ANTHROPOLOGY SINPPETS

Brick By Brick, Grain By Grain, Gyarsi Bai And Team Stock Up Against Starvation o • The sun is about to set in Sunda village in Kishanganj block of Baran district that lies in southeast Rajasthan, on the border with Madhya Pradesh. A group of men and women dig the earth with spades on a small plot at one end of the village. They are Sahariyas, categorised by the government as a ‘primitive’ tribal group, hard at work on a self-initiated special project: A grain bank for their community. • The elders in the group describe why these families decided to do ‘shram daan’, volunteer and pool their labour, to build this grain bank. “It will enable us to not only guard against hunger but also give us freedom to choose our livelihood,” says Gyarsi Bai Sahariya, who works with the Jagrut Mahila Manch, a local non-government organisation, to organise tribal women in Baran. “Once it is there, we will neither have to worry about irregularities in public rations, nor will we have to depend for food on rich landlords,” she adds. • Gyarsi Bai, 49, was born into a poor landless family in Faldi village, a few kilometres from Sunda. She became active in organising the Sahariyas, especially women, after she came into contact with Charumitra Mehru and Moti Lal, activists of the Lok Jumbish programme, in 1992. She joined them in encouraging her community women to send girls to school. • Over the years she has mobilised Sahariyas to fight for their dues under the public ration system and mobilised them to join campaigns for Right to Information and employment guarantee. “Because many of us did not go to school, landlords try to cheat us out of our rights and our land. Even to get ration cards we have to sit in ‘dharnas’ (sit-in protest) in Jaipur and Beawar,” says Gyarsi Bai, who led community meetings in Sunda to plan the building of the grain bank. • Baran district, and particularly the Sahariya families living here – concentrated largely in the two blocks of Kishanganj and Shahabad – have come to national attention because of several hunger deaths over the last 12 years. The death of 47 Sahariyas because of starvation during the 2001 drought even triggered a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court on the right to food. Hunger deaths have been reported as recently as in 2004 and again three years ago in 2009. • It’s not like Baran is a completely arid area. In fact, the land here is fertile and supports two to three crops a year – mustard, cotton, wheat, or gram. More than tough terrain or harsh climatic conditions, it is the Sahariyas’ landlessness and feudal relations with primitive methods of production prevalent in these parts that have made them vulnerable to poor nutrition and starvation. • Sahariyas have been the focus of several government schemes since the 1960s but most are patchily implemented. They lost their traditional access to timber, gum, and mahua over time as large swathes of the deciduous forests in Baran disappeared. Of 1,030 land claims submitted in Kishanganj and Shahabad blocks since the Forest Rights Act 2006 came into force, the government has distributed land in 354 cases, a little over a third. • “Traditionally, we were not agriculturists. Over the years, we lost whatever small landholdings we had, to rich local landlords,” explains Gyarsi Bai, describing how Jat and Sikh landowners, who migrated to Baran from Punjab in the 1970s, gradually consolidated landholdings there. Hundreds of Sahariya families now work as ‘halis’, or bonded labourers, for the same landlords. They have worked without wages for years, in some instances over two and three generations. • This tribal group is entitled to 35 kilos of food grain every month under the government’s Antyodaya scheme. But many do not have ration cards and some complain of irregularity in getting rations on time. So, many have remained dependant on the landlords. “The landlord would give us 10-15 kilos of wheat once every few weeks, sometimes he would give us Rs 9-15 once a month for small expenses,” says Janaki Sahariya, who worked without wages for landlord Bittiya Singh in Sunda village for four years, against a bonded debt of Rs 20,000. • A struggle for freedom against these feudal practices began among the Sahariyas of Baran in November 2010 after the government agreed to release 16 families working as ‘halis’, who gave testimony at a ‘dharna’ for minimum wages under the MGNREGA at Jaipur. Since then 145 Sahariya families have been freed after the district administration waived off their bonded debt. Moreover, the state government has initiated a land survey in the district to redistribute land. • Today, the Sahariya families of Sunda village are making an effort to set themselves free from the curse of starvation, too. They say the setting up of the grain bank is an important intervention in this regard. It is necessary for them to be able to ensure they remain food secure irrespective of the state’s support or the landlords’ beneficence. • We have already pooled five quintals of wheat, which we have been collecting over the last year from a portion of the public rations that we are entitled to. It is stored at the anaganwadi temporarily. Over the next two to three weeks we will build the grain bank with our labour • says Babulal Sahariya, who worked without wages for 12 years for a landlord against a bonded debt of Rs 45,000. • In mid-January 2012, local landlords raised objections to their choice of land, claiming that it is forest area. However, records revealed that it was revenue land and the district officials have given the project a go-ahead. • The 40 Sahariya families of Chainpura, a tiny hamlet in Sunda, have chalked out in detail the norms that will govern the grain bank’s functioning. “Each household will contribute five kilos of wheat to the grain bank every month. Anyone would be able to take food grains as long as they replenish the stock adding a kilo for each month of borrowing,” elaborates Gyarsi Bai. Hemraj Sahariya and Swaroop Sahariya, both in their late teens, who are literate and were working as ‘halis’ until last year, have been appointed to keep basic accounts. “I can sign my name and count till 100,” Hemraj smiles, sitting at one corner of the 17 x 9 feet plot. Construction is now almost complete and the Sahariyas expect to start using the grain bank in a few days. • Says Gyarsi Bai, with satisfaction, “When we fled from the landlords’ farms, our biggest concern was where will we get food from now that no landlord will employ us. By pooling together five kilos of wheat each, we are no longer worried about going hungry.” • Following these families’ protracted struggle against being kept as bonded labourers, the Rajasthan government has entitled Sahariya families to 200 days of work under MGNREGA, twice the national norm. And they have begun some additional savings as well. “Some families have also started a ‘marriage fund’, putting together Rs 100 from their wages to tide over credit for consumption needs such as wedding ceremonies,” says Moti Lal, an activist with a local NGO, Sankalp, and a member of the bonded labour vigilance committee set up by the district administration last year. The women organised into three savings groups, and the men into four savings groups, pool in money from their MGNREGA and other daily wage work every week and deposit it in a bank account. • Freedom from bondage; freedom from hunger; freedom from malnutrition – Saharaiya women like Gyarsi Bai are looking for ways to break out of their “starved” existence. Setting up a grain bank is a great first step-vishnu ias

