AIKS organises mass marriage of 825 Adivasi couples in Surgana, Nashik

J. P. Gavit and Hemant Waghere

On May 21, 2013, thousands of people attended a mass marriage ceremony of 825 Adivasi couples at Alangun village in Surgana tehsil of Nashik district. This remarkably enthusiastic function was organised by the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) Surgana tehsil unit, in association with the CPI(M)-led Adarsh Samata Shikshan Prasarak Mandal, an educational institution that runs several schools and hostels for Adivasi children in Nashik district.

The chief guest at this function was CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat. The other two guests of honour were AIKS state working president Rajaram Ozare, who is the sitting CPI(M) MLA from the Dahanu (ST) seat in Thane district; and AIDWA state president Mariam Dhawale – both of them state secretariat members of the CPI(M). Among the main organisers of the mass marriage function were AIKS state president, CPI(M) state secretariat member and former MLA J P Gavit, AIKS state general secretary Kisan Gujar and AIKS state council members Hemant Waghere and Irfan Shaikh – all three being state committee members of the CPI(M) - and many others.

While addressing the huge public meeting of several thousand people who had come to witness the mass marriage ceremony and to bless the newly-wed couples, Brinda Karat congratulated the AIKS for starting and continuing the tradition of holding this remarkable function for the last three decades, which saved lakhs of rupees of wedding expenses for the poor Adivasi people. She referred to the positive aspects of Adivasi culture and said that these should be defended against the attacks of neo-liberalism and communalism. For instance, there is no dowry system among Adivasis, and women enjoy a better status in tribals than in most other communities.

Among those who also addressed the large meeting were Rajaram Ozare MLA, Mariam Dhawale, J P Gavit, Kisan Gujar, Hemant Waghere and Irfan Shaikh.

A LONG AND RICH TRADITION

The AIKS in Nashik district began the tradition of holding mass Adivasi marriages 32 years ago in 1981, under the leadership of veteran leader Narendra Malusare and with the efforts of Adivasi activists of Surgana tehsil – Rama Mahale, K K Pawar, J P Gavit and Hari Mahale. Surgana tehsil has a 98 per cent Adivasi population. Adjoining Gujarat, this hilly region dependent only on rain-fed agriculture, is extremely backward, both economically and educationally.

Due to dire poverty, the age-old custom here was that, instead of an expensive marriage ceremony, a simple engagement ceremony called ‘pen’ used to be performed, after which the bride used to go and live at her in-laws’ place. Later on, if the economic situation improved, a wedding would be organised. But due to poverty, thousands of poor couples used to spend their entire life together without any marriage ceremony being ever performed. However, such couples and their offspring were socially looked down upon and had to face humiliation within the Adivasi community.

Taking all this into account, the AIKS organised the first mass marriage ceremony of 32 Adivasi couples at Rakshasbhuvan village in Surgana tehsil in 1981. The chief guest at this function was the then Commissioner for Adivasi Development, Sadashivrao Tinaikar, an IAS officer renowned for his uprightness. The expenses for lunch and for the mandap were carried out through contributions collected by the AIKS from the people of the village. The AIKS collected additional funds and presented the newly-wed couples with utensils and other such necessities. Over 1000 people attended this first-ever mass marriage ceremony in Surgana tehsil and Nashik district.

The success of this small function gave a boost to such social efforts. The next year in 1982, a mass marriage ceremony of 351 Adivasi couples was performed at Alangun village in the same tehsil. The chief guests at this function were the renowned Marathi poet and playwright Kusumagraj (who later won the Jnanpith Award), CPI(M) central committee member Ahilya Rangnekar and AIKS state general secretary Narendra Malusare. After that, mass weddings were regularly organised in several villages and became very popular. In 1995, in another huge function, 1276 couples were married.

In 2002, with the then CPI(M) state secretary Prabhakar Sanzgiri and Suman Sanzgiri as chief guests, another such function was held. In this function, both the son and daughter of J P Gavit got married. That was, indeed, one of the specialities of this movement – that many CPI(M) and AIKS leaders and their children themselves got married in the mass marriage functions. Other leaders who got married in this way were Hemant Waghere, Savliram Pawar, Ramji Gavit, Ananda Chavan and so on.

