City based National Centre for Advocacy Studies is targeting the winter session of Parliament for proposing better implementation of the national tribal policy According to a recent report by Delhi-based- Action First,over 1.6 million individuals have been displaced in India as a result of developmental activities such as dams,mines and SEZs since the last decade. The report says that 79 per cent of those displaced,that is over 1.2 million,belong to scheduled tribes. The report goes on to add that 20.05 percent of the displaced belong to scheduled castes while other backward castes make up 0.75 per cent. Citing the reason behind the high number of displaced tribals,city- based National Centre for Advocacy Studies (NCAS) is planning to target the winter session of the parliament and come up with suggestions for effective implementation of the National Tribal Policy (NTP). The problem lies with the National Tribal Policy and the Rehabilitation and Resettlement bill 2007. Neither of the two makes it mandatory for the development organisation to rehabilitate the displaced tribes, says Smita Jacob,researcher,NCAS. The national tribal policy was proposed by the NDA government in 2004,which,after recommendations by the National Advisory council was made into a 23 page-document by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs in August 2006. The authorities have been sitting on the document since then. After their win in the Loksabha elections,the UPA government had announced that the NTP will soon be approved,but then it has been three years since it has been proposed and the policy thus is not only outdated but also lacks in some of the aspects such as- participation of the tribes,formation of implementing agencies which have not been mentioned in the policy and an overall timely revision, says Shelly Saha Sinha,researcher,NCAS. Majority of the scheduled tribe population in the country is concentrated in Andhra Pradesh,Chhatisgarh,Jharkhand and Orissa and according to researchers; the problem lies with the lack of official documents with the tribes,which can be produced to prove their ownership over the land they use. They do not have any documented proof to claim their ownership on the land they live on. Rehabilitation of tribes is thus a major challenge; as neither the government nor the private companies are willing to take ownership of the same, says the researcher adding,Our whole approach towards them is of the form we-and-they. We look at tribl development as an issue wherein we need to bring them up to our level. It is not so. We need to work towards making it an interactive process wherein their involvement in their betterment can be ensured. Also important is the presence of implementing agencies,without the involvement of which,actions stated in the NTP cannot be accounted for.
