This was a committee that was set up by Dr. Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister of India, during the tenure of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) 2 government in India, when my party colleague (and father), Mr. V. Kishore Chandra Suryanarayana Deo, was the central minister for Tribal Affairs and Panchayati Raj.
It is my opinion, that the report, by-and-large, is a most excellent report, especially chapters 8, 9 and 10 that make recommendations pertaining to land, law and the delivery of public goods and services (though they need to be read with my previous article on this blog as far as aspects of the Land Acquisition Act and Bill are concerned).
However, i do have some comments on the preceding sections of the report, which need to be factored into any action that the preset NDA2 government plans to take.
MY COMMENTS ARE AS FOLLOWS (the full text of the "Report of the High Level Committee on Socio-Economic, Health and Educational Status of Tribal Communities of India", May 2014 that is under analysis here is available online)
At the outset, i would like to point out that one major concern has not been addressed in this report, and that is the inequality that was introduced into the law (or it's official interpretation) in the 1990s, regarding the Scheduled Tribe status of the children of STs who marry non-STs. Earlier, if an ST man or woman married a non-ST, the child held ST status. Now, if an ST man has a non-ST spouse, the children are eligible for ST status, but if an ST woman has a non-ST spouse, the children are not eligible for ST status.
This is a mega injustice against all ST women, and the justifications are very patriarchal in nature. This is also at the root of the obstacles to implementing some of the rights-based laws that exist, as they are seen through this prism of non-entitlement of tribal women.
The rest of my comments pertain to specific provisions of the report:
It is my opinion, that the report, by-and-large, is a most excellent report, especially chapters 8, 9 and 10 that make recommendations pertaining to land, law and the delivery of public goods and services (though they need to be read with my previous article on this blog as far as aspects of the Land Acquisition Act and Bill are concerned).
However, i do have some comments on the preceding sections of the report, which need to be factored into any action that the preset NDA2 government plans to take.
MY COMMENTS ARE AS FOLLOWS (the full text of the "Report of the High Level Committee on Socio-Economic, Health and Educational Status of Tribal Communities of India", May 2014 that is under analysis here is available online)
At the outset, i would like to point out that one major concern has not been addressed in this report, and that is the inequality that was introduced into the law (or it's official interpretation) in the 1990s, regarding the Scheduled Tribe status of the children of STs who marry non-STs. Earlier, if an ST man or woman married a non-ST, the child held ST status. Now, if an ST man has a non-ST spouse, the children are eligible for ST status, but if an ST woman has a non-ST spouse, the children are not eligible for ST status.
This is a mega injustice against all ST women, and the justifications are very patriarchal in nature. This is also at the root of the obstacles to implementing some of the rights-based laws that exist, as they are seen through this prism of non-entitlement of tribal women.
The rest of my comments pertain to specific provisions of the report:
Chapter 4: Tribes: Legal and Administrative Framework
4.9: Recommendations
4.9.1
The committee recommends an enhanced role for the Governors
of states governments to govern Schedule 5 Areas that fall within state
governments.
It suggests two ways in which this could be done.
However, it is my legal opinion that a Constitutional
Amendment would be required, to accord the kind of power that is being
recommended.
Otherwise, as things stand now, both suggested scenarios
would only amount to transferring all the power to the executive wings of the
respective state governments.
This would produce a contrary result to what is being sought
to be done.
A Constitutional Amendment that takes into account, in a
holistic way, all the related recommendations of his report, would be the best
way forward.
4.9.2
Governor’s report:
Governor’s report:
Agreed on points made.
In fact, i would suggest there should be guidelines and
conditions from the Central Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA), for the topics
to be covered in the report.
Furthermore, i would recommend a mid-term monitoring and
final review mechanism by MoTA as well.
4.9.3
In connection with the restructuring and empowering of a
20-member Tribes Advisory Council (TAC):
While most of the suggestions are good on the point of the
need for the restructuring of the TAC, i would encourage you to think of more
democratically effective ways for the entire tribal community to elect (without
party symbols, and introduce weightage if required), these 20 (or, i suggest,
more) members.
The appointing and random circulation of a few existing
panchayat presidents of tribal panchayats will not serve the purpose well.
Moreover, the said sarpanchs are required to be present
locally at all times, and whose functioning, practically speaking, ought to be
enhanced at the local level instead of focusing their energies towards the
state capital.
It must also be noted that sarpanchs are individuals already
empowered with a post, and there would be a greater diversity of representation
of ideas if existing sarpanchs were not repeated at this forum, but if
elections were held instead by the central wing of India’s election commission.