On May 20, 2005, a mass wedding of 501 Adivasi couples was held at Alangun. The two chief guests at this function were the then Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Shri Vilasrao Deshmukh, and the CPI(M) state secretary and central committee member Dr Ashok Dhawale. After this function, J P Gavit, who was then an MLA, raised the demand in the state assembly for government help to be given to couples who got married in mass marriage functions. Since the chief minister had himself attended the function and had actually seen the situation, the demand was conceded. A ‘Kanyadaan Yojana’ was started, wherein a cheque of Rs 10,000 is given to each such newly-wed couple. Brinda Karat in her speech called for a substantial increase in this amount due to the massive price rise.

The CPI(M) and the AIKS have also taken the lead in various other fields in Surgana tehsil. For instance, they initiated the novel Doorstep Ration Scheme which is now being implemented in 123 out of 291 revenue villages in the tehsil. This scheme has controlled the large-scale corruption in the PDS and has succeeded in reaching food grains regularly to the people. In the Old Age Pension Scheme, Surgana tehsil has taken the lead in Maharashtra, with over 14,000 old women and men getting a regular pension of Rs 500 per month, which amounts to nearly Rs 5 crore per year. So far as the Forest Rights Act is concerned, out of the 12,000-odd land claims made by Adivasis, over 7,300 claims have been accepted by the state government and a statewide AIKS struggle is going on for the rest. (See report in People’s Democracy, May 6-12, 2013 and in Loklahar, 20-26 May, 2013).

As a result of all this work, in 2012, the CPI(M) won all the 3 Zilla Parishad seats and 5 of the 6 Panchayat Samiti seats in Surgana tehsil, and also several Gram Panchayats. The Party has been winning the Surgana Panchayat Samiti for over 25 years, a record that is surpassed only by the Talasari Panchayat Samiti in Thane district, which the Party has been winning continuously for the last 50 years. The Party lost the state assembly seat here in 2009 after winning it six times earlier, mainly due to the delimitation of constituencies and the unprincipled gang-up of all political forces –secular and communal - against the CPI(M). In the year 2013, the AIKS has completed a membership of 35,000-odd in Surgana tehsil alone, out of the total 75,000-odd membership in Nashik district and the 2,00,000-odd membership in the state. This has set a new record for any tehsil in Maharashtra.

Talasari, Thane: New Building of Godavari-Shamrao Parulekar College inaugurated

B A Rajput

On December 27, 2012, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member and Leader of the Party in Parliament, Sitaram Yechury, inaugurated the three-storeyed new building of the Comrade Godavari Shamrao Parulekar (GSP) Senior and Junior College of Arts, Science and Commerce in the predominently Adivasi area of Talasari in Thane district. The inaugural programme also commemorated two other happy events.

The first was the completion of the golden jubilee year of the Adivasi Pragati Mandal (APM), the educational institution founded by Shamrao and Godavari Parulekar in 1961 in the presence of two stalwarts of the progressive movement in Maharashtra – Balraj Sahni and Acharya P K Atre – for the express purpose of the spread of education amongst the then largely illiterate Adivasi population. The second was the completion of the platinum jubilee (75th) year of the founder president of the Adivasi Pragati Mandal, Lahanu Shidva Kom, veteran leader of the CPI(M), ex-MP and also ex-MLA.

Three months ago on October 10, Sitaram Yechury had inaugurated the new spacious office of the CPI(M) Thane district committee at Talasari, called the Comrade Godavari Shamrao Parulekar Bhavan. The foundation stone for this new office had been laid two years ago by CPI(M) Polit Bureau member and Tripura Chief Minister, Manik Sarkar. The Party state committee meeting held there three months ago had culminated in a massive 50,000-strong districtwide rally.

The inaugural programme on December 27 marked the culmination of a three-day student cultural festival from December 24-26. In this festival, the Adivasi students of the schools, junior colleges and senior college run by the APM presented various cultural items in which they displayed their talents. The annual issue of the college magazine called ‘Godavari’, which had a number of good articles and poems written by the students themselves, was released at the function by Sitaram Yechury.   

