DEPARTMENT OF DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
Government College Mananthavady,
Wayanad
&
Institute of Parliamentary Affairs
Government of Kerala
ONE DAY NATIONAL SEMINAR
ON
AFFIRMATIVE
ACTION PROGRAMMES FOR TRIBAL EMPOWERMENT
IN INDIAN DEMOCRACY WITH
SPECIAL REFERENCE TO
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
After independence, India
adopted a federal
parliamentary democracy based
on adult franchise and
socialist planning, and
enacted protective discrimination in
favor of the
scheduled castes and tribes. These policies and programs have benefited
the oppressed communities by improving their living conditions and
socioeconomic status. Over the years the
parliament has been becoming a more effective instrument for expressing public
opinion and voicing public grievances regarding the plight of these
marginalized people, but inequalities persist, manifesting at various levels
in myriad forms
both in urban
and rural areas
of the country.
The initial euphoria generated on
the eve of Indian independence in the August of 1947, and the hopes for
democracy ushered in by the adoption of the Indian Constitution in 1950, do not
resonate today in the
face of a
severe governance and
developmental crisis faced by them.
The deep-rooted inequality in
power relations, as well
as the oppressive
and exploitative forms of
production and feudalization
found in rural
India are the main reasons behind the ineffectiveness of the parliament
in addressing the problems and alienation of tribal people from that of their
mainstream counterparts. Tribal local
governments are often ignored in developmental plans and the benefits of any
actual development rarely percolate down to the local tribes. The Continuous
Erosion of Tribal Rights in land, forest and water Resources is the most
important challenge they are facing today. Any realistic and unbiased analysis
of the present situation of the Indian tribes must inevitably droves certain concerns
regarding the working of parliamentary democracy for addressing the prolonged
neglect of these communities.
In India, tribal communities, which
comprise nearly 100 million citizens of India’s total population, live mostly
in neglected, inaccessible areas and are among the most disadvantaged social
groups in the country. They have a long history of subordination, both
economically and politically to outsiders and have gradually lost control over
community resources such as forests to both settlers and the State. Multinational
corporations are gaining control
over the
natural resources which
constituted the life-support
systems of the tribal
communities. The two main regions
of tribal settlement are the country’s north-eastern states bordering China and
Burma, and the highlands and plains of its central and southern regions. The
latter is home to more than
80 per cent of the
tribes, which differ from
the northeastern tribes
in ethnicity and
in having experienced greater
coexistence with the Indian mainstream living.
Human rights scenario of the
indigenous and tribal people in India remain grim, its future bleak. Since
independence indigenous people were rightly seen as victims of development and
encroachments by non-tribals. The pauperisation of the tribals continued unabated
and unchecked. The affirmative action programmes could not simply keep the pace
with the marginalization of the indigenous and tribal people. The non-tribals
have also illegally occupied hundreds of thousands of acres of land belonging
to tribals by force, allurement and acquiring tribal lands in the name of
tribal wives after marrying them. The tribal and indigenous people have been
the disproportionate victims of displacement due to so called development
projects such as setting up of industrial projects, construction of dams,
mining, etc. Indigenous/tribal people who constituted 8% of the total
population of India at 1991 census also constituted 55.1% of the total
development project-induced displace d persons up to 1990 on account of mega
developmental projects like dams, mining, industries and conservation of nature
etc. And they were seldom rehabilitated. As India’s booming economy requires
more resources, indigenous/tribal people face more displacement. Forcible land
acquisition has been an ongoing irritant in the Indian government’s relations
with village communities, leading to often-violent clashes in which villagers
are killed by the police, who act almost as private agents for companies.
The prolonged neglect of
development in areas populated by tribal communities, coupled with
their forcible displacement
from native forest
lands due to
mass deforestation,
industrialization and feudalistic
landholding practices, is
being harnessed by
ideological political groups to
mobilize these communities into an armed, violent struggle in many parts of the
country. Presently, the situation of the tribals fits into a classical left
wing extremism represented by the revolutionary stream of Indian Marxism which
did not believe that parliamentary democracy would lead to the requisite
systemic change and argued for armed struggle instead. According to the figures
of the Ministry of Home Affairs 21 out of 28 States are afflicted by armed conflict and majority
of these States are afflicted by the Naxalite conflicts, the extreme left wing
armed opposition groups. The Naxals (Maoists) are active mainly in the tribal
belts in mainland India. Neither the Naxal movement is led by the tribals, nor
do the demands of the Naxalites relate to the tribals. The tribal simply fit into their class-war of
the Naxalites. They are victims as well as perpetrators, and the pawns of the
conflict. This in turn
has resulted in
widespread, state led counter insurgency operations
involving large-scale violations
of human rights.
Thus the issue of denial of
opportunities to tribal and indigenous population invites special attention
especially in the context of federal form of governance with laudable autonomy
of the state governments, within the framework of parliamentary democracy. Considering
the above mentioned issues, the Department of Development Economics, Government
College Mananthavady intends to conduct two days a one day National Seminar on “Affirmative Action Programmes for Tribal
Empowerment in Indian Democracy with Special Reference to Economic Development”.
The broad area under discussion will also include following sub themes.
- ·
Democratic Governance and the
impairment of Tribal rights
- ·
Political Economy of left wing extremism
in the country with special reference to economic development and its lessons
to Parliamentary democracy.
- ·
Parliamentary responses to tribal
militancy – A critical analysis
- ·
Identity politics and social
exclusion of Tribal population
- ·
Armed conflicts, Human right
violations and Tribals.
We intend to extend our invitation to serious
minded teachers, research scholars, students, legislators, social and political
activists and policy makers. We also intend to conduct a special session on the
recent spurt in Maoist insurgency in the country with special reference to
economic development and its lessons to Parliamentary democracy by inviting
leading activists at the national level.