Panel report demands giving more power to tribal village councils

NEW DELHI: As Jharkhand gets all set to welcome its first non-tribal chief minister in Raghuvar Das, a scathing report on the socio-economic and health parameters of Tribals in India has called into question the way tribal land rights have been dealt by the Indian state, and recommended far reaching changes in the way these issues are handled.

The report, submitted by a high level committee headed by Professor Virginius Xaxa in May this year is scathing in the way that the development agenda had been pursued. “Laws and rules that provide protection to tribes are being routinely manipulated and subverted to accommodate corporate interests. Tribal protests are being met with violence by the State’s paramilitary forces and the private security staff of corporations involved,” the report says.

Besides Xaxa, the members of the committee are K K Misra, Abhay Bang, Joseph Bara, Sunila Basant, Usha Ramanathan and Hrusikesh Panda, serving secretary of the tribal affairs ministry.

The report, which runs into over 400 pages and is an exhaustive recounting of the state of tribals in India including health indicators, says that tribal land should not be alienated without the consent of the tribal gram sabha (village council). It has also recommended that mining in their land should be carried out by tribals themselves as has been done in some cases in Andhra Pradesh, through tribal cooperatives.

“It is essential that the whole process of displacement should be democratic and rights of tribal communities to say ‘no’ to acquisition of their land and to access and manage forests and other common property resources (CPRs), be recognised,” the report notes.