Apart from the senior and junior college at Talasari, the APM runs schools and hostels for Adivasi students in villages like Udhva, Vasa, Kochai and Vevji in Talasari tehsil and Ashagad in Dahanu tehsil. It also runs two junior colleges in Udhva and Ashagad respectively. The total student strength in all the APM-run institutions is 8000, and the total staff strength is 200. Over 90 per cent of the students in these schools, hostels and colleges are Adivasis, and many of them are first generation learners.

Comrade Godavari Shamrao Parulekar senior college is affiliated to Mumbai University and it also runs a centre for the Yashwantrao Chavan Open University. Apart from the three main streams of Arts, Science and Commerce, the college runs special courses ranging from modern computer science to traditional Warli Adivasi painting. Many other social and constructive activities include mass marriages to save expenses, eradication of superstitions, water conservation, cleanliness campaigns, women’s empowerment, health camps, educational improvement and so on. The GSP college has won a number of awards and prizes at the university and inter-collegiate levels.

At the inaugural function, Sitaram Yechury warmly felicitated Lahanu Kom and the entire team of the Adivasi Pragati Mandal for the great efforts and the progress that they had made in providing education to the tribals who had always been deprived of it. He said that in the country as a whole, with the drive towards privatisation and commercialisation, education was being sold to the highest bidder. While on the one hand, Indian youth with its intelligence and hard work was excelling in computer software in the most competitive places like the Silicon Valley, the youth in India were facing the grim prospect of unemployment. Due to government’s wrong policies, the great potential of our country was not being realised. He denounced the heinous attacks on women as seen in the gruesome Delhi gang-rape case. Finally, he called upon the students to retain and deepen their sensitivity, and to always stand firmly on the side of truth and justice, come what may.

The elegant function was presided over by CPI(M) MLA Rajaram Ozare, and it was addressed by CPI(M) state secretary Dr Ashok Dhawale, Secretary of the Rayat Shikshan Sanstha Dr Arvind Burungale, veteran leaders Lahanu Kom and L B Dhangar, secretary of the APM B V Mangat and Principal of the GSP College B A Rajput. Students, staff and well-wishers attended in large numbers.             

Resist Injustice and Intensify Struggles: Adivasi Adhikar Rashtriya Manch

Vijoo Krishnan

THE central executive committee of the Adivasi Adhikar Rashtriya Manch (AARM) met at Ranchi on November 6-7, 2012. It was in Ranchi that the process towards the formation of the AARM was set rolling at the convention on adivasi rights held in 2002. Even as the adivasi communities have been mobilising for their rights, the attacks on their rights have also intensified. The formation of the AARM and the meeting at Ranchi only reinforces the steely resolve of the adivasi community to organise, build up resistance and fight for their rights. The rally and public meeting on November 6 where over 3000 adivasis gathered from different parts of Jharkhand despite inclement weather in many regions provided further evidence of the tempering of this resolve. The presence of a large number of adivasi women construction workers in the public meeting reflected the coordinated work between their trade union and AARM which is giving a fillip to the struggles of adivasis in the region.

The CEC meeting attended by thirty comrades from twelve states, began with introductory remarks by Baju Ban Riyan, chairman, AARM who noted that the neoliberal policies pursued by the Congress-led UPA government and many state governments have threatened adivasi livelihoods and heightened insecurity. Midiam Babu Rao, joint convenor of AARM who presented the report, mentioned about the abject deprivation and denial of rights in adivasi areas even after sixty five years of independence. He pointed to the looting of resources and indiscriminate land acquisition in tribal areas, deprivation of forest rights and impact of high food inflation on adivasi people. He also outlined the struggles launched by the affiliates of AARM in different parts of India. Brinda Karat spoke on the new amendments to the Rules of Forest Rights Act, the central government decisions on MFP, illegal mining, the coal scam, problem of tiger reserves and the situation in the Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District (BTAD) of Assam. The meeting deliberated on these and numerous other issues. Prominent among them were the issue of limitation of LPG cylinders in tribal hostels, anganwadi centres and the escalation in costs for students, illegal mining, indiscriminate land acquisition, BPL cards for all tribals, safeguarding the rights of the tribal people to mineral resources and their land as well as forests, especially in the context of the denial of forest rights, illegal land acquisition and the Mines and Minerals (Development & Regulation) Act. The central executive committee discussed these issues in detail and decided on the future course of action.

