Human rights of the tribal people living in forest

The Schedule Tribe and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (FRA) was passed by the Indian Government to recognize rights of forest dwelling tribal communities. The Act aims to positively impact the livelihood of the forest dependent tribals, but due to the lack of clear understanding and irregular implementation this goals was not fully achieved. The present study was conducted in Tripura, where FRA was implemented to achieve sustainable land utilization and to strengthen the socioeconomic status of the tribals. This study attempts to throw light on the relevance and progress of implementation of FRA in Tripura along with initiatives and benefit schemes of the government agencies to provide sustainable livelihood option through convergence with FRA. The assessment of impact in terms of livelihood improvement and socioeconomic conditions was based on primary survey of 300 FRA beneficiary households in two tribal dominated districts, Gomati and Dhalai. There are indications of positive outcomes regarding, socioeconomic status, change in mindset towards sustainable farming, and impact on income but there are issue with decentralization of governance, implementation of land rights and benefit schemes, and sustainability in farming practices. There is no empirical study conducted on the implementation and impact of FRA in Tripura and therefore such field oriented, policy study would be useful for further implementation and research in regions where forest and tribals are co-existing.

Published in 2008 by SRUTI, this report examines the Centre for Environmental Law, WWF case, which has been pending in the Supreme Court since 1995 as a continuing mandamus. In particular, it examines the interplay of the various developments in this public interest litigation with the rights of forest dwelling communities, in light of the then newly enacted Forest Rights Act.

How and why did a labor union organizer from Goa, a former Naxalite student cadre from West Bengal, and a Jesuit priest from Tamil Nadu end up as spokespersons for adivasi rights in contemporary Jharkhand? What caused their political discourse to shift from tribal/adivasi  to indigeneity? Might indigeneity be an ideology for these activists?

To answer these interrelated questions, this paper analyzes the oral histories of three leading indigenous rights activists in Jharkhand, formerly south Bihar. In these self-narratives, I focus on the ways in which these middle-class activists have crafted their political ethics with reference to “indigenous communities” in India and beyond. I argue that “indigeneity” functions in Jharkhandi activist discourses as a marker of a distinctive post-materialist turn in bourgeois politics. The defense of the indigenous or primitive speaks to deep-seated existential crises among bourgeois activists, who seek to simultaneously transcend the modern domains of state and capital as well as locate an authentic space of political ethics and critique in imagined adivasi collectivities. 

By acting as patrons of “primitive” peoples  who purportedly avoid lying, the state, and the money economy, indigeneity activists assume vanguardist roles in ways that satisfy, firstly, the bourgeois critique of electoral democracy in post-Mandal India and, secondly, the post-Naxalbari desire for an independent left outside the existing communist party alternatives. These twin sources of the Jharkhandi activist’s self may be often complementary, but, at the same time, there are very real tensions between them. As the three activist tales in this paper demonstrate, independent left activists, for example, often takes bourgeois politics in contemporary India as their ideological point of departure; the bourgeois celebration of the individual is, similarly, at odds with the leftist quest for post-capitalist collectivities. Nonetheless, these tensions come to the fore most clearly when we consider the limited popular support enjoyed by these activists, especially when ordinary adivasi men and women refuse to assume what Michel Rolph-Trouillot (2003) famously called the “savage slot.” 

This kind of rejection, in fact, further fuels the existential crises that propel indigeneity activism in Jharkhand today insofar as it prompts the unending bourgeois search for a “purer,” more ethical self that claims to be the antithesis of politics yet aspires to a total politics that suffuses every individual belief, act, and idiosyncrasy. This paper thus sheds light on the politics of the anti-political and the modernity of anti-modernism in contemporary India. """

The present study describes the status of the health care delivery in the remote district of Lahaul-Spiti. This is the first of its own kind of study being done in Keylong block. Health care facility is the right of every individual so it is well required to have quality infrastructure, qualified medical personnel, and easy access to basic medicines and medical facilities to reach out to 60% of population in India. A majority of 700 million people lives in rural areas where the condition of medical facility is very poor. Considering the picture of harsh fats there is a dire need of new practices and procedures to ensure that quality and timely healthcare reaches the deprived corners of the Indian villages specially the remote ones. Although lots of policies and programs are being run by the Government but the success and effectiveness of these programs is questionable due to poor implementation. Situation of rural India's health delivery system isnot very good as 8% of the PHCs do not have doctors or medical staff, 39% do not have lab technicians and 18% do not even have a pharmacist. In this study researcher will look at the standards of public health care facility/services provided and most importantly the no of doctors, nurses, and other staffs appointed versus the services and personnel available at sub-centers, PHCs, CHCs, and district hospitals in Keylong block. Himalayan region is already a remote hilly area with scattered population, and public health care facility centers are the only medical help that is available to the people of this region.

