Tazeem Haider | India Tomorrow
New Delhi, August 13— “We are tribal and we want our status to be maintained as the same. We want our rights on forest, water and land. We do not want to be removed from forest”, said Nili Minch from Jharkhand. She was among scores of tribal protesters gathered at Jantar Mantar on August 9, the World Tribal Day. They demanded the day to be declared as National Tribal/Adivasi Day.
The tribals demanded that they should not be evicted from forest. In a memorandum given to President of India Ram Nath Kovind, they claimed that under the Forest Rights Act-2006 (FRA 2006) millions of indigenous forest-dwelling Indians are facing the world’s biggest mass eviction in the name of forest conservation.
“Nearly 2 million tribal and forest dwelling families are affected by the recent judgement of Honourable Supreme Court of India by rejecting their claim due to a lack of paperwork or flaws in the application system”, the memorandum said.
They were referring to an order of the SC in February this year, which it later stayed, seeking eviction of those people who have not been successful in establishing their claims as forest dwellers.
Maksima Eka, another tribal, said, “We are about to lose our rights on forest, land and water. We demand the government not to forfeit our rights and let us remain in peace”.
Shanti Karkatta said, “We are raising voices for our rights. We demand the government to preserve our culture and not to evacuate us from forest”.
Those who have left forest decades ago are also facing numerous issues. They are homeless and have no work to do. There were many tribals in the protest who are residing in the national capital for the last several decades. They demanded employment and land to live in. Most of them are hawkers on the roads and live in slum clusters majorly from East Delhi.
One of them is Manohar. He said, “We are from Bhopal and living in Delhi. We have no place to live in and no work to do. We are Gond Tribal. We want some place to live in. We sell mixtures in buses and on roadsides.”
Another protester Geeta said, “Our children are ailing with several diseases. We are homeless and want some place to live”.
Leela said “We are tribal from Madhya Pradesh and live in Delhi for almost 40 years. We have no house and live in Jhuggi cluster. We have eight family members. We and our children sell mixtures. At times we have to sleep without food.”
Far away from Delhi, a positive development took place in Madhya Pradesh on the World Tribal Day when state Chief Minister Kamal Nath announced debts taken by tribals from private moneylenders would be waived off.
Apart from this, he promised to give tribals a debit card through which they can get up to Rs 10,000.
“Debt till August 15 taken by those living in tribal blocks will be waived off. This will be applicable to those families living in Scheduled Tribal areas. There will also be efforts to get back the jewellery and land. And, now whoever wants to lend a loan will have to take a moneylender’s license,” Kamal Nath said during a ceremony held at Polo Ground.
In addition to this, he said those born in a tribal family will get 50 quintals of grain and in case of a death, 100 quintals grain will be provided.
The Chief Minister also said that debit card will be given to tribals so that they don’t have to borrow money. An amount of up to Rs 10,000 can be taken from that.
On this occasion, the Chief Minister also announced that the name of Tribal Affairs Department will be changed to Tribal Development Department.
Notably, 89 blocks of 19 districts of the state are Scheduled Tribe areas where tribals reside.
—With Inputs From IANS