Another recommendation that has been made in connection with
the TAC is that the tribal development plan of a state and its outlay should be
approved by the TAC before it is placed before the legislative assembly.
Considering that this is a subject that pertains to the annual budget of the
state (a Financial topic) on which even the upper house of the state (in cases
where upper houses exist), does not get to vote, this sort of veto power to a
20-member appointed advisory body would be constitutionally unviable unless a
constitutional amendment is brought about, to make the TAC a more
representative populous body, and an elected one. (This, too, would be tenable
only if an appropriate Constitutional Amendment were made, BUT only if the TAC
were a much more representative kind of body).
Chapter 5: Livelihoods and Employment Status
5.10: Recommendations
5.10.2
i would caution against attempting this kind of “motivation”
of tribals by the forest department and agricultural departments, to bring their
unutilized land under the tiller at this stage.
At the outset, it needs to be realised that far from
preaching to the tribals, polluters and big consumers that constitute the rest
of the world (as represented by the government and its departments), would have
to make sincere requests to the tribals, to bring Biodiverse land (all types of
unutilized, but very ecofriendly status from the biodiversity and health point
of view), under the tiller.
This can only be done after the larger governmental
apparatus creates and makes readily available, returns and rewards to the
tribals, and to the earth, and certainly not at this juncture of history, when
the forest department is often seen as an oppressor of tribals.
At best, you could talk about creating awareness amongst
tribals on these matters, and not motivate, but incentivize.
5.10.6
While the following comment is not connected directly to the
implementation of this report, just to set the record (and the readers’
understanding) on this straight: Rights that might have been recognized under
the Forest Right Act are better described as post-FRA recognized land/rights,
instead of “newly acquired land under FRA”.
5.10.11
The prevailing non-co-operative and non-enabling policy
environment renders the following recommendation rather meaningless: “tribals
should be encouraged to use their traditional knowledge to meet their needs by
recreating their forest ecosystem and forest-based livelihood”.
It will be unfair to put the onus on the tribals to
revive/save these sciences for humanity without providing them with the
enabling spectrum of ecological and policy-level means and opportunities to do
so.
It would thus be useful to specifically interpret this
suggestion to mean that the communities should be empowered with the knowledge
and the use of the Biological Diversity Act (A result of an international
convention), to protect their intellectual property rights over traditional
knowledge and resources; and that the communities should be empowered to access
the entire array of rights under the Forest Rights Act, including Common
Property Rights.
5.10.13
Regarding the recommendation that says that:
“Data on development parameters
with respect to STs are not available for the purpose of policy planning and
implementation. Therefore, a National Institute of Tribal Development, an
autonomous research organization, has to be set up exclusively for undertaking
research on STs.”
Not only is data not available,
official data that is generated (albeit sometimes unwittingly), uses
irrelevant, and often biased premises and definitions that are loaded against
the scheduled tribes.
(The first part of Chapter 5
and many of the graphics and charts therein demonstrate this fact).
It might be useful to start
planning to set up an autonomous central institute for research on such data
that will eventually bear fruit.
However, this should not divert
from the more immediate requirement of expertly ensuring that such data
concerns are mainstreamed into existing data generation and analyses of all
other governmental departments with immediate effect.
(One assumes that the graphs
provided have also been produced here in order to draw attention to this
discrepancy. Notwithstanding this analytical point, the recommendations i have
not commented upon, along with my critical analyses all hold good, possibly due
to the expert outreach of some of the members of the Xaxa committee etc.).
Chapter 6: Education
6.14: Recommendations
6.14.1
Purpose of education
The report states that
“The purpose of education
anywhere, including in tribal areas, should be to provide chidren with an
understanding of the environment and society in which they live and to endow
them with the capability to earn a livelihood in the local society and, for those who have the desire
and ability, in the national job market.”
It is my opinion that the purpose of education should be to
enable children to understand the world so that they can survive, co-operate
and to enable them to strive to achieve the best of their human potential in a
manner that is just and peaceful.
It is also the purpose of education to attempt to create an
appropriate workforce that will benefit humanity through sustainable
development.
Because of the inter-connectedness of all things, the manner
in which this is done is a matter of crucial decision-making and thus belongs
to the arena of democratic debate and planning.
i also think that the purpose of education is to offer the
generation of teachers (of children) the opportunity to learn from the
questions/responses/presences of the children with humility, with a mission to
upgrade/rewrite the understanding and seeking of human potential in various
dimensions.
In this context, and in the age of e-commerce, yoga and
unchecked land acquisition, i think the reference to the National job market
and reference to livelihoods in local society is limiting, or needs to be
revisited or, in any event, redefined.