The report highlighted many issues including:

PLUNDER OF RESOURCES

Adivasi communities are directly affected by coal mining as majority of coal bearing areas are in Fifth Schedule areas inhabited by a large number of adivasis. The coal scam unearthed by the report of the CAG raised many critical issues of the entire process of wrongful allocations of coal mines to big corporates and companies linked to political leaders belonging to the Congress and the BJP. During the period when a majority of these allocations took place, the prime minister himself was the minister of coal. A high level inquiry must be held including into the role of the prime minister's office, the wrong allocations must be scrapped and the money recovered. This corruption at such a high level calculated to have cost the exchequer over 1.86 lakh crore rupees could have only occurred because of the basic policy of the central government to reverse the nationalisation of the coal industry and to hand over this precious national resource to corporates, domestic and foreign. AARM strongly opposes privatisation and demands that all coal should be mined and allocated by Coal India.

However, the issue goes deeper and includes the rights of adivasis to their land and livelihood. At present the rights of adivasis are completely ignored. Coal India itself has a most inhuman policy of forcible eviction of adivasi and other communities from their land which has been identified for mining, without any proper plans for consultation, rehabilitation and resettlement. At present under Coal India R and R policy, jobs will be given only in those cases where more than two acres of land has been acquired. Since land holdings of adivasis and dalits may be less than two acres, they are denied compensatory jobs. Proof of occupation is not considered sufficient for provision of jobs. The money compensation is usually pittance. It is shocking that in the richest coal mining areas, the local communities, large numbers of adivasis are reduced to destitution, facing displacement, sometimes multiple displacements. AARM will raise its voice to ensure that the rights of adivasis guaranteed by the Fifth Schedule and PESAA are guaranteed.

The meeting decided to hold a round-table conference at Delhi on the Mining Act and the loot of public resources, problem of illegal mining as well as tribal rights involving broader sections and organisations working for tribal rights. Seminars at state and district levels as well as a study of mining and related issues will precede this conference.

RENEWED ATTACKS

The UPA government has utterly failed to control the price rise of essential commodities. The rate of food inflation was as high as 12 per cent in the month of September. The UPA government dealt a serious blow by hiking the price of diesel by Rs 5 a litre and slashing the subsidy on gas cylinders reducing the number of subsidised cylinders to only six in a year. For the rest, the price will be around 1500 rupees per cylinder. The government while shamelessly making all concessions to corporates and subsidising them in different forms, has so far refused to reverse this disastrous anti-people policy. Anganwadis, Mid-day Meal Schemes and especially adivasi and dalit student hostels will be very badly affected. The meeting decided to conduct a survey to make an assessment of the cost escalation for students due to the limitation of subsidised LPG cylinders and mobilise these sections in adivasi areas and ST hostels demanding an increase in the allocations and subsidies while joining the general democratic struggle to force the reversal of this decision.

The UPA government has refused to universalise the PDS and is still insisting on a targeted system of APL/BPL on the basis of fraudulent estimates. The food minister has announced that 10 million tonnes of foodgrains will be released in the open market. This will only benefit the private traders and not consumers as there is no control of prices in the open market. The AARM has taken up the issue of universalisation of the PDS and giving BPL cards to all adivasis and wherever it has been taken up adivasis have responded and joined the struggles. This struggle will be further intensified.

The denial of minimum wages, rampant corruption and discrimination meted out to adivasis under the MNREGS, the denial of proper health facilities, housing and basic amenities as well as pre/post-matriculation fellowships to tribal students, the dismal state of affairs in Ashram Schools, tribal hostels and such issues were also brought to light by representatives from different States.

DENIAL OF FOREST RIGHTS

The most recent figures on the implementation of the Forest Rights Act once again show the utter callousness of most state governments in implementation of the Act. In reality, the governments at the centre and most of the states are not recognising adivasi rights under the FRA so as to facilitate land acquisition in forest areas.

