Landless Dalits, tribals still denied FRA boons

The Forest Rights Act (FRA) is an outcome of a long time struggle of people to have rights over the forest land and other forest resources for livelihood but unfortunately such legal rights are being discriminately implemented. As such the poor forest dwellers are denied all types of genuine livelihood opportunities in their surroundings though they have been living over the forest area since generations. This is against the principles of making available equal opportunities by the State under the provisions of the law and denial of entitlements to the marginalised sections of the State for inclusive growth.

It is reported in 2017 by the State Government that about 4 lakh individual family title and 5,942 community rights covering nearly 6lakh acres and 3lakh 27 thousand acres repectively have been distributed under the FRA 2006. But this list is not inclusive of the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTG) and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (OTFD) who have very insignificant presence in the list as many of the claims from the categories have been rejected without assigning any cause.

There are about one and a half lakh claims being rejected by the committees constituted by the State Government. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India in its report of 2017 on General and Social Sector of Government of Odisha very clearly reported the gaps in implementation of the FRA. The CAG has also in its recommendation says to cover all prospective beneficiaries under the provision of the law. Under the category of the OTFD, there are Dalits, OBCs and other forest dwellers who have been denied benefits.

The most deserving beneficiaries of the FRA must be the PVTGs who are living in most vulnerable condition in most inaccessible parts mostly in forest areas and many of them have to migrate to planes living in most distress condition, such as the Mankidia and Juanga tribals in Sukinda chrome valley of Jajpur district. They need to be protected with special care and protection though they are not well versed with the State laws and about their rights and entitlements but they should not be denied their due share only because of their illiteracy and ignorance.

The Dalit communities who constitute about one- fifth of the population of the State have been facing historical injustice of age-old practice of untouchability and many from of caste-based social discriminations for centuries. They are deprived of all kinds of social and economic rights and entitlements in forest areas and forest fringe villages of the State. They used to enjoy symbiotic relationship while equally dependent on forest land for livelihood.

Both the communities have been a part of the persistent struggles to save forest resources and are in the forefront of the people’s movement against the continued land grabbing by corporates with active patronization of the State. Both the communities are betrayed in land reforms in the State in the sixties and landlessness among them continues with many ramifications over their socio-economic life. The socio-economic condition of the SCs and STs is almost the same due to marginalization and continued apathy in implementation of various protective provisions for their human development and lack of fair share in budget, education and employment. It is most unfortunate that one of the largest post independent land reform programmes implemented through FRA in the has failed to ensure due rights and entitlements to the landless Dalits.

Similarly, the traditional milk farmers of Odisha who constitute a major chunk of most backward among OBC population of the State are also dependent on forest land, especially in south western parts, backward districts of Kandhamal, Kalahandi, Bolangir and Nuapada etc. A majority of the households are landless and their livelihood is very much linked to forest land in many ways. Due to lack of awareness about the law, the forest officials have been showing a kind of impression that the FRA is not for Dalits and other land less. There has been a deliberate attempt to alienate Dalits and other marginalized sections from resources of the State through their attitude and action even in spite of provisions of law and constitutional mandate.

There has been no clarity in identifying STs of the State. The Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs has proposed a list of about a 100 of tribal groups to be included into STs of the State. The Sabara/Saara has been struggling for a long time for the status. About nine lakh people have been deprived of their constitutional rights for a long time due to the fault of the State Government.

Similarly, how much is the forest area of the State? Is there any proper survey in hilly areas and demarcation? These are the basic questions that the State Government has not yet settled before the implementation of the FRA.  The demarcation issue between Forest and Revenue departments has been a major conflicting area in getting possession of land. The forest areas in coast from Baleswa to Ganjam, such as mangrove forest of the State and its landless inhabitants, are not getting priority in the implementation of the FRA.

The ground reality shows there has been a lack of adequate awareness about FRA among the STs and OTRD living in forest and forest fringe villages. The local Government officials in charge of the implementation process are not properly trained about the rules and procedures to take the process to its logical end and in guiding the probable beneficiaries.

The committee meetings are not being conducted properly involving the people of the villages and it is mostly the local Government officials who usually prepare the list on behalf of the committee. It is reported that in many places the applications of PVTG and OTFD has not been entertained by the local officials; even it is unfortunate that many civil society groups campaigning for FRA do not bother much for such denial of entitlements of the marginalized sections. There are about 48,000 forest rights committees formed by the Grama Sabha in the State. The forest rights committee members at bottom level are mostly unaware about their role and responsibility and the survey revealed that many of the members are not even aware about their membership.

There has been no coordination among Forest, Revenue and STs and SCs Development Department in the process of identification of beneficiaries and allotments of titles and demarcation of the land. Ideally, the families having land should be linked to other development programmes under convergence of various anti-poverty schemes, forestry, and agro forestry, watershed and agriculture development activities that contribute to growth of forest resources and livelihood of the forest dwellers. But experience shows though almost ten years have passed since its existence, the FRA has not been implemented in right spirit and still there are many deserving landless families struggling to get title over their land.

(manasbbsr15@gmail.com)