Tribal Indians “hope for the whole of India”
Mumbai (AsiaNews) – For Jesuit Fr Jebamalai Stany, managing trustee of SHAKTI, the Centre for Legal Aid and Human Rights and People’s Empowerment, has called on the Indian government to give Tribals the place in society they deserve, stop the social discrimination they endure and put an end to the seizure of their lands. It should recognise that their dignity is crucial for India’s development. He spoke today, International Day of the World's Indigenous People.
Indigenous people in India are the most vulnerable and marginalized segment of Indian society—the last in the social strata, even considered and treated lower than the Dalits. They are devoid of any status, respect and identity.
The main problem is identity; their entire identity is in crisis. Various terms are applied to them, ranging from Vanavasis (forest dwellers) and Adivasi (original inhabitants) to Tribals, or as the Indian Constitution calls them, “Scheduled Tribes”, an identity that was forced upon them from the outside, precisely to mark out differences from the dominant community. On the basis of their geographical isolation, simple technology and condition of living, general backwardness, practice of animism, tribal language, physical features, etc, they are just labelled as scheduled tribes. So what is their core identity?
The very idea of ‘indigenous people’ is an issue of considerable contention in India. Their traditions and customs of the people, their cultural identity, community resources are all in crises,
Closely linked to the issue of identity is the alienation of natural resources from their control.
Indigenous people have an umbilical connection with the land. The dependence of Indian 'indigenous people on the forest was characterized by customary rules of use and extraction, governed by religious beliefs and practices that ensured that forests were not degraded. They protected and preserved the land and the natural resources.
Today, their land, forests, minerals are harvested for commercial purposes. The government is taking away their natural resources; their status is their complete loss of power over natural resource. This has led to resistance as we have witnessed during tribal resistance to various so-called development projects like dams, mining, and industrial plants. The issue of indigenous people’s rights in those forests has been fraught with contention and is central to political and development policy questions in India.
The Government of India is not paying any attention to the integrated development of the indigenous people. The government with its Brahminic mindset has dispossessed these people. The 2006 Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act was supposed to remove the historical injustice done to the indigenous people in India, but this is not being properly implemented.
Forest destruction also continues, with new industrial and mining projects. This has reduced millions of people to destitution and starvation, facilitated a spiral of environmental destruction and made conservation increasingly a battle of desperation.
The Panchayat Extension to the Scheduled Areas (PESA) Act of 1996 was intended to provide self-governance and recognition of the traditional rights of indigenous communities over their natural resources.
This too is not being implemented. Indigenous people have not been given their rights; most regrettably, they have no say in the decision-making process.
In India, around 8 per cent of the population is indigenous but about 95 per cent of the total forest area belongs to the government. The tribal population of India has been stripped of much of its legal communal rights.
Up to 1990, nearly 8.5 million tribals had been displaced because of mega projects or the setting aside of forests as national parks, etc. In fact, Tribals constitute at least 55.16 per cent of all displaced people in the country.
On this International Day of the World's Indigenous People, our demands are that the indigenous people get respect and are given their rightful place in society. It is also necessary that the constitution be amended and the term 'Schedule Tribe' be changed to 'indigenous people’.
Ensuring tribal rights will ensure genuine tribal power and participation in decision-making, and provide Tribals with the means to tackle serious issues like health and nutrition.
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