Let The Tribal Peoples Voice Lead - Virginius Xaxa

Historically, Tribal Communities have best flourished in their own domain, where they had ownership of land and forests, which they protected prudently. Sadly, when they are displaced because of dams, industries or other infrastructure, often there is either no or inadequate rehabilitation, resettlement and compensation. In Odisha and Jharkhand where poverty among adivasis is highest, displacement has also been maximum. Weak governance is the main reason for poverty and chronic undernutrition among tribal children.

Tribal Peoples rely heavily on forests for their livelihood and close to half of their daily food intake comes from the forest. It follows that restricting their access to forests has a direct impact on their lives, nutrition status and therefore the overall quality of health.
In the past, when Tribal Peoples lived in the forest, a wide variety of foods ranging from vegetables, fruits, milk and animal products were available. But after moving out of their habitat, poor income has restricted their ability to buy a variety of foods and this has had an adverse implication on their lives. Families also find it difficult to adjust to the new food practices; unsurprisingly therefore, there is considerable deficiency in food intake.

The Constitution provides protection along with the provisions for development and implementation of welfare programmes and schemes for adivasis. However, there has been too much concentration on the development part but the protection part has not been taken care of. All the affirmative action programmes of education, health and employment gets countered by the larger issue of the political space that actually throws them out from their livelihood and where their voice is unfortunately missing or unheard.

In order to make a difference to their lives, it is important that for some time, the larger trends in political economy of development are altered to ensure that Tribal Peoples are really able to develop. The constitutional guarantee to provide protection to Tribal Peoples must be ensured along with the effective implementation of the different affirmative action programmes and schemes.

The larger questions relating to land and forests should be addressed by giving Tribal communities their entitlements to land, forests and other kinds of resources. If they have their own voice, possibly a state of their own, and autonomy over their territory, they should be better able to articulate their needs more forcefully. Therefore, the real issue is to change the paternalistic mindset of the government that something good for the people being done to ensuring voice and space is provided to them. This will help in regaining their right to a better and productive life.

Professor Virginius Xaxa, Deputy Director, Tata Institute of Social Science, Guwahati