The originator of the Constitution caught a glimpse of the fact that in some
areas of India people are tolerating social, educational, and economic
backwardness. To overcome this situation or we can say to develop themselves in
a socio-economic way they need some special remedy for the same they announced
as Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes as per provisions embodied in Article
341 and Article 342 of our Indian Constitution.
Background
Earlier, the scheduled tribes people were called 'Adivasi' or indigenous people
and 'Girijan' by Mahatma Gandhi. According to Anthropologists, Scientists of
Oxford, human living first originated in Africa 120,000 years ago and about 2000
generations ago ( i.e. 50000 years) the very first emigrants from Africa were
Indians who probably were the indigenous people of our country.
Before going ahead let's discuss tribal people and how they are connected to
India:
The tribes are the native people of the territory who are believed to be the
earliest colonists in the Indian region. According to the historical era, shown
in the census of 1991, the population of tribal people was 6776million. And as
we compare from the present era, according to the last census India has a
104million or 8.6% of the total population of tribal people.
Therefore, Indians
have the second-largest tribal population after Africa.
Schedule tribes come under Schedule 5 of the Constitution hence, tribal people
are also recognized by Constitution as Scheduled Tribes. Article 366(25) defined
scheduled tribes as the inhabitants with such communities as held under Article
342 to be known as Schedule Tribes for the constitution.
In article 342 of the Indian Constitution, it exhibited the procedure which
should go through in an entity of specification of Schedule tribespeople. With
the talk with the governor of any state of the union territory, giving public
notice shows about the tribal people deemed under Scheduled tribes about that
particular state or Union territory. Only Parliament has the right to involve or
eliminate from the list of Scheduled tribes which is specified in a notification
that is allocated under any tribal community. But the first specification is
only done by the president of any state of union territory with concern with
state governments.
With the estimates of the census of 1990, 85lakh of Scheduled Tribes have been
displaced for various reasons such as dams, mines, sanctuaries, industries, etc.
This clearly shows that the majority or almost all industrial sector Scheduled
tribes employees and their homes come under displaced people.
Right of displaced people: a gray area
The displaced people of India come under grey areas because according to the
UN's computation, there are approximately a 135million people who come under
this area. The people who live in such areas face many difficulties as they
don't even have proper electricity and water facilities to survive. Also, they
don't have a reasonable source to cook the food they usually take up wood-based
fuels for cooking.
The people who live in such places come more about government plans to get more
strength. Usually, they live in singled-out regions alongside those who are
marginalized. We can observe that the people of gray areas face many difficult
situations as current energy practices are often inadequate, contaminating,
risky for the user, and fatal to the surrounding.
If also displaced people go
back to their native places their condition would not go for better they may
face more of the worst situations. Not only in their survival but the displaced
people also get discriminated from normal people in the field of education and
service i.e, schools and offices. The position they get there is different or
can effortlessly be lower than other people. For such problems, the displaced
people do not get their rights which are made for every citizen. We have
discussed certain policies which help to secure the rights of displaced people.
The displaced people: Scheduled tribes
To come out of the worst situation the government takes up the western concepts
for developing their country after the independence when India has nothing and
was not even prepared to go ahead with their next step. They took the beliefs of
other countries. But after many years of Independence India is in a situation
where they can make and make easy decisions to go with their new ideologies for
their development. As we already knew that India obtained western ideologies for
their development but now they are facing some fallouts and the enormous effect
is the displacement of tribals and other marginalized communities.
We already knew displacement is not a part of India for the last few years. This
goes on for many coming years also they displaced around 20lakh people from
their rooted grounds. Here is some analysis that shows how displacement took
place.
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Displaced by Development
The strategy which they adopted to take up the development oversees more
backwardness to weaker section people. Taking up the five-year plan's strategies
where the people start going displaced also the land acquisition leads to a lot
of pollution, which also includes hydro-electrical and irrigation targets. More
sources are like military installations, parks, and grasslands.
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Displacement and the law
We already knew there are some rights for every citizen of India and the law
looks after all the situations where it cannot be violated but when we talk
about the situation of backward classes people their rights get violated and no
extra care and action are taken up.
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Displacement and Rehabilitation
The words displacement and rehabilitation should be used in such a way that if
aside where displacement takes place suddenly replaced with rehabilitation. The
government should come up with a policy where the weaker section people can
adopt particular policies for their developments. This results in the financial
happiness of people and also increases their standards and livelihoods.
