GUWAHATI, May 24 – Nine voluntary organisations of the NE region have embarked on a venture to make the country’s policy towards the tribals a realistic one by giving it the required down-to-earth touch. For the purpose, these organisations have proposed a three-day convention at Akajan Gate in Dhemaji district from June 2 next.
The organisations initiating the move include—Centre for Organisation Research & Education (CORE), Rural Volunteers Centre, Indigenous Women’s Resource Centre, Indian Confederation of Indigenous & Tribal Peoples—North Eastern Zone (ICITP-NEZ), Arunachal Pradesh Women’s Welfare Society (APWWS), Meghalaya People’s Human Rights Council, Indigenous Tribal People’s Development Centre, Mizoram Human Rights and Law Network and the United Zo Indigenous People’s Organisation.
The convention they have proposed is named—A North Eastern Regional Assembly of Indigenous and Tribal People’s Organisations with Allies. In their approach paper the organisations have stated that the indigenous, tribal and Adivasi people of the country had over the decades of domination by the Indian Union, been subjected to assault by a range of discriminatory laws, policies and practices. This has resulted in their marginalisation and exclusion based on an unstated but energetic philosophy of discrimination and assimilation.
Describing the Draft National Policy on Tribals (DNPT) circulated by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India, as a critical document for indigenous and tribal peoples in the country, the organisations expressed the hope that the document would be a comprehensive statement on the status and position of the indigenous tribal and adivasi peoples under the Constitution of the country.
The new National Policy on Resttlement and Rehabilitation for Project Affected Families- 2003 (NPRR- 2003) promulgated through gazette notification on February 17, 2004, further militates against the earlier efforts to seek transparency in cases where development induced displacement has taken place, they said. Approximately, 40 per cent of the people displaced by development projects in India are indigenous tribals. It is estimated that at present, about 50 million people are directly displaced persons or persons affected by development projects. The figure includes the non-tribal small farmers too, they said.
While only three States of the country have rehabilitation laws and these are applicable only in the cases of displacement of a particular number of people, the new policy is feared to push a large number of displaced and project affected people below the poverty line, the organisations said.
The DNPT reads like a colonial document that refers to the indigenous peoples in rather derogatory terms. Archaic terms like the ‘Primitive Tribal Groups” etc mark the tenor of the document. What is of greater concern is the logic imputed to the proposed changes in the land use patterns of the indigenous peoples particularly in the NE region. The changes proposed in the draft will lead towards a land tenure system that will favour settler communities in the long run, the organisations said with apprehension.
They also criticised the approach of the DNPT for its vesting more power with the Governor in the case of the Sixth Schedule areas denying the indigenous communities their right to self-governance. The office of the Governor in any of the NE States typifies centralisation and militarism that militates against any notion of democratic federalism, the organisations said.
The DNPT has a number of critical issues that urgently demand review and reconsideration. The policy on the tribals and indigenous peoples of the country needs to be based on developing and established international norms and standards of the human rights of the autochthonous peoples. And hence, there is an urgent need for a notion-wide debate on the DNPT amongst the widest possible range of indigenous and tribal organisations and concerned supporting groups.
A consensus on the DNPT can be evolved only through a notion-wide consultative process, given the fact that different issues will be specific in prioritisation or character to different regions and situations, like, – NE India, displacement and mining etc, the organisations said, explaining the reason behind their proposed exercise.