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 provision of the Constitution. Even now, there are Adivasis in the State who are not being enlisted as ST.
So the correct population of Adivasies is not known. Dr BR Ambedkar and Jayapal Singh Munda played a major role in the Constituent Assembly 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 including Odisha.
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 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 shall be constituted for two years with Chief Minister as its Chairman and Minister of ST and SC Development Department as Deputy Chairman. Excluding the Chief Minister and depatment Secretary, all the rest of the members are STs. 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 needs 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 five thousand years of marginalisation of indigenous people of India, which dates back to the Indus Valley civilization, with the enforcement of the Constitution.
But unfortunately after 70 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, CAMPA Act 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 to the 5th Scheduled area but no desired changes have taken place due lack of political will on the part of political parties in power. Mostly the elected representatives of 5th scheduled areas of the State have not taken this seriously.
It is very often reported that the available 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 areas which are mostly located in scheduled areas. It is being reported that Odisha is the second State which returns tribal development funds. The Government of Odisha has been ignoring in amending the State laws in line with provisions of 5th Scheduled area such as Odisha Panchayat Act to give more power to Garamasabha. There has been also demand for inclusion of all MADA, cluster area and tribal villages of the State in the list of scheduled area. In order to preserve the indigenous identity it is demanded that all ST dialects should get a place under 8th schedule and the Adivasi religion such as SARNA and other faiths and beliefs must be properly placed in census religion code.
The indigenous communities in Odisha bear 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. The 5th scheduled areas of the State are home to more than 60 per cent of the total tribal population while they are placed in highly resource-rich regions. But socio-economic development indicator of STs shows a very sorry state of affairs.
A major section of them continues to 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 as revealed in Odisha Economic Survey reports.
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.
The post nineties liberalisation and privatisation have paved the way of increasingly setting up of extractive industry, commercial ventures and dams but failed to create opportunities for STs. Urbanisation is coming up with entry of non-tribal population having a direct bearing on employment and livelihood, land, forest, water and above all, the language, culture, faith and belief system of the people in the locality.
It poses 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 for their identity 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 even today. In recent times the 5th scheduled areas have increased with unrestricted entry of corporates and non-tribals. Police and para military forces are deployed to counter Left Wing Extremism, but the STs who suffer the most in the face-off as it is evident from many parts of the State.
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