Ways to secure the rights of the displaced people
The National Policy for Tribals, therefore, specifies that displacement of
tribal people is kept to the minimum and embarked only after likelihoods of
non-displacement and least displacement have been depleted. When it becomes
necessary to displace Scheduled Tribe people in the larger interest, the
displaced should be provided a better standard of living.
Here Are Some Of The Ways Which Help To Secure Rights Of Displaced People
And Help Them To Develop Themselves:
- Conventional education:
- Tribals are involved in the national program of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan run by the
Ministry of Human Resource Development.
- Schools and hostels should be opened in areas where no such discriminations
exist.
- At least one model residential school is fixed in each tribal concentration
area.
- Special grounds like financial aid, pocket subsidy, free distribution of
textbooks, and school uniforms are furnished.
- Teaching is imparted in tribals' mother tongue at least up to the basic level.
- Educated tribal youth are given employment as teachers, wherever possible this
helps tribal people to get employment.
- Traditional wisdom:
- Protect and improve such traditional proficiency and learning and ascertain it.
- Ascertain a center to educate tribal youth in areas of formal wisdom.
- Convey such through models and exhibits at relevant places.
- Alter such knowledge to non-tribal areas.
- Health:
- Enhance the allopathy system of medication in tribal areas with the expansion of
the three-tier system of village health workers, secondary nurse midwives, and
central health centers.
- Broaden the number of hospitals in tune with the tribal population.
- Assess specified tribal remedies (folk claims) used in different tribal areas.
- Promote cultivation of therapeutic plants related value addition techniques
through imparting regime to teenagers and Encourage authorized specialists from
tribal societies to serve tribal areas.
- Emphasize the form of a strong force of tribal village health guides through
regular training-cum-orientation lessons.
- Compose area-specific techniques to enhance access to and utilization of health
services.
- Intellectual Property Rights:
Scheduled Tribes are recognized for their mastery and understanding of racial
heritage. There is no legal and institutional rack to defend their intellectual
property rights. The National Policy aims at making formal and institutional
configurations to ensure their intellectual property rights and lessening the
rights of corporate and other factors to access and capitalize their reserve
base.
- Displacement and Resettlement:
- When displacement becomes unavoidable, each scheduled tribe family
having land in the earlier settlement shall be given land against the land
- A minimum of two hectares of cultivable land is considered necessary and viable
for a family (comprising a man, his wife, and unmarried children).
- Tribal families having fishing rights in their original habitat shall be granted
fishing rights in the new reservoir or at any other alternative place.
- Reservation privileges celebrated at the original settlement shall be
continued at the resettlement area.
- Extra monetary relief equivalent to nearly one and a half year's minimum
agricultural earnings for the expense of customary rights and usufructuary
rights of forest elicit shall be given.
- Tribals are to be resettled close to their natural habitat by dealing with all
the people so displaced as one group to let them maintain their ethnic, verbal,
and socio-cultural identity and the network of kinship and common obligations.
- Free land is to be provided for social and religious communities.
- When tribal families are resettled en masse, all basic minimum conveniences
shall be furnished in the new areas.
- They include roads and passages, electricity, drainage and sanitation, safe
drinking water, educational and health care facilities, fair price shops, a
community hall, and a panchayat office.
Conclusion
Scheduled tribes people confronted certain complications in their habitation
time. It was conceivably due to this purpose that this portion of the Indian
population which was simply having the profile of obstacles and further
indicated the major invasion of displacement compelling them of their most
precious land and ecology that the censuses were planned to study their working
and living condition in the new environment of industrial life along with their
coping mechanism.
To bring the Tribals into the country's mainstream, the National Policy
envisages many ways:
- Designation of tribal groups with 'primitive aspects' shall be done away
with on a preference basis
- The 'distinct culture' of the tribes reflected in their folk art, folk
literature, traditional crafts, and ethos shall be retained.
- Their oral myths shall be reported and art stimulated.
- Chances shall be provided for tribals to interact with outside cultures.
- Their geographical intimacy shall be underestimated through the growth of
highways, conveyance, and means of transmission and provision of concessional
travel facilities.
References:
- Scheduled Tribes in India - Definition, Criteria, and Full List -
ClearIAS
- Tribal Population in India - Important Characteristics of Indian Tribes
(saching.com)
- SE_GUJARAT 06-07_CHAPTER I.pdf (labourbureau.gov.in)
- 17561PB_17_Draft.pdf (un.org)
- How Many People Will We Continue to Displace In the Name of Development?
| Economic and Political Weekly (PW. in)
- National Policy On Tribals (mcrhrdi.gov.in)
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