Till September 30, 2012, at the national level less than 40 per cent of the claims made under FRA have been accepted. In other words 60 per cent of claims have been rejected. It is true that the flaw in the Act itself of including 75 years evidence as a condition to accept the claims of non-tribal traditional forest dwellers is a critical reason in non- acceptance of claims of these sections. However going by the ground level experience, even in the claims by adivasi forest dwellers, the rejection rate is high. It is significant and noteworthy that the Left led state of Tripura tops the list having accepted 65 per cent of the claims. In Tripura when only the applications of adivasis are taken into account, 98 per cent of them have been accepted. The Congress ruled states of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan have dismal records of just 51 per cent, 29 per cent and 50 per cent respectively. The BJP ruled states are even worse with Gujarat at just 20 per cent, Madhya Pradesh at 36.5 per cent and Chhattisgarh at around 44 per cent. The latter two states have a substantial adivasi population, so the denial is all the more reprehensible.

At the national level, in terms of total numbers, the total number of claims received till September 30, 2012 was 32,31,078 (of which 60,411 were for community rights). Of these the number of claims accepted and title deeds distributed was 12,72,076 of which only 8348 were for community rights, in other words just around 13 per cent of the claims for community rights have been accepted. The rejection of community rights has to be seen as part of the government policy to hand over the forest areas to so-called projects including mining, which would be hampered if community rights were recognised. The ministry has stated that of the total claims, both individual and community, 86 per cent of the claims have been “disposed of.” In other words, it has accepted the rejections as being final. It is clear from the experience, particularly of Maharashtra and of Andhra Pradesh where concrete interventions on a wide scale have been made by the Kisan Sabha and AARM that in a large number of cases, the rejections are totally illegal. AARM will protest against closing the claims as “disposed” with concrete evidence in the different states and also at the centre.

The Rules under FRA have been amended by a notification on September 6, 2012. The meeting noted that the amended Rules make it more difficult to reject claims on flimsy grounds such as the person not being present when the verification team reached or an individual officer rejecting the claim without going through the recommendation of the Forest Committee etc. But even while the Rules are amended the same ministry accepts that 86 per cent of the claims are already disposed of. AARM demands that the rejected claims be reopened. An important and positive amendment is to permit forest dwellers to transport MFP by “any appropriate means of transport.” It does away with the present restriction of “bicycle or handcart” in the Rules. The amendments also give power to Gram Sabhas to decide the “management plan for community resources”. This can be used as an effective counter to the arbitrary decisions of the government sponsored Forest Management Committees which often deny adivasis their rights.

ISSUE OF MINOR FOREST PRODUCE

The meeting welcomed the declaration of the minister of tribal affairs in May 2012 that a commission would be set up by January 2013 under the tribal affairs ministry to ensure a minimum support price (MSP) for MFP. This has been a long-standing demand for which AARM has been struggling. However, there are doubts as to the extent of implementation of this assurance given the earlier experience in this regard.

Earlier the ministry of panchayati raj had set up the Haque Committee to study the issue of MFP which had submitted its report in May 2011. The Planning Commission also set up a sub-group to look into this issue for the Twelfth Five Year Plan which also submitted its report in September 2011. The sub-group is already on record that the MSP for the 16 minor forest produce items identified by the Haque Committee such as tendu, bamboo, mahua flowers, mahua seeds, sal leaves, sal seeds, lac, chironji, wild honey, tamarind etc will cost at least 4000 crores to 5000 crores rupees a year. The sub-group has recommended allocations of just 2000 crores for the entire period of the Plan, which works out to just 400 crores a year. Thus even before the finalisation, the amount being suggested is just a pittance of what is required.

The issue of a MSP for MFP is urgent and essential. According to the Planning Commission’s own estimates around 275 million people depend on MFP earnings. While 20-40 per cent of the income of forest dwellers depends on MFP, it is estimated that fifty per cent of adivasis are dependent on MFP for a livelihood. The value of the trade is put at over 6000 crores a year, but the actual gatherers get dismal rates while the profits are grabbed by middlemen and business companies. AARM decided to take up these issues and organise a widespread campaign on the demand for an effective commission with adequate allocations.