(The national economy needs to further refine the way in
which National Income is calculated, and it should reflect the so-called
intangibles, as also diversify the range of intangibles. The aspects of such
intangibles that are associated with intellectual property rights (of
individuals as well as communities) need to be factored in. This would reflect
the already overwhelming contribution of
such entities, to the national economy, for which they are more than entitled
to all that the Constitution of India guarantees.).
6.14.3
Infrastructure for education
While a lot of building infrastructure has been recommended
for schools, it should be reiterated that this, in no way, justifies the
handing over of Schedule 5 land to private educational institutions. Control
and ownership of buildings in such areas should remain with the owner/s of such
land/s. Furthermore, the government should invest in ecologically appropriate
technologies (not necessarily low-cost, but, in fact, high-cost) for
eco-friendly buildings, electricity, and waste disposal.
The question of the need for walls is debatable, both from the points of view of security of the children, culture, land demarcation and local boundary issues as well as the fact that alternatives such as green fences could exist. i would not make a sweeping recommendation for boundary walls in agency areas, at least.
The question of the need for walls is debatable, both from the points of view of security of the children, culture, land demarcation and local boundary issues as well as the fact that alternatives such as green fences could exist. i would not make a sweeping recommendation for boundary walls in agency areas, at least.
6.14.5, 6.14.6, 6.14.7
Teachers
While the recommendations made in connection with Teachers
at the primary, secondary and higher secondary school level are good, a quantum
increase in remuneration, rewards and career- boosts for teachers, as well as a
better system for monitoring their attendance in tribal areas would serve to
ensure that the teachers at least attend class everyday.
Meanwhile, as has been suggested, no time should be wasted
in initiating the process for forming a dedicated cadre of teaching and
administrative staff.
The MoTA should immediately work on preparing the concept
for this said dedicated cadre after widespread consultations. This heading
should then be introduced into the budgetary planning of the central government
without delay.
6.14.10
Tribal culture in education
This would be a good trend. It should be done in a way that
respects tribal culture as not belonging to any one religion, and in reverence
of the multiplicity of energies that are experienced in Nature and Science, and
the perceived inter-connectedness of these energies.
There is also a global element involved here.
The Ministry of Culture should be approached to allocate a substantial budget to tribal gram panchayats and schools for celebrating and conducting and learning about cultural festivals and practices of dance, music, art, drama, storytelling, traditional scientific demonstrations craft etc. which are often connected to natural cycles, resources and phenomena.
There is also a global element involved here.
The Ministry of Culture should be approached to allocate a substantial budget to tribal gram panchayats and schools for celebrating and conducting and learning about cultural festivals and practices of dance, music, art, drama, storytelling, traditional scientific demonstrations craft etc. which are often connected to natural cycles, resources and phenomena.
6.14.11
In connection with the teaching of tribal history, again, a
word of caution that there should be no biased representations of history.
Furthermore, many localized histories of struggles need to be written. Expert
historians along with a cross-section of tribal communities would need to take
stock of and analyse the existing pool of teachings on this, and recommend
methods for teaching this (as with ideal education- there ought to be no
pre-panned syllabus as that depicts the limitation of the teacher and
teachings. Ways of making this subject a journey of discovery and creation for
students should be discussed).
6.14.14
While it has been suggested that he policy of non-detention
in a particular year should be reviewed, i think, for a number of reasons, the
policy of non-detention should continue, but there should be a system (possibly
via tutors) worked out, whereby a student can be allotted to lag behind in the
subject/s in which the student is weak. There is a large unemployed workforce
that could be brought into a formalized system of government-paid home tutors.
However, there should be checks and balances put in place, so that government
teachers do not abdicate their responsibilities or sub-let their own jobs as
has been rumoured in tribal areas in different parts of the country in the
past.
6.14.18
While the suggestions for residential schools for children
of the nomadic tribes are a good one, it must be reiterated that going to a
residential school (or not) should be optional for the children.
Furthermore, there is a historic opportunity to also provide
these children with a third, more enriched, enlightened and futuristic option:
With the use of technology, and by roping in the best and most creative of the
modern world’s teachers, travelling schools could be crafted, to travel with
these (limited number) of tribes and to impart excursion-mode teachings
(drawing, also, from the traditional expertise of the travelling community) to
these students while preparing them for eventual vocations and/or board
examinations.
Otherwise, what is being recommended for these communities who are attuned to wander free-range, could, at one level, amount to a sudden caging, especially because of the kind of abilities, potential and freedom that people with these gene pools might be accustomed to. This might potentially apply to land as well as river and sea routes.
