” says farmer Lila Bai. “All we ever needed from the market was oil and salt.” Behind her is a plot in the namkeen cluster where she claims her farm was located.

The need to buy food has put greater pressure on Bhils to find whatever odd jobs they can.

“They (the Patidars) give us the job of clearing dung” for Rs 250 a month, said Vishna Bai. Others had taken to selling vegetables on Ratlam’s pavements, earning them about Rs 200 a day, or plucking grapes at farms or working in brick kilns.

When everything else fails, they stand at the town square each morning to be hired as labourers on construction sites.

A new crop

The land the Bhils once tilled is ready for a new kind of crop: The first batch of Ratlami sev may soon be produced at a unit set up by Ankit Luniya, a young entrepreneur who decided on the namkeen business because of the industrial park.

There are concrete roads, a sewage-treatment plant, conduits for power and water supply, drains, and there may possibly be a testing and certification laboratory.

The infrastructure is “shaandaar (dazzling)”, said Luniya. With a capacity of 4 tonnes of namkeen per day, Luniya’s unit will produce a variety of snacks, including Ratlami sev. “It will be sold in attractive pouches costing just Rs 5,” said Luniya. “We will call the brand Ratlami chaska (relish) to emphasise the speciality of Ratlam.”

Luniya said he was not aware of any farms on the rocky land.

Gandhi of the Namkeen Mandal dismissed the Bhils’ claims as “bakwaas (bogus)”. “This is just a saazish (agenda) by the Indore namkeen lobby and opposition politicians because they don’t want our industry to grow,” said Gandhi.

Shailendra Gandhi, president of the Ratlam Sev Namkeen Mandal, at his shop, Janta Sev Bhandar, which he opened in 1977. Gandhi is at the forefront of the demand to set up the namkeen cluster, and says the Bhil farmers’ claims are “bakwaas (bogus)”.

Bhil farmers still in possession of some of the land–about 11 acres–were vigilant. Bherulal (he uses only one name), the oldest of them at 70, spends most of his time in the fields. “Who knows when they will turn up again with tractors?” he said.

Bherulal said he was not against factories but did not understand why the government wanted their small farms. “There are almost 100 hectares of vacant government land here, there is public land encroached by upper-caste farmers,” said Bherulal, “Yet, the government came after us.”

Bherulal, 70, the oldest among the Bhil farmers and the title petitioner in their litigation against the namkeen cluster, at his farm in Ratlam. Bherulal’s field was not razed, but he spends most of his time in the fields. “Who knows when they will turn up again with tractors?” he said.

Ratlam’s collector, Ruchika Chauhan, the head of the district administration, declined comment. In its affidavits to the lower courts, the district administration argued that the farmers were “encroachers” gaining “unauthorised” benefits by cultivating public property.

The government argued that at least 3,000 jobs would be created in the namkeen cluster, and it would earn Ratlam a name “at world level”. There was no cultivation on the land as it was rocky, and the photographs submitted by the Bhil farmers were from “some other land”, the administration said.

The Ratlam district administration has denied that there were any farms before the namkeen cluster was built. But satellite images of the site from 2003 and 2018 show that farms were indeed razed for the cluster. Satellite imagery courtesy Google Earth.

Many courts, one battle

Within a week of the eviction in February 2016, more than 15 Bhils, including those cultivating fields outside the park area, filed a civil suit in a local court, seeking permanent protection from being evicted from their farms. The district administration had tried evicting them in 2009 as well, when the food-processing park was first announced, but when it was not built, the farmers returned.

In the courts, the Bhils have argued that they had farmed the land for nearly 80 years, and that their forefathers’ names were recorded in revenue surveys as far back in 1967.

The 2016 Bhil petition to the Ratlam fifth civil judge’s court said that the land was originally “uncultivable”, and the Bhils put in ”hard labour” over generations to make it productive.

Bherulal, whose father Rama Bhil is named in the old surveys, said they had migrated from nearby forests and settled on the land, which at the time belonged to Ratlam’s ruler Rattan Singh.

