About one-fourth of population of Odisha is ST and almost half of the geographical area of the State comes under the 5th Scheduled area as per the provision of the Constitution.
There are Adivasis in the State who are not being enlisted in the ST list of the Government. Constitution Drafting Committee chairman Dr BR Ambedkar and Adivasi Mahasabha leader Jayapal Singh Munda played a major role in ensuring provisions of scheduled area and scheduled tribe for the protection and development of the tribal communities.
There are provisions under Article 224(1) in the Constitution stipulating that the Governors along with the Tribes Advisory Council (TAC) have special power over the administration of 5th scheduled area. There are nine States having 5th Scheduled area which include Odisha, AP, Gujarat, MP, Maharashtra, HP, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. The States such as Tamil Nadu and West Bengal are having TAC without scheduled areas. The Part B of the 5th scheduled says about TAC which consists of not more than 20 members of whom nearly three-fourth shall be the representatives of the Scheduled Tribes in the State legislative Assembly. The TAC has to advise pertaining to the welfare and advancement of the STs of the State. The Governor can make rules in this regard.
The TAC of Odisha was constituted for two years in 2014 with Chief Minister as its Chairman and Minister of ST and SC Development Department as Deputy Chairman. Excluding the Chief Minister and Secretary, all the rest of the members are tribals. The Principal Secretary of ST and SC Development Department is the Secretary to the council. It is often alleged by the tribal leaders of scheduled areas that mostly the TACs are controlled and dominated by non-tribals which need to be fully represented by tribals only. There has been no regular meeting of the TAC to discuss issues of concern relating to the life and livelihood of STs in 5th Scheduled area in Odisha. Many of the advices in form of recommendations of TAC have never been looked seriously by the State Government. It is argued that the Governor shall function as per the advice of the TAC in the matter of administration of 5th Scheduled area, not by the Council of Ministers.
Way back in 1948, it was said by Jaypal Singh Munda in a debate in the Constituent Assembly that the STs should be benefited by the provisions of the 5th Schedule area and that the TAC should be a reality and not a farce. Though he was demanding a separate homeland for indigenous people of central India, but later he joined the anti-colonial struggle in building modern India and became member of the Constituent Assembly. He said it is the end of six thousand years of marginalization of indigenous people of India which dates back to the Indus Valley civilization, with the enforcement of the Constitution. “We are going to start a new chapter of independent India where there is equality of opportunities; where no one would be neglected,” he said.
After 66 years of implementation of the Constitution, the TAC remains ineffective in many respects in fulfilling the dreams of the makers of the Constitution of the independent India. There has been a number of protective legal provisions for the protection of STs such as SCs and STs (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act 2015, PESA Act 1996, FRA 2006 and special allocation of funds under annual plan and sub plans such as Consolidated Fund of India, 275(1), and Tribal Sub Plan and grants of MOTA specially dedicated for 5th Scheduled area but why no desired changes have taken place needs a serious reflection by all stakeholders.
The huge financial resources for tribal development remain unutilized, leave alone lack of transparency and accountability. The recent legal provisions have created scope of financial resources under District Mineral Foundation, CSR and CAMPA as these funds are primarily for mining and forest area which are mostly in scheduled area. It is being reported that Odisha is the second State which returns tribal development funds. The Government of Odisha has been disregarding in amending the State laws in line with provisions of 5th Scheduled area such as Odisha Panchayat Act to give more power to Garamasabha.
The 5th Scheduled areas of the State are home to about more than 60 per cent of the total tribal population while they are highly resource-rich regions. But socio-economic development indicator of STs shows a very sorry state of affairs. They lag behind all indicators of human development in comparison to other social groups and still a major chunk of tribal population lives in distress and sub-human sufferings.
The tribal population in scheduled areas is fast declining due to social exclusion, illiteracy, extreme poverty, malnutrition, distress migration, displacement, loss of livelihood and unemployment. liberalization and privatization have paved the way of increasingly setting of extractive industry, commercial ventures and dams. Urbanization is coming up with entry of non-tribal population having a direct bearing on land, forest, water and above all, the language, culture, faith and belief system of the people in the locality. It has been posing a potential threat to the legal status of such areas in the coming days. The Adivasi struggle of colonial era witnessed emergence of many struggles and the most noted protests were by Birsa Munda (1875-1900) who fought for land, dignity and self-determination within his 25 years’ span of life. The historic legacies continue to inspire the struggles against similar challenges today.
The leaders of Indigenous People’s Forum, a ST people’s forum of Odisha, and Adivasi Coordination Front like George Tirki, Nicolas Barla of Sundargarh and Theophil Gamango of Gajapati argued that organized State violence against STs in 5th Scheduled areas has increased with entry of corporates and non-tribals. Police and para military forces are deployed to counter left Wing extremism, but it is the STs who suffer the most as it is evident from Kandhamal, Nagada of Jajpur, Kashipur and Dana Majhi of Kalahandi. They are demanding to include all MADA, cluster area and tribal villages of the State in the list of Scheduled area.
land and forest are central to STs’ life and livelihood which have been denied to them by colonial laws and even today by the modern State violating the provisions of the Constitution. The miserable condition depicts serious violation of right to life and development of indigenous people and it is unfortunate that India being a signatory to UN Declaration on Rights of Indigenous People adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2007 is not utterly following the principles of the international convention. The post independent India has followed the Panchasila principles of Pandit Jawarlal Nehru but there was no continuity of the principles by the successive Governments.
In order to preserve the indigenous identity it is being demanded that all ST dialects should get a place under 8th schedule and the Adivasi religion such as SARNA should be properly placed in census religion code. The indigenous communities in Odisha bears rich cultural values in the form of their language, music, folk song, painting, weaving, agriculture, forestry, herbal medicine and community based collective value system. These are the richness of Odisha and the inclusive development of Odisha is not possible by neglecting a major part of its population and geographical area.
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