The tribal belts of central India and the infamous Kalahandi, Bolangir and Koraput (KBK) belt of Orissa have not progressed beyond the medieval ages

- Tribals betrayed A vicious circle More equal
Telegraph (Kolkata), Oct 26, 2009

India is precariously perched between China and Pakistan. The two countries seem to derive a vicarious pleasure in needling this emerging economic power. China has become almost aggressive in asserting its claims over Arunachal Pradesh, even objecting to the innocuous visit of the Dalai Lama. Activities along the Line of Control, both on the Sino-Indian and Indo-Pak borders, appear to have increased in recent times. For reason best known to India, it has underplayed these undesirable intrusions. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao met in Thailand this weekend. But it is obvious that such meetings are embellished with high diplomacy where the current face-off will barely be discussed.


On the home front, the Maoists have virtually declared a war on India. The Maoist violence did not come upon this country overnight. The recent war-like posture by the Maoists is the cumulative effect of years of neglect and apathy by those mandated to govern this country.

It is no coincidence that the tribal belts of India, while being resource rich, have also been the most backward. For decades, the tribes have lived like subservient menials serving the needs of the privileged. But subservience has now reached a boiling point.

While the condition of large sections of tribes in the Northeast is no better than that of the Adivasis in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh in terms of human development indices, the hill tribes have had better access to education, thanks to the Christian missionaries. Without the benefaction of the missionaries, the tribes here, too, would have been much worse off than they are today.

Tribals betrayed
A country that boasts of being the hub of a liberal, pluralist democracy should have had a clear roadmap for developing the tribal belts alongside the habitat of the more advanced categories of people that inhabit this land. Positive discrimination in terms of access to education, health and livelihood should have been the agenda of the government at the Centre and in the states. But the Adivasis, who actually are the original owners of forests and land, have been suddenly made to feel like usurpers and interlopers in their own natural environs. Their indigenous knowledge, farming methods and healthcare are given scant importance.

Instead, we have modern agricultural technology dumped on them, replacing some of the sustainable farming practices that they knew and which did not exploit the environment.

The tribal belts of central India and the infamous Kalahandi, Bolangir and Koraput (KBK) belt of Orissa have not progressed beyond the medieval ages.

Any perceptible change in the living standards of people is due to some NGOs that have been working ceaselessly with great dedication to improve the people’s economic status and raise it from the subsistence to the next higher level.

While we have heard of Dalit movements for decades together, the Adivasis have not accumulated enough clout to raise their voices. Those from among them who have had the benefit of enjoying political power, like Shibu Soren, have proved to be traitors to the cause and done little to alleviate the plight of their fraternity.

Poverty has a very debilitating effect. The poor are burdened by under-nutrition which makes them vulnerable to infectious diseases. For women, it is a double burden since anaemia and malnutrition are responsible for unsafe delivery that leads to the deaths of the mother and her newborn. It is not that the poor do not know how to look after themselves, but it is the lack of resources that is killing them.

A vicious circle
If we take into account the human development index of the Adivasi-inhabited regions and the tribal belts of the Northeast, there would be many similarities. It is too early for us to go the Bhutan way and find the happiness index of people in these dismal regions for the graph would dip to the bottom. Happiness cannot come from sub-human living conditions where the basic needs are yet unattainable and the people are made to feel defensive that they should be having those needs.

The rationale in this country seems to be that if you were born poor you should also die poor. Malaria, and recently some rare diseases like meningococcal meningitis, have claimed several lives in Meghalaya and Tripura as well. Although vaccines were available for the latter, only those who could afford it could buy the injection which cost Rs 350 a vial.

Many deaths occurred even in and around Shillong but the government did not stir until the media raised a hue and cry and the issue caught the Centre’s attention . Only after that was the general population of Meghalaya innoculated against meningococcemia. But even then there were disparities. People living in the vicinity of the state capital were vaccinated first. The vaccines reached the rural hamlets much later. In the Garo hills, not everyone has been innoculated, although many more people died of meningococcemia in that part of Meghalaya. The poor die many times before they are actually buried. It is this frustration and anger that turn them into volatile desperadoes ready to take on those who they believe are the reason for their continued deprivation.

Those who understand the genesis of such violent assertions will confirm that it is not easy to take up a gun or start killing those who represent the exploitative and apathetic state. But once the movement gains momentum, there is no way of stopping the impetus.

More equal
Maoist leaders like Koteshwar Rao are in no mood to listen to the Union home minister’s plea for unconditional talks. They know the trajectory such talks finally take. Seldom ever do negotiations with the State result in a win-win situation. It is fine for P. Chidambaram to say that armed insurrection is unacceptable in a liberal democracy guided by a written Constitution and that all talks have to be within its ambit. But does democracy also mean the growth and development of only a certain segment of people who are privileged by birth or by political connections? Does democracy not envisage a more egalitarian society where the basic needs of every person are met and no one goes to bed hungry?

It took hundreds of suicide deaths for the government to come up with the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS). Were the planners of this country blind to the plight of the tribals and the Adivasis until people like Jean Drèze woke them from their blissful apathy? What afflicts the Adivasis and the tribals today is landlessness. This is a major threat because people have no land to grow crops and many are still bonded labourers.

In the Northeast, tribal land is now preyed upon by big business sharks who set up huge, smoke-stacked industries and violate all environmental norms. Industrial waste is dumped into rivers and streams, making them undrinkable. Now that the tribes are more aware of their rights, they are crying halt to further desecration of their land and forests. But such cries evidently fall on deaf ears. No wonder revolutions are born and become the only to make those in power sit up and take notice. So while denouncing violence, it is also important for the Union government to go into the root of the matter and change some of its development strategies. It is time to turn the searchlight on delivery mechanisms and find out why they have failed so miserably.