The Hindu : National : Tribals gearing for next phase of struggle

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Wednesday, Oct 18, 2006
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Tribals gearing for next phase of struggle

Special Correspondent

Pressing unresolved plea for right to forest land.

Protests order of the day in Gujarat Delhi rally next month

AHMEDABAD: Tribals in Gujarat are up in arms against both the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance Government at the Centre and the BJP regime in the State, reviving their long unresolved demand for right to forest land.

During the last fortnight or so, not a day passed without their staging a rally or dharna in Surat, Vyara, the Dangs and some other parts of the tribal-dominated south and north Gujarat regions as well as in Ahmedabad.

Gujarat Adivasi Mahasabha leader Fr. Xavier Manjuran says the demonstrations are part of the preparations for a rally in Delhi being organised by more than a dozen non-governmental organisations towards the end of November. Over 80,000 tribals from all over the country are expected to converge in the national capital.

The three-year-old Mahasabha is part of the National Campaign Committee for Survival and Dignity, an umbrella organisation formed recently to fight for tribals.

"Lip service"

Fr. Manjuran said the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance Government, after a long-drawn struggle, agreed to reschedule the cut-off year for recognising the claims of tribal families to the forest land they had been cultivatingfor generations, but failed to implement it. The UPA Government was acting as though it would reject the changes recommended by the 31-member joint Parliamentary committee in the Scheduled Tribes (Right to Forest) Bill, 2005, which if accepted would be the "most historical, democratic and effective" measure to undo the injustice done to tribals since the British days.

"We are entering the second phase of our struggle because we apprehend that the government, under the influence of anti-tribal forces and industrial houses, is preparing to reject the amendments and eject the tribals from their forest land under one pretext or the other," Fr. Manjuran said.

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