The Hindu : Karnataka News : ‘Scheduled Tribes’ rights only on paper’

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Tuesday, Nov 27, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka

‘Scheduled Tribes’ rights only on paper’

Special Correspondent

— PHOTO:M.A. SRIRAM

Expert views: Prof. S.N. Ratha, Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, Mahatma Gandhi National Institute of Research and Social Action, Hyderabad, inaugurating the seminar in Mysore on Monday.

MYSORE: Has the Government failed to implement its laws enacted to protect the interests of the tribal people? The answer is ‘yes’, according to anthropologists attending a seminar on policies and issues in the bio-cultural development of Scheduled Tribes.

In his introductory address, Prof. P.K. Mishra noted that international and national bodies have conceded that indigenous people have the right to control their land, territories and natural resources to maintain their traditional way of life. However, he noted that these acceptances, including the many rights guaranteed to the members of the Scheduled Tribes by the Constitution, and the various other Acts passed by Parliament have remained on paper, or have not been properly implemented or openly violated.

Prof. Mishra said, “The Kerala experience was instructive in this regard and pointed out that in 1975, the Kerala Legislature unanimously enacted the Kerala Scheduled Tribes Act. Its purpose was to restrict the transfer of land from the members of the Scheduled Tribes and also to restore alienated land to them. But this Act was not notified for years and the non-scheduled people who had occupied the lands of the Scheduled Tribes, got an opportunity to consolidate their positions. Encouraged by the attitude of the authorities, they also encroached upon the land in the forest areas.”

Thus the forest dwellers became wage earners in their own land and the Government did not implement its law, added Prof. Mishra.

Similarly, the Andhra Pradesh Government passed the Land Transfer Regulation Act in 1959, which proscribed the transfer of lands to non-tribal people and provided for retrieval of land illegally acquired by them. After passing the regulation, the Government did not take any steps to enforce it. Subsequently, in a dispute, the High Court pointed out that the regulation could not be enforced as working rules were not framed. Since then, the Andhra Pradesh Government was trying to water down the provisions of the original regulation by a series of actions so that land acquired by non-tribal people remained with them.

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