The Hindu : National : `Implement welfare policies for tribals'

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Monday, Apr 11, 2005

National

National

`Implement welfare policies for tribals'

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, APRIL 10. Carrying forward its pledge to organise continuous struggle by the scheduled tribes against all forms of exploitation, social oppression and discrimination, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) today decided to force the Government to implement welfare policies for tribal people.

The ongoing party congress adopted a resolution demanding that the Policy Document prepared by the previous National Democratic Alliance Government be scrapped and the eviction of tribals from the land they were living on for ages be stopped.

The focus was part of the programme adopted by the last party congress through a 13-point tribal people's charter of demands. The party noted that its capacity to emerge as the representative of the toiling scheduled tribes was illustrated in Tripura and West Bengal.

"Restore lands"

The resolution demanded that the land from which the tribals were alienated through fraudulent means be restored to them through fresh enactment and that the loopholes that permitted such fraud be plugged. It also wanted the Forest Conservation (Amendment) Act of 1988 to be amended, the implementation of a comprehensive rehabilitation package for those displaced before undertaking any development project in tribal areas, the enforcement of the Samata judgment of the Supreme Court and amendments to the Fifth and Sixth Schedules of the Constitution to provide more autonomy to these areas. It wanted the Government to provide wage employment, institutional credit, universal school education, health facilities and social welfare schemes in the tribal areas and the implementation of reservation policies for all categories of education and employment.

"The NDA Government, far from addressing the real problems of the tribals, had implemented the provision contained in the Forest Act of 1980 to evict them from their own traditional habitat. The Forest Act provisions, which are anti-tribal, have to be withdrawn," the resolution said.

Giving a historical perspective, it noted that in response to the militant revolts of the tribals, the colonial rulers had enacted legislation to prevent their alienation from their land. However, this legislation proved ineffective and this legacy continues.

Massive eviction

"The fraudulent transfer of the land of tribal people to non-tribals has intensified after the mining sector has been opened up to corporate plunder. There has been massive eviction of tribal people from their land in order to hand over the land to private corporations, both Indian and foreign," it noted.

The party said more than 15 per cent of the 84 million tribals in the country had been displaced without any comprehensive programme of rehabilitation to make way for development projects such as dams, manufacturing industries and mines. In the northeast, frustration was on the rise among the educated, unemployed youth and they were becoming victims of divisive forces who are channelling them towards insurgency.

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