COURT CASE ON TIGER RESERVES

The meeting discussed on the hypocritical stand of the central government on tourism in tiger reserves and the changing stand of the Supreme Court. This is geared not towards the implementation of existing legislation like the FRA or the Wildlife Protection Act (amended) but only to protect the interests of the resort owners and tourist related big businesses. In July 2012, the Supreme Court banned all tourist related activity in the entire tiger reserve. In October 2012 in the same case, the Supreme Court lifted the ban pending the final judgment and accepted the guidelines for eco-tourism in the tiger reserves as issued by the central government through the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) in June 2011. The government and the Supreme Court have protected the interests of the tourism industry. But forest dwellers are being forcibly relocated, being paid a sum of ten lakh rupees. In some areas because of lack of so-called evidence, even this compensation is being denied.

The Supreme Court has also so far not commented on the clauses in the guidelines which state that in all eco-tourist projects, local communities must be given priority in employment. The rights of forest dwellers to full access including for livelihood requirements to the areas must be guaranteed. There can be no forcible relocation. The provisions of FRA and WLPA regarding classification, recognition of rights, relocation must be fully implemented.

LAND ACQUISITION ACT

The Parliamentary standing committee in its recommendations has mentioned the memorandum of the AARM in relation to its conclusions in six clauses and accepted some of the suggestions of the organisation. Significantly, it has suggested that consultation is not enough; consent is required from Gram Sabhas. It has also recommended that no central Act should be exempted from the LARR. It has also accepted our demand that the special provisions for SCs and STs should be reflected in the main part of the Bill. It has also recommended that the Bill should not allow for acquisition or alienation of land in Schedule 5 and 6 areas and if unavoidable there should be increased compensation. However, on the issue of mining, including coal mining, the standing committee has negatively brought it into the definition of ‘public purpose’ as infrastructure, thus not requiring any consent. This will prove detrimental to the rights of the adivasis over mineral resources. Several suggestions made by AARM have been accepted either partially or substantially by the standing committee. However, in response, the government in its recent draft of the official Bill retains all the main obnoxious and anti-tribal provisions. AARM will popularise our objections and launch struggles to protect adivasi rights.

VIOLENCE IN ASSAM:

The meeting noted with concern the continuing violence in Kokhrajar district and adjoining areas of the BTAD. The Congress government utterly failed to intervene in time, leading to the death of around 100 persons, the burning of houses, loot of property and displacement in the first instance of around 3 lakh people, the bulk of who belong to the minority communities. Even today there are over 1.5 lakh Muslims in the relief camps, while majority of the Bodo displaced families have been able to return home. The developments in Assam point to the danger of narrow identity politics which subverts the protection given to tribal communities under the Sixth Schedule of the constitution. AARM rejected the propaganda that all the Bengali Muslims in the region are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. Historical circumstances starting from a century ago have led to the settlement of different communities, including Bengali Muslims in the region. While the rights of the Bodo communities must be protected under the Sixth Schedule, it cannot be by forcibly driving out other communities. The meeting condemned the effort of the RSS-BJP as well as right wing Muslim organisations to communalise the situation. Extremist elements from both communities have to be fought back and isolated. Those still in the relief camps must be protected and helped to return to their homes without any conditions. AARM also demands that the Assam Accord be implemented, the Indo-Bangladesh border sealed, the National population register must be speedily updated and the distribution of photo identity cards to all citizens based on the electoral rolls of 1971.