The Bhils argued that since they had made the land cultivable, have “peacefully” possessed it and depended on it for survival, they should be granted titles.

The Bhil tribals’ three-year legal battle has stopped the industrial park for now. Facilities for the namkeen cluster, such as power lines, sheds and a water tank, are seen in the background.

On February 29, 2016, the Ratlam civil court ordered a one-year stay on eviction. This started a three-year-long legal battle spawning a variety of cases at all levels of the judiciary. The temporary stay was challenged by the state government before a senior judge in Ratlam, who overturned the stay, observing that it was “crystal clear” that the Bhils were encroachers and could get no protection from the courts.

An appeal filed against this decision by the farmers in 2016 before the Madhya Pradesh High Court was also dismissed. Finally, the farmers went to the Supreme Court, which in November 2016, issued notices to the state government and ordered a “status quo”. That meant that industrial construction had to be halted.

But in April 2017, the farmers noticed that roads were being built on the razed fields, and the area was being fenced off. They went back to the Supreme Court, alleging a contempt of court and a violation of the status-quo order.

In April 2017, concrete roads were built and the area was being fenced off, in alleged violation of a Supreme Court stay, prompting the Bhil farmers to approach the apex court alleging contempt of court and a violation of the status-quo order.

The contempt case is still being heard.

The chain of appeals leading up to the contempt petition pertains only to the temporary stay issued in 2016. The main case–seeking permanent protection–is still being heard by the Ratlam civil court.

In January 2019, the Bhils filed a fresh case before the High Court of Madhya Pradesh’s bench at Indore, this time seeking land titles under a little-known 1984 state law, which said that all landless people cultivating government property on October 2, 1984, could own the land. The High Court issued notices to the state government, and it, too, ordered a “status quo”.

“What makes this case important is the amount of intensive legal work that had to be put in to protect the rights of some of the poorest,” said New Delhi-based lawyer Karuna Nundy, who is representing the farmers in the Supreme Court pro bono. “But most people don’t get this kind of legal assistance.”

Yet, users of commons, such as the Bhils, have no other option.

“In the absence of rights-based laws related to housing and land, this makes it very subjective, and often dependent on whether the judge hearing the case is sympathetic,” said Shivani Chaudhry of the Housing and Land Rights Network.

Snack that ate its creator

As the Bhils await legal resolution, they do not know that India’s Geographical Indicators Journal credited their ancestors with creating the sev that led to their eviction.

The story goes that in the late 19th century, Mughal rulers on a tour of the region wanted sevaiyan (wheat vermicelli) but could not buy wheat. So, they ordered the tribals to prepare sevaiyan from gram flour, which led to the first recipe of Ratlami sev.

“The name given to the vermicelli thus prepared was Bhildi sev, which is the predecessor of the present-day crisp delicacy called Ratlami sev,” noted an entry in the journal on November 27, 2014.

Vishna Bai had no time for such information. She juggled a number of odd jobs and had rented a field to grow some crops. After being thrown out of her farm and fighting what appeared to be an unequal battle with the district administration, she had little doubt what could help.

“We need land to look after ourselves,” she said, “And to earn some money to educate our children, so that they know better.”

(Gokhale is a writer with Land Conflict Watch, a network of researchers that collect data about ongoing land conflicts in India.)

We welcome feedback. Please write to respond@indiaspend.org. We reserve the right to edit responses for language and grammar.

Courtesy: India Spend

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New Delhi: What tribal activists and organizations had warned about has happened again.
 
In a letter written around February 4, leaders of the Communist Party of India, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), former member of the Adivasi Congress, along with two organizations working for Adivasi and forest dwellers’ rights, Adivasi Adhikar Rashtriya Manch, All India Forum of Forest Movements and Campaign for Survival and Dignity, to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, said that in pending cases in the Supreme Court seeking to have this crucial Act struck down, the Central government’s lawyer had said nothing in the defence of the law for all of the past three hearings.
 
Central government lawyers remained absent as Supreme Court inched closer to ordering forced eviction of more than 1 million tribals and other forest dwellers recently. The last time large scale evictions of tribals were undertaken by the government under Vajpayee’s NDA regime between 2002-2004.
 