Otherwise, what is being recommended for these communities who are attuned to wander free-range, could, at one level, amount to a sudden caging, especially because of the kind of abilities, potential and freedom that people with these gene pools might be accustomed to. This might potentially apply to land as well as river and sea routes.
6.14.24
The points about expanding the scope of areas of
scholarships for tribal students to the fields of art etc., are good, as is the
single-window scholarship portal.
However, the suggestion to that MoTA should support
scholarships for non-tribals in the field of tribal studies, is in theory, easy
to agree with. However, practically speaking, at this juncture, there is scope
for the funds for this to come from other ministries, and this should be taken
forward accordingly.
Chapter 7: Health
7.15 Health: Conclusions
7.15.4, 7.15.5
Malnutrition has been described as one of the diseases of
Underdevelopment (and the word underdevelopment has been used in its
socio-economic context, not in a medical sense).
In which case, this approach by policy makers and planners
is at the very root of the vast array of problems of disempowerment that tribal
and other communities who sustainably use the earth face today.
It has to be ingrained, in popular understanding, that
malnutrition of STs is a result of certain developmental policies that have led
to a loss of habitat, biodiversity and related lifestyle. (This will then have
a positive bearing on aspects of entitlement of STs to modern healthcare;
intellectual property rights in the pharma sector; protection of land and
habitat rights and so on).
Malnutrition is thus a disease that has been brought about
by external market and policy-related factors, and it must be clarified that it
is not otherwise intrinsic to the situation of what has been described as
“underdevelopment” (the definition of which, in itself, is debatable, using
various sets of parameters).
7.15.8, 7.15.9
The report says that:
“Tribal people carry a
traditional worldview with large number of beliefs and practices which
affect their health, sometimes favorably, but sometimes unfavorably. There
exists a severe gap of scientific knowledge about why diseases are caused and
how to prevent them. This offers a great opportunity for improvement by way of
spreading health literacy.”
Indigenous knowledge and science
being referred to as “beliefs”, at the outset, sounds dismissive of proven
health systems, and is likely to have a bearing on the overall approach to this
issue (while, ironically, other processes continue to rob such communities of
the intellectual rights via the system of patents that has emerged so far).
This is not to say that health
literacy programmes should not exist. However, it should be made mandatory for
all such health literacy plans, at a conceptual level, to be passed through the
scrutiny of bodies such as the Tribes Advisory Council before being approved
for implementation.
7.16 Health: Recommendations
7.16.4
Free healthcare from the state is a right that cannot be
described as perpetual dependence. Excluding such populations from having the
option of benefiting from the advancements of modern science as well as other
health care and facilities shows scant regard for concepts of equity, justice,
sustainable development and fair play, given the costs and contributions of
such communities that numbers and figures of the economy have failed to factor
in so far.
7.16.12
The new system charted out in connection with this would
have its long-term (ten years after a few years from now when the plan is ready
to launch) merits.
A focus on how some of the problems are addressed in the
immediate scenarios and in the interim still need to be worked out.
A word of caution against depriving these areas of the
opportunities of the highest standards of medical aid from outside of the local
areas needs to be rethought or reworked. There should be space and a highly
efficient programme to have a running presence of highly qualified doctors for
short spans of time from the country and the world over, to be employed at these
hospitals.
The immediate requirement of mobile diagnostic services
needs to find mention.
7.16.13
This set of recommendations on ‘health’ also deals with the
topic of Addiction, and says the following:
“Addiction has serious effects on the socio-economic fabric of
tribal society. It affects not only health but also productivity, family
economy, social harmony and ultimately, development. Hence, i) the Excise
Policy for Scheduled Areas, approved by the Ministry of Home Affairs,
Government of India, in 1976 and accepted by the states, should be implemented
effectively, ii) the availability and consumption of tobacco and drugs should
be severely controlled and iii) the availability and use of alcohol and tobacco
products among the Scheduled Tribe population, and the implementation of
control policies by the states, should be monitored on selected indicators.
These efforts should become a critical part of the Tribal Sub-Plan.”
It must be noted that some traditional medicinal plants that
act as painkillers, and which have other palliative effects, and which also
today have a high market value in the pharma sector (such as marijuana), are
categorized by the law as addictive drugs, but should be looked at through an
entirely different policy prism.
The legalizing, regulating and marketing of these non-timber
forest produce and horticultural and/or agricultural products as well as
traditional alcoholic beverages by STs is the direction in which policy should
move (and not "severely controlled", which indicates an oppressive, colonial approach).
V. Shruti Devi
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