Decentralization reforms by theory are expected to produce positive outcomes. However, studies on decentralization reforms suggests that decentralization especially in the developing countries are taking place without establishing conditions which are necessary to produce positive outcomes that decentralization theory predicts. India has enacted the forest rights act, 2006 as the step towards democratic decentralization of forest governance. The act was aimed to undo the historical injustice done to the forest dependent communities and gives legal ownership of the forests to their customary users. Although FRA, 2006 was suggested to be progressive in nature and spirit but studies on FRA, 2006 thus far suggests that implementation of the FRA is beset with many conflicts and challenges. Most studies on FRA implementation suggests that there is a conflict between FRA and the existing forest polices and bureaucratic mindset of the implementation agency. The forest polices of India implemented currently were adopted directly from forest polices enacted by the British Colonial government. The impact of institutions are likely to persist for a very long time. Hence, a review on implementation of the FRA 2006 in India, was conducted with relevance to Colonization, adopting the concept of 'internalizing colonialism' of the political ecology framework. The results of the review indicates that the root cause of conflicts in implementation of the FRA 2006 in India might lie in the institutional reforms introduced during colonization of the sub-continent, which continued through post-independence and present India through internal colonialism.

The FRA among the various rights also recognizes rights including community tenures of habitat and habitation of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTG) and pre-agricultural communities enumerated under section 3 (1)(e) of the act. However the process of recognition remain unexplained under FRA, respecting the tribal land rights which might be difficult to formalize in a one fit in formulae, the recognition process remained unexplained so that it can be further interpreted based on research which must be tribal specific keeping the best intention of the law. However the objective has not been achieved yet.

Despite the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 and the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, there has been limited devolution of powers and gram sabhas have remained largely powerless. However, the movement to save Hasdeo Arand forests used these legislative provisions as an advocacy tool to not only highlight the regional challenges but also strive for a greater role of gram sabhas in central- and state-level policy legislating processes. It showcases the potential, as well as limits, of harnessing local self-governance institutions to push the boundaries of the provisions of these acts.

The recently leaked IB report on NGOs, which is titled as “Concerted efforts by select foreign funded NGOs to ‘take down' Indian development projects” stated that a significant number of Indian NGOs are using people centric issues to create an environment to stop Indian developmental projects. The government and media tried to propagate this report as these NGOs (NGOs working on human rights and environment) are the main hurdle for the development of the nation. But it is not a reality, the reality is that these projects are for the benefit of few corporate and not for the benefit of the masses further these mega projects like POSCO or Vedanta are the gross violators of the environmental and human rights laws. It is not NGOs, but it is our constitutional framework and the laws given by our constitution like, Environment Protection Act (EPA), Forest Right Act and other constitutional authority like National Green Tribunal and Judiciary like Supreme Court of India who actually support these projects. These projects are destroying our natural resources and violating our environmental and human right laws.
This study reveals the reality of these mega projects; these mega project companies are notorious for the violation of various human and environmental laws not only in India, but in various countries of the world. For example AGRC, a subsidiary of Vedanta was fined about $50 million for the violation of licensing laws in Armenia, similarly Monsanto was fined in various countries like US, UK, France, etc. for false advertising. In this report we basically focus on the development projects which are mentioned in the leaked IB report.
In this report we mainly focus on four development projects which are:
1) POSCO
2) Vedanta Resources
3) Monsanto
4) Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant
We examine all above from the perspective of the environmental and human rights laws, which is given by our constitution and also from the universal declaration of human rights and different international laws.
This report contains six chapters, the first chapter deals with various environmental and human rights laws, the second chapter deals with POSCO India, the third chapter deals with Vedanta resources, the forth chapter deals with Monsanto, the fifth chapter deals with Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project and the sixth chapter which is the final chapter is the conclusion part of this report.