The court’s orders on February 13, with central government lawyers missing during the hearing, gave rise the next day to a political slugfest with the opposition claiming the BJP was not doing enough to safeguard tribal rights.
 
Congress President Rahul Gandhi alleged in a tweet that the absence of central government lawyers in court betrayed its “intention” to drive out lakhs of tribals and poor farmers from forests.
 
“The Supreme Court ordered states to report what action they’re taking against tribals and forest-dwellers whose claims to forestlands have been rejected under the Forest Rights Act. The court’s February 13 order came in a case filed by wildlife groups demanding that people whose claims have been rejected under the law be treated as encroachers and evicted from forestlands,” Business Standard reported.
 
If the court accepts the plea of petitioners, state governments would have to undertake mass evictions. The union ministry for tribal affairs estimates that by the end of November 2018, out of the 4.2 million claims received, 1.94 million claims have been rejected. As many as 1.89 million claimants have actually got titles over their traditional forestlands, the report said.
 
The law, passed in 2006, requires the government to give back rights over traditional forestlands to tribals and other forest-dwellers. Through a laid down process, people are permitted to lay claims before authorities. These authorities, based on criteria set in the law and regulations, are required to either approve or reject the claims with several layers of appeals being available to claimants, the report added.
 
The report said that “The court’s orders came while hearing a case filed by wildlife groups and retired forest officers raising a legal challenge on the constitutional validity of the law. The case was originally filed in 2009. The petition, besides challenging the constitutional validity of the law, also demanded that those whose claims had been rejected be evicted as ‘encroachers’. The petitioners also have demanded that those who are not scheduled tribes should not be handed back traditional forestlands under the law.”
 
On February 13, when the court heard the matter again the lawyer for the petitioner pushed the case for eviction. Justice Arun Mishra noted that state reports had not reported any eviction. In fact, four states have reported some evictions.
 
The court demanded that state chief secretaries submit affidavits explaining why no action has been undertaken subsequent to the rejection of claims that have attained finality and what steps have been taken after the rejection of claims.
 
This led Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday to allege that BJP was standing as a “silent spectator” in the face of the Forest Rights Act being challenged in the court.
 
The law was enacted in UPA’s second tenure but faced with opposition from within various forest departments and others, the progress under it to hand over individual and community titles has been tardy and has been tardy and inefficient. Both the UPA and the NDA governments have subsequently diluted some of the regulations under the law which make acquisition of traditional forestlands for development and industrial projects difficult, the report added.
 
“With general elections around the corner, any eviction of tribals in central India – a tribal heartland – precipitated by court orders could lead to potential political damage to the ruling party. It was such evictions carried out across the country, on the interpretation of an earlier apex court orders, which led to mass-scale protests when more than 300,000 people were evicted between 2002-2004. The then NDA government with Atal Bihari Vajpayee as Prime Minister had informed the Parliament that evictions were carried from 152,400 hectares of forest land over the two-year period,” the report said.
 
“The Congress, when it came into power as part of the United Progressive Alliance legislated the Forest Rights Act in 2006 to counter such mass-scale evictions that did not consider historical displacement of tribals from forests due to the continuation of colonial-era forest laws,” the report said.
 

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The Bombay High Court, hearing a matter pertaining to a man’s claim of belonging to a particular caste, took serious note of the “illegality” committed by the caste scrutiny committees time and again. The HC directed the Principal Secretary of the Tribal Research and Development that he be personally present in court to inform it about the steps that he may propose to take ti ensure that the committees don’t pass orders in an illegal manner.

The court was presiding over the case of a man who was seeking relevant documents concerning his claims of belonging to a certain caste. In a previous hearing on December 2017, the Court had directed that the claim of the petitioner must be decided within a period of one month. Even after two months from the date on which the committee members undertook to decide the petitioner’s matter, the case remained undecided, after which the court issued a show-cause notice to the members of the committee. The court asked them that why action should not be taken against them as they had breached the undertaking given to the court.