STRUGGLES BY AARM

The members from different states enumerated the spate of successful struggles on important issues. In Jharkhand, our struggles ensured that arrears of around 1.2 lakh rupees was given to adivasi workers in Dumka district. Successful struggles were held against land acquisition wherein in Ranchi the acquisition of 256 acres for Housing Board could be stopped and in Jamtara over 500 acres were returned to adivasis. Struggles against giving away 5000 acres to Reliance in Hazaribagh and 1100 acres to Electro Steel were launched. The struggles by the Girijana Sangham in Andhra Pradesh have led to the tribal affairs ministry cancelling the licenses of Jindal and a Dubai based company for bauxite mining. The united front of over 140 organisations of SC/STs forced the government in AP to set up a sub committee to look into implementation of the sub plan and a special session of the assembly has been agreed upon. In Bengal even amidst extreme violence and attacks on democratic functioning, struggles have been launched on issue of forest rights, food security, ST old age pension, against illegal quarrying and stone-crushing units, unauthorised contracts to open cast coal mines etc. Struggles in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh on PDS, corruption in MNREGS, Odisha struggle for land in Gajapati district wherein a notice to grant four acres to all adivasis has been issued after a movement that spread to 300 villages are all very inspiring. The stay on eviction of 1500 families under the Kuldiha National Park in Balasore district is also a significant gain. Tamilnadu witnessed huge protests against eviction of 3000 families in Ambasamudram for a Tiger Sanctuary. There were protests against the government order banning house-site pattas and land pattas in Hill areas. The government agreed to provision of 90 per cent of the value of trees planted in tribal areas to the tribal people as opposed to the earlier provision that Forest Department will have to get 40 per cent of the value. Kerala has seen massive mobilisation for land rights to adivasis and against police atrocities. In Maharashtra struggles for Forest Rights, on PDS and effective intervention against diversion of foodgrains by local politicians have taken place. Rajasthan has witnessed protests in Udaipur against illegal evictions with thousands participating and launched a campaign against unjust land acquisition in Dungarpur for railway project as well as against eviction of adivasis from Kumbalgarh Tiger Reserve. In Assam, the organisation intervened seeking government intervention to stop the violence in BTAD region and provide speedy rehabilitation.

Jitender Choudhury, minister in the LF government gave a detailed report on the policies towards adivasis in Tripura which was inspiring. In Tripura, the intervention of the Gana Mukti Parishad and Kisan Sabha as well as the Left Front government has ensured the per capita fund flow under MNREGS (wages paid as well as infrastructure created) is as high as Rs 2833.86 in the state while it is as low as Rs 41.16 in MP and Rs 63.90 in Gujarat. The Left Front government has also strived to develop the land given under FRA with agro-forestry, horticultural crops, irrigation and extension of MNREGS under a project to enhance economic viability of these lands. Pension rights to tribals are guaranteed. All efforts are on to ensure the overwhelming victory of the Left Front in the forthcoming assembly election.

Struggles under the aegis of the AARM and its affiliates are continuing and it is also being accompanied by education of cadre and organisation building. AARM will move on to further intensification of struggles and consolidate organisationally in tribal areas as a fighting organisation of adivasis. 

 

Historic: 1 lakh peasants arrested in Maharashtra over Forest Rights Act

Ashok Dhawale

It was the largest peasant agitation led by the AIKS in Maharashtra in recent years. For two weeks beginning Republic Day on January 26, 2011 up to February 8, the Maharashtra Rajya Kisan Sabha, affiliated to the AIKS, led a massive statewide Jail Bharo and Rasta Roko stir on burning agrarian issues, in which around one lakh peasants participated in strength. The call for this stir was given in the 7,000-strong statewide AIKS rally on the Nagpur state assembly on December 15, 2010. Earlier, from November 15 to 18, over 40,000 peasants under AIKS leadership had held district and tehsil level rallies on the same demands.

(Photo from the 50,000 strong AIKS Nashik district rally, Kalwan on February 8, 2011 as the culmination of the stir.)

VITAL AGRARIAN ISSUES

The prominent agrarian issues that were taken up in this struggle were: peasant suicides due to indebtedness, compensation to crops destroyed due to excessive and unseasonal rainfall, remunerative prices to all crops based on their cost of production, provision of credit to the peasantry at cheap rates, lowering of costs of agricultural inputs, the load shedding and excessive bills of electricity, inclusion of poor peasants and agricultural workers in the Below Poverty Line (BPL) lists, universalisation of the Public Distribution System (PDS) and expansion of the Doorstep Ration Scheme, vesting of temple lands and pasture lands in the names of the cultivating peasants, opposition to the proposed Jaitapur nuclear plant and the Maharashtra SEZ Bill, a comprehensive crop insurance scheme and completion on a war footing of long-pending irrigation projects with proper rehabilitation.

