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Central issues
This section highlights issues that are of importance to the indigenous peoples in India:
 Loss of Land and Forest Rights
Draft Forest Rights Bill
Bonded Labour
Assimilation Pressure: Loss of Culture and Social Disintegration
Loss of Local Self-Governance and Suppression of Autonomy Movements |
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 People: Tangkhul Naga
Photographer: Christian Erni |
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Loss of Land and Forest Rights
Lack of access to agricultural land is undoubtedly the most important single factor in the high level of poverty among tribal peoples. On mainland India (i.e. India excluding the north-east region), more and more tribal farmers are becoming landless agricultural labourers due to continuous land alienation. While in the 1961 census two-thirds of tribal people in India were registered as land-owning cultivators, this figure had dropped to somewhat over half by the 1991 census. This does not necessarily mean complete landlessness but that the landholdings are, in many cases, far too small for them to make a living from.
In light of the crucial importance of forest products in the domestic economy of tribal communities, the increasing alienation of their rights over forests is almost as severely undermining to the economic security of tribal people as the loss of agricultural lands. Traditionally held and managed as common properties by communities, community forests were an integral part of the village lands from which the people derived their livelihood.
The dominant factors and processes leading to the increasing loss of control over land and forests include:
- Reservation of Forests and Forest Laws: Traditional rights over forests were almost completely abolished with the Forest Act of 1875, and the Indian government continued with the policy of state ownership of forests after independence.
- Biodiversity Conservation: India's rich biological heritage has come under severe threat over the past decades. The Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 and its amendment in 1991 created the legal basis for determined action on biodiversity protection. As a result, 85 national parks and 450 wildlife sanctuaries had been created by 1998, covering an area of 149,787 km2 or about 4.5% of India's total land mass.
- Land Grabbing by Non-Tribals: In spite of the existence of specific laws that forbid the transfer of tribal land to non-tribals, these latter are still gaining increasing control over tribal lands. This is due to the fact that the state machineries have either made it very difficult to implement this progressive legislation or the state itself has bypassed or tried to subvert such legislation.
- Displacement for public infrastructure and industrial development: 25% of tribal land was alienated due to acquisition for public purposes such as hydroelectric projects, irrigation channels, road and railway construction, the establishment of private and public sector industrial complexes, military training sites, mining and expansion of urban areas.
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 People: Kharia
Photographer: Christian Erni |
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Draft Forest Rights Bill
On 13 December 2005, the Minister for Tribal Affairs introduced the Scheduled Tribes (Recognition of Forest Rights) Bill 2005 into Parliament, "to recognize and vest the forest rights and occupation in forest land in forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes who have been residing in such forests for generations but whose rights could not be recorded and to provide for a framework for recording the forest rights so vested and the nature of evidence required for such recognition and vesting in respect of forest land." The bill was then referred to the Joint Parliamentary Committee, a committee of parliamentarians set up specifically for this bill. The committee was to call for submissions from interested groups and persons, invite those who wanted to make depositions before the committee and place the final draft before Parliament in April 2006. The final draft of this bill is expected to be go before Parliament for its passage in the first half of 2006.
The bill itself was introduced into Parliament amidst widespread national protests demanding a pro-tribal and pro-forest dwellers' bill. A National Consultation on the Draft Forest Rights Bill ended with the passing of a declaration demanding the introduction of the bill during the then ongoing session of parliament. Around 40-50,000 tribals and forest dwellers across the country held protests on 15 August 2005, when India celebrates its Independence Day, demanding that the bill be introduced into parliament.
This was followed by people demanding "the bill or jail". The act proposes 12 specific rights, inheritable but not alienable or transferable, such as, among others, ownership of 2.5 hectares of land for each family from a forest-dwelling scheduled tribe, ownership of minor forest produce and the right to grazing. In turn, the communities are obliged to apply conservation and protection measures.
In December 2006 a Forest Rights Bill was passed by the Parliament and a few days later ratified by the Upper House of the Parliament. It is now pending at the office of the President for final approval. Under this Bill, the forest dwellers will receive ownership rights, including the right to farm on small plots and to sell forest produce such as honey, wax, medicinal plants and herbs. The passing of the Bill is seen as a victory of the people, especially the Indigenous Peoples, but not without a flaw that has the potential of becoming fatal. The final decision to recognize the forest dwellers lies with the bureaucrats not with the Village Council (Gram Sabha) as recommended by the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC). Other recommendations of the JPC were also not taken into consideration, the most fatal of them being the deletion of the rights of the forest dwellers to fuelwood. This is seen by the people as a way of asking people to leave the forest. The traditional right to hunting wild animals and fishing have met the same fate.
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 People: Van Gujar
Photographer: Christian Erni |
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Bonded Labour
Debt bondage is a common way of exploiting tribal and other disadvantaged people all over mainland India. It became a serious problem in tribal areas with the monetarization of the tribal economy. It is usually illiterate or low-educated servants and wage labourers who are cheated into debt bondage by their masters. Even children have been found to be bonded labourers, the reason being that outstanding debts are passed on to the children of the debtor. Bonded labour appears to be particularly common in mines, quarries and brick kilns.
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 People: Tangkhul Naga
Photographer: Christian Erni |
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Assimilation Pressure: Loss of Culture and Social Disintegration
Underpinning the long history of exploitation and dispossession of the indigenous and tribal peoples of India is a widespread prejudice among members of the dominant Hindu caste society who consider the tribes not just "untouchables" (like the Dalit) but also primitive. The low status the tribes are relegated to legitimises exploitation and mistreatment, and attempts to assimilate them into the mainstream society are seen as a "civilising act".
The tragedy is that, in many areas of mainland India where the tribal communities have for centuries been exposed to all forms of discrimination, the value system of the dominant society has been internalised by many tribal people. Believing in their inferiority, their hope is to become "civilised" like the upper caste Hindus. Consequently, many elements of their traditional culture, beliefs and values are abandoned, and social institutions disintegrate without viable alternatives to take their place. Such disorientation often goes hand in hand with increasing alcohol abuse, further adding to the immiseration of the people.
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 People: Tangkhul Naga
Photographer: Christian Erni |
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Loss of Local Self-Governance and Suppression of Autonomy Movements
Integrationist and assimilationist policies since British colonial rule have, by various means, weakened or abolished the self-governance systems of indigenous and tribal peoples. The introduction of local government structures provided for by the Constitution (provision on Panchayat Raj), though guided by good intentions, has collided with the still vital traditional self-governance institutions in tribal areas.
Sometimes, the imposition of local government structures has largely served the interests of state governments, who want greater control over local affairs. One example is the Village Authorities in Hill Areas Act passed by Manipur state in 1956. For example, the new village authorities were to be elected alongside and ignoring the traditional council of elders, the official language (Manipuri) was made mandatory for village authorities, and the jurisdiction over cases was limited in value, effectively disqualifying village authorities from handling most cases.
In recognition of the problems caused by the extension of the Panchayat Raj to tribal areas, a special law was passed in 1996 that provided for the necessary adaptations to make it applicable for tribal communities.
In North-East India, some indigenous peoples had already demanded more autonomy from India before independence and some did so after (in the case of the Nagas this related to independence). Although some measures to accommodate these demands have been taken, the State's main response has been violent suppression of these movements.
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 People: Naga
Photographer: Christian Erni |
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