Brick By Brick, Grain By Grain, Gyarsi Bai And Team Stock Up Against Starvation

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Brick By Brick, Grain By Grain, Gyarsi Bai And Team Stock Up Against Starvation The sun is about to set in Sunda village in Kishanganj block of Baran district that lies in southeast Rajasthan, on the border with Madhya Pradesh. A group of men and women dig the earth with spades on a small plot […]

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Anang Bhagwati supports NGOs to build tribal marts-anthropology-vishnu ias

Anang Bhagwati supports NGOs to build tribal marts

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Anang Bhagwati supports NGOs to build tribal marts   Anang Bhagwati, 14 years young youth of India, inspiring NGOs of the Nation through the creative initiative of Tribal Mart for building sustainable cities and communities with United First. 14 years old Anang, study in Sahyadri Kfi, Pune. He has supported in building two tribal marts

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73%-rise-in-healthcare-facilities-in-tribal-areas-between-2005-and-upsc-anthropology-vishnuias

73% rise in healthcare facilities in tribal areas between 2005 and 2020: GoI data

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73% rise in healthcare facilities in tribal areas between 2005 and 2020: GoI data The number of SHC’s in tribal areas reportedly increased by 78% in 2020There has been a 73 per cent increase in healthcare facilities in tribal areas between 2005 and 2020 as compared to a 10 per cent increase across the country,

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Forest Rights Act is quite clear on genuine forest dwellers, but states are letting it down  India cannot save her forests, but for the active involvement of the forest dwelling scheduled tribes. The Scheduled Tribes and Forest Dwellers Recognition of Forest Rights Act, 2006 as well as the Rules, 2007, are quite clear and unambiguous on the right of habitatation and other forest rights. But the problem begins when it comes to the implementation of the law by the states. To blame the Supreme Court’s recent judgment for the probable eviction of over one million tribal people — as the media and others are doing — is wrong and it is perhaps due to misrepresentation of both law and fact. The law as it stands automatically vests rights of residence/habitation to genuine forest right holders especially scheduled tribes. The rejection, if at all, largely relates to extent of cultivation. The court directed the states to evict people who were not able to establish their claims as forest dwellers under the Forest Rights Act. The law or the order isn’t the problem here, the states are. By making the burden of proof so heavy, the states have risked the eviction of genuine forest dwellers. The right to habitation While the framework of the Forest Rights Act was rather simple, too many complicated procedures and forms were introduced through state clarifications and office directions. The law, as it stands, automatically recognised and vested the forest rights to the ‘forest dwelling schedule tribes as well as other traditional forest dwellers’. It gave them two basic rights: habitation and self-cultivation, something they enjoyed before the law was passed as well. The law also makes a distinction between forest rights for scheduled tribes and forest rights for dwellers other than scheduled tribes in terms of their eligibility. The right to habitation has been automatically vested in the act, provided the scheduled tribe family proves that they existed on that location before 13 December 2005 and were cultivating on an extent piece of forest land. Any genuine tribal family residing in that area would not have any problem in proving that. It would be more difficult for ‘other traditional forest dwellers’ because they have to prove that they were residents of that area for three generations — generations being 25 years each. However, when it came to the verification, the states introduced complex processes for both. Genuine forest dwellers Verifying the extent of cultivation on such forest land and habitation would have to be done through a three-level scrutiny process by the gram sabha, the sub-division level committee and the district level committee. It was supposed to be facilitated by a forest rights committee, a subset of the gram sabha, with the technical help of other related departments including the forest, tribal, revenue and the Panchayats. It is no body’s case that fresh encroachments should be regularised in a forest area. But for the states to make the process so complicated for scheduled tribes who existed as on 13 December 2005, which can be proved quite easily through a large menu of evidence envisaged under the Rule 14 of the Forest Rights Rules, is unfair. It risks throwing the baby out with the bathwater. The Supreme Court needs to caution the states and dig a little deeper to understand the complexity of this historic legislation on at least two counts. First, questioning the number of rejections that have been produced by the states and whether there is solid evidence to that effect or not. Often in a target-oriented and scheme-oriented country, numbers play a huge role. The god is in the details, and so is the devil. Second, probing the number of appeals that are pending on both bogus claims as well as genuine claims at the appellate authorities under the Forest Rights Act. It is necessary that a powerful and equipped monitoring body is established as a special purpose vehicle under the aegis of the Supreme Court itself since the states have failed in doing so. This role was supposed to be performed by the state level monitoring committees, which are by and large defunct and dysfunctional, and clearly not doing its statutory duty. Treading cautiously It must be understood that a rejection of claim to a forest right over cultivation of an extent piece of forest land, or rejection due to technicalities of the form itself, or wrong interpretation by the sub-division level committee or the district level committee, or a non-proactive state-level monitoring committee should not lead to genuine tribal families being deprived of their rightful homes as guaranteed by the act. Because that would perhaps lead to another big ‘historical injustice’ that we won’t be able to amend. So, the judiciary, the states and the petitioners must tread cautiously because India won’t be able to save her forests without the active involvement of the forest dwelling scheduled tribes. An appeal to the PM Narendra Modi government is that let it remain the forest rights act and not a forest frights act.-anthropology-vishnu ias

