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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | A Month After Long March, Have Farmers' Demands Been Fulfilled? -Sukanya Shantha

A Month After Long March, Have Farmers' Demands Been Fulfilled? -Sukanya Shantha

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published Published on Apr 15, 2018   modified Modified on Apr 15, 2018
-TheWire.in

The focus of the Maharashtra farmers' march was on land rights for Adivasi communities. That promise will take a while to fulfil, and not much headway has been made.

It has been a month since over 40,000 farmers walked 180 km from Nashik to Mumbai to press for their demands. They returned home with an assurance from the state’s chief minister that their demands would be met “100%”. Although chief minister Devendra Fadnavis announced that his government was “sensitive” towards the agitating farmers – almost all of whom belong to Adivasi communities – and in principle agreed to their demands, experts feel there is nothing new to such assurances. The farmers are now waiting to see if this time around, the government will meet the demands to the satisfaction of farmers, within the six months’ timeframe the chief minister gave.

The gruelling ‘long march’ was undertaken by farmers belonging to several Adivasi communities from the state’s protected forest belt of Nashik, Nandurbar, Thane and Palghar districts. This march, organised by the All India Kisan Sabha, was seeking the immediate implementation of the Forest Rights Act, 2006, a 12-year-old law that is yet to be implemented effectively. A closer look at what they demanded and its feasibility is important.

Unlike the oft-made demands of providing a loan waiver to farmers, the focus here was more on gaining rights over the land they have been tilling for generations. Experts working on these issues at the grassroots level point out that the administration’s apathy and the lack of political will have delayed the implementation of the Forest Rights Act.

A study conducted by the Community Forest Rights – Learning and Advocacy Group Maharashtra in November 2017 shows that Maharashtra has been at the forefront of recognising the community forest rights of its Adivasi population. But the figures are still low. The state has granted the community rights in only about 15% of the 1.2 crore acres of forest land.

The report states that in as many as 21 districts, tribals have still not got their community rights over the forest. Nashik, Nandurbar and Thane are among the “poor performing districts”, with less than 33% implementation. This is for multiple reasons, including sparse forest land in some areas and the lack of manpower to carry out the work, says Geetanjoy Sahu, assistant professor at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences and also one of the report’s main authors, says.

“Most organisations have been focussing more on individual forest rights and have ignored the possibilities of community forest rights completely. The Act puts a cap on individual rights at four hectares, but community holding does not have an upper limit. Working as a community without mediation by an outside force has proved quite successful in the Vidarbha region,” Sahu told The Wire.

Also, when they operate as a community, farmers access not just the agricultural produce but also the minor forest produce to its optimum. To illustrate his point, Sahu referred to the state’s work of recognising 66% of the potential land in Gadchiroli under community forest rights. This is the maximum that any district has achieved under the Act, both in the state and across the country. The report states that only 5,741 community forest rights demands have been accepted so far.

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TheWire.in, 12 April, 2018, https://thewire.in/agriculture/a-month-after-long-march-have-farmers-demands-been-fulfilled


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