Constantly in the news due to their miserable economic conditions, tribals in India face even a still uncertain and dark future. They face migration even from their traditional inhospitable lands despite constitutional guarantees, efforts of various human-rights activists and constant watch of the environment ministry headed by the crusader Jairam Ramesh.
Though constituting a sizable 8.2 percent of population
aggregating roughly 82 million, tribals in India fail to have any clout in the country’s political class by virtue of their being dispersed as minorities in different states inhabiting areas adjoining forests or where mining is massively executed.Though virtually living a subsistence existence ,they are further exploited by the forest officials. Their ancestral lands,though earmarked as reserved for them, are shrinking and being grabbed by non-tribal landlords, money-lenders and contractors in nexus with different mafias..These forest or mining lands are also under threat of acquisition for constructing dams and mining projects. Tribals are therefore being compelled to migrate as faceless daily-wagers, bursting with anger and alienation.
It is here that Maoists (CPI-M) ,who believe in armed struggle to overthrow the state and bring about a socio-economic change, have struck an understanding with the tribals.While Maoists support the tribals against their land grabbers-i.e. non-tribal landlords, money-lenders , mafias and corrupt officials , they in return get tribal support in hiding in forests. This has brought about the most hazardous situation where-by even the internal security of the country is seriously threatened.So much so that even 80000 troops deployed in the forests of Chattisgarh , Maharashtra and Orissa (with additional 20000 troops ready to join them) fail to cope with the situation. Though officials planning the operations appear hopeful, personnel at ground zero are not optimistic.
History bears testimony even to countries with strong defences and well maintained armies having failed to meet external threats alongwith simultaneous internal security threat successfully. Breaking this unholy alliance between the Maoists and the tribals thus becomes all the more imperative. Immense resources that are likely to be unlocked by ending this conflict would go a long way in uplifting the tribals as well as rehabilitating the Maoists.
The constitutional provisions guaranteeing protection to the tribals , as well as legislative enactments passed subsequently in the same direction ,remain unimplemented due to current coalition politics where main national parties are being seen as yielding to the unjustified demands of the smaller regional parties/political outfits. Though lately Rahul Gandhi and environment minister Jairam Ramesh took a principled stand to safeguard the interests of the tribals on the issue of Vedanta Project in Orissa.
After the nineties, globalization has altogether altered the priorities of developmental activities worldwide. There is a race between various countries to explore and exploit mineral resources even from far off lands.National as well as various multinational companies are therefore competing vigorously for setting up mining projects in the lands that rightfully belong to tribals. It therefore becomes all the more incumbent on central and state governments to create strong structures within the existing law, or even by legislating additional laws, wherever necessary, to safeguard the interests of the tribals. Environment ministry is therefore doing well in carefully weighing the adverse effect of every development project upon environments and the tribal population so that companies executing mining projects are made to offset the negative impacts of such projects in the context of these grave concerns
No comments:
Post a Comment