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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Ten years of the Forest Rights Act: Opportunity lost? -Sharmistha Bose

Ten years of the Forest Rights Act: Opportunity lost? -Sharmistha Bose

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published Published on Dec 15, 2016   modified Modified on Dec 15, 2016
-Oxfam India Blog

Hari Bandhu Kanhar (45 years) is a Gond tribal of Jhankarmunda village, district Bolangir, Odisha whose family recently received legal title over his forest land under the Forest Rights Act, 2006. On being asked about the difference of being landless and having a land title, he shared that the biggest difference is that he is not hounded by the fear of being evicted from his land.

Narratives such as these which resonate among the 200 million forest dwelling communities managing over 40 million hectares of forest land in India only confirm my belief in the transformative potential of the Forest Rights Act (FRA).

2016 marks the tenth year of the historic Act and we take a pause to reflect on its performance. We can look at this through the lens of FRA being the largest land reform opportunity, which the government can achieve at minimum cost. The other way of looking at it is that FRA’s dismal performance and recognition of only 3% community forest rights is a huge opportunity losti .The Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) data till August 2016iii shows that out of a total of 42,09,403 claims received,a meagre 16,94,587 titles have been distributed.ii

All roads in this case lead to a lack of political will and commitment to implement FRA both at state and national levels. While that sounds like a ‘lazy excuse’, the structural problems faced by the communities in claiming their forest rights and at the policy level are suggestive of political reluctance.

With no resource allocation to back the implementation of FRA and a weak Ministry of Tribal Affairs, which is severely understaffed, the pattern percolates to the state level where officials still lack knowledge of the provisions of the Act. In most states the claiming process is challenging — forest rights committees are still not constituted at the hamlet levels; there is no support to communities to fill the individual and community claims as per process.  Very few states are using GPS to map their customary boundaries. Repeated notice for joint verification of the claims by the revenue and forest departments  go unheeded and lead to rejection of claims without assigning reasons. Where titles have been recognised, they are incomplete, limited or with conditions. The list is endless.

Please click here to read more.

Oxfam India Blog, 12 December, 2016, https://www.oxfamindia.org/blog/1746/ten-years-forest-rights-act:-opportunity-lost%3F


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