When the matter came up on February 27, it was informed to the HC that the members of the committee had sought for a vigilance cell inquiry report as petitioner’s real sister lived in Thane and they had inquired about her from the Thane caste Scrutiny Committee. Earlier, the court had advised to take into account the validity certificate granted in favour of the petitioner’s real sister. However, on February 28, Justice B.R. Gavai, while hearing the matter said, “Time and again, we are noticing that the members of the Caste Scrutiny Committees are indulging in illegality one after another.”

Commenting on the fact that the vigilance cell inquiry report wasn’t provided, the judges said, “We find that the reason given by the members of the committee for not deciding the matter within the stipulated period and not granting validity to the petitioner is in breach of the law laid down by the Division Bench of this Court… We are, therefore, of the considered view that the following members of the Caste Scrutiny committee, Nashik, have committed contempt of this Court.”

While deciding the quantum of punishment for the committee members for contempt of court, it gave an opportunity to the officials and directed the Principal Secretary of the Tribal Research and Development, to remain personally present before March 1.

Satisfied by the response given by the Principal Secretary that the matter will be resolved expeditiously, the court decided not to initiate any action against the members.

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Gross neglect of the Tribal Affairs ministry, with money unspent, schemes scrapped and overall low spending shows Modi sarkar’s true tribal policy.

In the recently presented Union Budget, the ministry of tribal affairs has got a raw deal, revealing once again that the BJP led govt. at the Centre is indifferent to the lives and problems of adivasi communities across the country. This is at a time when the BJP is trying to fight high stakes Assembly elections in Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland, all states with high tribal populations. It is promising heaven in these elections but the brutal reality is exposed from its allocations in this Budget.

Although total allocation for this important ministry, which acts as a nodal centre for all funding allocated for tribal welfare, appears to have increased nominally from Rs.5329 crore in 2017-18 to Rs.5935 crore in the current year, but as a share of total expenditure by the govt. it has shrunk from an already shockingly meager 0.25% last year to 0.24% this year. What this means is that whatever sectors the govt. is funneling more funds to, tribal affairs is not one of them.

A look at the fine print shows the extent of indifference and neglect by the BJP. Three important schemes – Ashram Schools, Hostels for boys and girls, and Vocational Training – have been stopped altogether. Funds for these used to be meager in previous years but a sudden death for them leaves thousands of students in the lurch.

Continuing with this attack, funds for scholarships for higher education and for studying abroad have been slashed by about 16%. Notably, last year’s allocation was not even fully spent by the Modi govt. Both scholarships together amounted to Rs.241 crore but only Rs.201 crore was actually spent as shown in the Revised Estimate (RE) column.

An important allocation is for support to tribals who collect minor forest produce to make ends meet. Long hours of drudgery pays very poorly while traders make big profits by selling produce further down the line. So, a minimum support price would have ensured a more humane income for these tribals. Although allocation has been increased this year, but last year’s figures show that out of Rs.100 crore allocated, just Rs.25 crore was spent. This speaks of criminal negligence on the part of govt. functionaries. Total allocation for the high sounding Vanbandhu Kalyan Yojana comprising these and other welfare schemes has come down by nearly 17%, after the govt. failed to spend nearly 21% of last year’s allocation of Rs.505 crore.

Two important scholarships – pre-matric and post-matric – have seen small increases in allocation. But it is estimated that in 2015-16, Rs.773 crore worth of scholarship amount was pending with the central govt. forcing students to leave their studies. If this is the way ST scholarships will be handled then minor increases won’t be of any use.

Besides the disappointing tribal ministry allocation, this year the budget share allocated for the Tribal sub-plan falls far short of the required 8.6% of all allocations. According to analysis by NCDHR, only Rs.39,135 crore have been allocated for TSP (or ST Component) whereas it should have been Rs.74,299 crore going by the population share of adivasis (8.6%) in the total population.

So, Tripura, and Meghalaya, and Nagaland – beware! All this talk of “sabka saath, sabka vikas’ is bunkum. The Modi govt. has the least bit of concern for tribal uplift. Its sole concern is winning elections.

Courtesy: Newsclick.in
 

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