Tribal Bill: Day after, activists cry foul

On closer examination of the version of the STs and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Bill, 2005 passed by the Lok Sabha, they now believe that they have been short-changed.

The fine-print shows that the Bill is not as strong on legal grounds, manages to exclude a number of forest dwellers and still makes the Forest department and the bureaucracy reign supreme over rights on forest land. This also puts the Left parties campaigning for rights of tribals in a fix as they were party to the voice vote yesterday.

The activists today condemned the extremely “undemocratic and manipulative process through which these changes were made’’.

MPs were not shown the government amendments until 10 minutes before the debate began in the House. They claim that it was ensured that the Bill was not brought up until the very end of the session, “presenting political leaders with a Hobson’s choice of either allowing this ‘mutilated version’ to pass, or fighting for changes and thereby delaying the legislation by months’’.

Some of the reasons why the tribals believe they have got a raw deal are:

• The demand was for a reasonable definition of “forest dwelling ST” and “other traditional forest dweller”, but the Bill talks of only those who reside “in/on’’ forest land. According to them, most tribals do not reside within the forest land and hence the JPC had defined them as “in close proximity of’’ forests.

• The JPC had asked for overreaching powers for the Gram Sabha. The version cleared only talks of Gram Sabha “recognising the rights’’of tribals. The beneficiaries may still need to go to district officials for pattas.

• The activists fear that this Bill can be challenged in court as it retains a para, which makes it subservient to existing laws. It says: “Save as otherwise provided in this Act, the provisions of this Act shall be in addition to and not in derogation of the provisions of any other law for the time being in force.’’

• The Bill leaves out non-tribals in the forest villages, which are units created by the government in the forests. It is estimated that there are about 7,000 forest villages in the country and half of them have non-tribals living in them.

After half an hour of protest, the minister agreed to meet a delegation. However, he only agreed to look into the matter and requested a memorandum on the subject.