GUWAHATI, May 2— The problems of land alienation and their non-restoration, indebtedness, tribal forest rights, development of forest villagers and shifting cultivators, need to give effect to the provisions of Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act of 1996, involuntary displacement due to development projects and lack of proper rehabilitation, rehabilitation of displaced and disabled tribals, survival, protection and development of the primitive tribal groups and effective and meaningful implementation of the strategy of Tribal Sub-Plan have by and large remained unattended to in the State.
This was the observation made by the eight-member expert committee that prepared the Draft Forest Policy of the State. Because of this, the expert committee said, tribals respond occasionally with anger and assertion, but more often in anomie and despair. Quoting the 10th Plan Approach Paper, 2002 of the Government of India, it said “From the viewpoint of policy, it is important to understand that tribal communities are vulnerable not only because they are poor, assetless and illiterate compared to the general population, often their distinct vulnerability arises from their inability to negotiate and cope with the process of integration with the mainstream economy, society, cultural and political system, from which they were historically protected as the result of their relative isolation.
“Post-independence, the requirements of planned development brought with them the spectre of dams, mines, industries and roads on tribal lands. With these came the concomitant process of displacement, both literal and metaphorical – as tribal institutions and practices were forced into uneasy existence with the gave way to market or formed State institutions (most significantly, the legal sphere), tribals found themselves at a profound disadvantage with respect to the influx of better-equipped outsiders into tribal areas.
“The repercussions for the already fragile socio-economic livelihood base of the tribals were devastating – ranging from loss of livelihood, land alienation on a vast scale, to hereditary bondange”, it said adding, as tribals grapple with these tragic consequences, the small clutch of bureaucratic programmes have done little to arrest the precipitous pauperisation, exploitation and disintegration of tribal communities.
The expert committee suggested echoing the approach paper that to tackle the various unresolved problems of the tribals, the Tenth Plan should formulate a comprehensive National Policy for empowering the tribals through their integrated development, which would lay down the responsibilities of the different wings of the Government with appropriate accountability. To the expert committee, the State Forest Policy should emphasise on safeguarding the customary rights and interests of tribal and scheduled caste people living within or in the vicinity of forests and also should see to it that the forestry programmes should pay special attention to associate the tribal people closely as partners, in management, in the protection, regeneration and development of forests as well as to provide gainful employment to people living in and around forests.
Besides, the contractors system of the Forest Department should be replaced by the institutions such as tribal village councils and other institutions, tribal cooperatives, labour cooperatives etc. Also, to avoid the exploitation of the tribal, there should be proper marketing development, fixation of minimum price for all important forest produces and mechanism for dissemination of information.
Moreover, it said, emphasis should also be paid on undertaking integrated area development programmes to meet the needs of tribal economy in and around forest areas including provision of alternative sources of domestic energy on a subsidised basis to reduce pressure on existing forests. There should also be emphasis on family-oriented schemes for improving the States of the tribal beneficiaries, forest villagers in general and tribal and scheduled caste in particular and on creation of Forest Development Agency (FDA) for taking up integrated development of forest resources for alleviation of poverty among the tribal and other people dependent on forests, among others, the expert committee said in its draft.