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Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

Tribes Of Neverland

The National Tribal Policy ‘draft’ is reason enough to celebrate. But what it lacks is the voice of the adivasi who it claims to protect, says SMITA JACOB

THERE ARE nearly 500 tribes in India constituting 140 million of us – 80 million Scheduled Tribes on the census record, and 60 million off the record, called the ‘denotified and nomadic tribes’ who have never been counted by India’s census. And yet, since independence, there hasn’t been a single comprehensive policy to cater to their basic needs of survival. Until now. Five years, two elections and many promises later, the National Tribal Policy (NTP), first proposed in 2004 by the NDA government, might finally see the light of day. Five years ago, the first draft was met with much opposition from civil society for adopting an assimilationist approach. It was criticised for trying to include tribal people with mainstream population, thus violating their rights and diluting their distinctiveness. It was also frowned upon for being a stand-alone document, not factoring in other applicable laws like the Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas Act or the Land Acquisition Act and instead loosely speaking about measures like land rights, without any actual commitment.

In 2006, soon after the UPA government came to power, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs drafted a fresh policy. The draft handled the ‘assimilation’ issues that were diluting their unique identity and, instead, used an approach of ‘integration’. For example in Northeast India, over a 100 tribal ethnic minorities are dependent on shifting cultivation. Half of Meghalaya’s populat i o n , the Khasi tribes in particular, practice this method of farming for survival. While the 2004 draft coerced them to give up this ‘primitive’ method, pointing out that the tribes ‘do not seem to have any emotional attachment to land as an asset’, the current draft approaches this issue realistically by acknowledging that it is the only possible farming practice in interior areas that, in fact, promotes collective ownership of natural resources. While the 2004 draft makes vague suggestions like ‘encouraging qualified tribal doctors to serve tribal areas,’ the new draft proposes integrating indigenous and modern medicine for the tribal population. Such changes make the 2006 draft realistically address contemporary tribal issues such as evictions from forests, indebtedness and conflict and unrest, that were earlier never addressed. Yet, the drawback it suffers from the most is the lack of any action points or a timebound strategy to act upon.

 

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