Meet calls for end to displacement caused by developmental projects The government's “pro-corporate policies” came under attack at a two-day national convention on tribal rights that concluded here with participants calling for an end to displacement due to developmental projects. In a resolution, the participants said that many States, including Andhra Pradesh and Orissa, were not implementing the Scheduled Tribes and Other Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 as...

A resident of Yavatmal in Maharashtra is asked to give proof of birth for three generations in his family for him to get access to land under the Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional Forest Dwellers Recognition of Forest Rights Act (FRA) 2006. But for the people in these areas who cannot read or write, ‘proof' has little meaning. Such lacunae in the Act came up for discussion at a public...

The Supreme Court on May 7 ruled that natural resources were national assets that belonged to the people and were ideally exploited by public sector undertakings. This obviously implies that local communities, including tribals, living on mineralised land, enjoy entitlements but not prescriptive ownership rights to such national assets. This is an important reiterative clarification defining mineral rights in Fifth Schedule areas that are currently in contention. Whether PSUs should...

The first meet of the newly constituted second National Advisory Council or NAC, which is expected to set the social agenda for the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance or UPA government, on Thursday laid down its broad agenda for its functioning. The discussions, which lasted for over three hours, revolved around crucial legislations such as the Food Security Bill, the Communal Harmony Bill and the Forest Rights Bill. The 14-member council later...

Built into the economic dogma of growth first is the ingrained notion held by large segments of the nation's elite that the fabric of inequality is meant to remain unimpaired.  “The Challenge of Employment in India; An Informal Economy Perspective” sums up the findings of a National Commission set up in September 2004 to review the status of the unorganised/ínformal sector in India (Volume I Main Report and volume II...