The Hindu : New Delhi News : Forest-dwellers take to the streets

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 17, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Forest-dwellers take to the streets

Special Correspondent

Nationwide protests seek recognition of tribals as `equal citizens'

NEW DELHI: Even as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced bringing in legislation to give land rights to the Scheduled Tribes living in forests during his Independence Day speech, thousands of tribal people were out on the streets across the country on Monday to express their concern and dismay at the "continued failure" of the Government to grant legal recognition to the rights of forest communities.

Beginning nationwide protests spearheaded by the Campaign for Survival and Dignity, tribal communities demanded that they, too, wanted to be treated as equal citizens of the country.

For decades, tribals and other forest dwellers were fighting for "freedom from the dictatorial rule of colonial forest laws and an autocratic forest department," the memoranda submitted at district headquarters said.

"The ongoing justice has accelerated the destruction of India's forests and the impoverishment of some of our country's poorest and marginalised citizens," the memorandum said while impressing upon the Centre to table the Scheduled Tribes (Recognition of Rights) Bill, 2005 in parliament.

"It has to be remembered that India's entire system of reserved forests and protected areas was built by arbitrary declaration of areas as `forest' even when these included farms, lands and homes of communities.

Since then our homes, the forests, have been destroyed and cleared by legal and illegal means while we are branded as encroachers and criminals," the protestors said.

A copy of the memorandum would be shortly submitted to the United Progressive Alliance chairperson, Sonia Gandhi.

Reports of protests poured in from Raigad district in Maharashtra, tribal-dominated districts of Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.

"This tremendous courage demonstrates the depth of popular desire for the Bill, which would be the first step in India's history towards citizenship rights and equal freedoms for our communities," a statement issued by Campaign for Survival and Dignity said.

The movement is being supported by scores of non-government organisations and eminent individuals such as Bhupinder Singh, Dileep Singh Buria, B.D. Sharma, Suneet Chopra, Annie Raja, Jean Dreze, Madhu Sarin, Jayati Ghosh, and Prabhat Patnaik.

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