Forest Rights Act is quite clear on genuine forest dwellers, but states are letting it down

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Forest Rights Act is quite clear on genuine forest dwellers, but states are letting it down   India cannot save her forests, but for the active involvement of the forest dwelling scheduled tribes. The Scheduled Tribes and Forest Dwellers Recognition of Forest Rights Act, 2006 as well as the Rules, 2007, are quite clear and

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top-csr-projects-for-tribal-welfare

 Top CSR Projects for Tribal Welfare

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 Top CSR Projects for Tribal Welfare   With a population of more than 10.2 crores, India has the single largest tribal population in the world yet has rather few government and corporate initiatives working for its betterment. Here are the Corporate Social Responsibility interventions doing justice to the humongous but long-ignored adivasis of India. Top

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Forest depts as nodal agency for community forest resources: A political blunder -anthropology-vishnu ias

Forest depts as nodal agency for community forest resources: A political blunder 

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Forest depts as nodal agency for community forest resources: A political blunder    The Chhattisgarh government issued an order on May 31, 2020 making the state forest department the nodal agency for Community Forest Resource Rights (CFRR) under the Scheduled Tribes and the Traditional Forest Dwellers Act, 2006. The move invoked discontent from several quarters.

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Swords in hand, tribal women pray for rain in Rajasthan-upsc-vishnu ias

Swords in hand, tribal women pray for rain in Rajasthan

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Swords in hand, tribal women pray for rain in Rajasthan   Everyone is apprehending now that the water crisis will result in fights on the streets, but tribal women of Rajasthan’s Banswara district have been warning for this for years. They take out a procession with swords and sticks in their hands and urge God

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Tribal women farmers train to be ‘nutrition entrepreneurs’ to contribute to healthier community diets-anthropology-vishnu ias

Tribal women farmers train to be ‘nutrition entrepreneurs’ to contribute to healthier community diets

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Tribal women farmers train to be ‘nutrition entrepreneurs’ to contribute to healthier community diets   The hands that farm the fields and cook the family meals are now taking on bigger ventures by running small businesses that contribute to healthier community diets. To take on the role of ‘nutrition entrepreneurs’ tribal women farmers in Telangana,

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How a School Is Giving Hope to Chattisgarh’s “Particularly Vulnerable” Pahadi Korba Tribe-anthropology-vishnu ias

How a School Is Giving Hope to Chattisgarh’s “Particularly Vulnerable” Pahadi Korba Tribe

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How a School Is Giving Hope to  Chattisgarh’s “Particularly Vulnerable” Pahadi Korba Tribe The only primary school in one of the most remote and backward regions of Chhattisgarh has brightened the future prospects of the Pahadi Korva tribes living here. It is the region’s first school since India’s independence and, notwithstanding the remote forests and

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Kharchi Puja, Synthesis Of Tribal And Hindu Culture, Begins In Tripura-anthropology-vishnu ias

Kharchi Puja, Synthesis Of Tribal And Hindu Culture, Begins In Tripura

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Kharchi Puja, Synthesis Of Tribal And Hindu Culture, Begins In Tripura All rituals were performed as usual but due to the Covid-19 restrictions unlike earlier years gathering of devotees were much less. The annual festival of worship of Fourteen Gods popularly known as Kharchi Puja in Tripura started on Saturday. Moreover, the annual fair is

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