The newsletter provide some insight about the concept of 'Habitat Rights', its determination process and one case study with Kutia Kondha PVTG under Forest Rights Act (FRA). The basic objective in publishing the newsletter is to share developments regarding the status of implementation of the recognition of Habitat Rights of PVTGs, ongoing initiatives, learning's and key issue/challenges relating to its implementation, our objective is also to keep the reader informed and involved who were involved in the habitat rights recognition process across India.

Over the past 200 years, there has been a steady loss of bio cultural diversity due to an accelerated change from an ecological to a technological civilization. There has been a reduction of all sacred and ecological categories to economic and production categories; a homogenization of crops, seeds, organisms and the mind; and a displacement of 'tribal' custodians of the diversity in human and natural resources, with a loss of the tangible and intangible heritage, nurtured by them trans generationally. A partial 'retribalisation' is necessary to arrest environmental degradation, species extinction and bio cultural reductionism, without giving up life enhancing advances in technology.

In Putli Ganju’s Sohrai painting, two peacocks try to chase a hungry iguana away from their eggs. Sohrai is a form of mural painting from the villages in the plains and hills of the Hazaribagh plateau. As part of an ongoing research collaboration with the Sanskriti Museum, Hazaribagh, our Collection Curator, Ben Cartwright, visited Putli’s village in April.

Decentralization reforms by theory are expected to produce positive outcomes. However, studies on decentralization reforms suggests that decentralization especially in the developing countries are taking place without establishing conditions which are necessary to produce positive outcomes that decentralization theory predicts. India has enacted the forest rights act, 2006 as the step towards democratic decentralization of forest governance. The act was aimed to undo the historical injustice done to the forest dependent communities and gives legal ownership of the forests to their customary users. Although FRA, 2006 was suggested to be progressive in nature and spirit but studies on FRA, 2006 thus far suggests that implementation of the FRA is beset with many conflicts and challenges. Most studies on FRA implementation suggests that there is a conflict between FRA and the existing forest polices and bureaucratic mindset of the implementation agency. The forest polices of India implemented currently were adopted directly from forest polices enacted by the British Colonial government. The impact of institutions are likely to persist for a very long time. Hence, a review on implementation of the FRA 2006 in India, was conducted with relevance to Colonization, adopting the concept of 'internalizing colonialism' of the political ecology framework. The results of the review indicates that the root cause of conflicts in implementation of the FRA 2006 in India might lie in the institutional reforms introduced during colonization of the sub-continent, which continued through post-independence and present India through internal colonialism.

ABSTRACT There is a consensus in the literature and widespread policymaker support on the desirability of democratic decentralisation of natural resources governance. However, few decentralisation initiatives in developing countries have led to more democratic governance of natural resources. India's Recognition of Forest Rights Act (RFRA), 2006, was enacted as a result of democratic processes driven by demand for recognition of forest rights by forest dwellers. RFRA represents a political, demand-based effort to reform forest governance through a provision of rights to forest-dependent people. India also continues to operate the joint forest management (JFM) programme, a more traditional state-initiated decentralisation effort. The two parallel forest reform programmes being carried out in the same landscapes provide a unique opportunity to study democratisation of forest governance in the country with the world's largest number of forest-dependent people. We examine JFM and RFRA on the criteria of delegation of power and authority, downward accountability and impact on forest-dependent poor to understand the substantively different spaces that they open for democratic forest governance. We find that the implementation of the RFRA has been strongly opposed by powerful interests, and its more radical provisions related to community rights over forests have largely remained unimplemented. However, our findings, drawing from both primary and secondary sources, also bring out the potential of the RFRA to hold the forest bureaucracy accountable to forest-dweller communities and its ability to shift tangible legal powers and authority to forest dwellers.

Considerable jurisprudence around the Forest Rights Act has been developing in the last 9 years of its operation through judgments and decisions of the constitutional courts, and even some of the district courts and tribunals. This compendium puts some of the more important decisions, along with a short summary and editorial note, in one place for use by judges, lawyers, activists and implementors.