Space does not permit an analysis of the above burning agrarian issues in Maharashtra. Suffice it to say that as per the reports of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) of the Union Home Ministry, Maharashtra holds the shameful record of having the largest number (41,000-odd) of peasant suicides out of the nearly 2.5 lakh peasant suicides in the country over the last 15 years. This is a clear result of the neo-liberal and anti-peasant policies of successive Congress-NCP and BJP-Shiv Sena regimes in the state and at the Centre. For the last seven years, the Union Agriculture and Food minister has been the NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, who himself hails from Maharashtra! All that he has been interested is the interest of the sugar lobby, IPL cricket and the building of cities for the rich like Lavasa!

Although thousands of peasants were mobilised around the above vital agrarian issues in several districts, the main chunk of participation in this Jail Bharo stir was on the question of the scandalous implementation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) in Maharashtra. This issue had come to a head in recent weeks with the downright rejection by the state government machinery of thousands of FRA applications of Adivasi peasants in many districts.

(Photo from the 50,000 strong AIKS Nashik district rally, Kalwan on February 8, 2011 as the culmination of the stir.)

SCANDALOUS IMPLEMENTATION

As per the status report as on December 31, 2010 on FRA implementation issued by the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs, a total of 3,35,701 individual FRA claims were filed in Maharashtra. Of these, the FRA village committees recommended 2,82,115 claims to the SDO level committees. Of these the SDO level committees cleared only 1,15,914 claims and sent them to the district level committees. Of these again, 1,04,344 claims were accepted and official certificates (but not actual land rights under the revenue department) were given. Of the 3,988 community FRA claims, only 423 were accepted.

This means that the SDO level committees rejected as many as 1,66,201 FRA individual claims and 3,565 FRA community claims. Even so far as the accepted claims were concerned, certificates granting much less land than that being actually cultivated and claimed by the Adivasis were given. So far as the non-Adivasi traditional forest dwellers were concerned, the draconian requirement of a 75-year (three generations) proof smuggled into the FRA at the last moment dashed their chances of getting any land rights.

One of the main reasons for such en masse rejections of FRA claims has been the illegal and unwarranted interference by the Forest Department, which has been allowed to run amok by the state government and the bureaucracy. Fully aware of the historical antagonism of the Forest Department towards tribals for generations together, the FRA had clearly kept the Forest Department out of the FRA implementation process and had made the Tribal Affairs Department the main nodal agency for FRA implementation.

But on July 18, 2008, the Chief Forest Conservator of Maharashtra State based at Nagpur, issued a 10-page circular laying down the mode of implementation of the FRA in the state. Many of its points flagrantly violated the FRA and its Rules. For nearly two years this circular stayed in force and it was blatantly used to veto thousands of genuine FRA claims.

It was only 20 months later on April 8, 2010, that a state level meeting of the FRA supervisory committee chaired by the then chief secretary, issued another circular generally stating that all circulars and directives of the Forest or any other Department that ran counter to the decisions of that meeting should be considered null and void. But by that time the damage had already been done. However, this same April 2010 meeting committed another blunder. It directed that all pending FRA claims should be disposed off in two months, by May 2010. The result was that the local bureaucracy hastily rushed through the verification process, and “disposed off” the pending claims by rejecting them outright!

The worst aspect of this whole process was that organisations actually working among the Adivasi masses were never taken into confidence at any stage of the FRA implementation. Had that been done, many of these pitfalls could have been averted. But for this, political will - like that shown by the Left Front governments – was required. And it was precisely this political will that was in short supply among the ruling clique in Maharashtra.

MILITANT MASS STRUGGLE

The largest and most militant mass struggle took place in Nashik district, in which over 60,000 peasants courted arrest. In this district, as many as 34,000 of the 51,000 FRA claims had been summarily rejected and this resulted in a mass uproar. The Jail Bharo stir began here on January 26 with over 15,000 Adivasi peasants from Surgana tehsil coming all the way from a distance of over 100 Km to court arrest in Nashik city. Subsequently, there were similar court arrest agitations every day up to February 7 in nine different tehsils.

When the first talks with the state government broke down on February 3, the stir in Nashik district was intensified to block highways. At Karanjali in Peth tehsil, over 4,000 peasants blocked the Nashik-Dharampur (Gujarat) highway for 50 hours at a stretch! The Mumbai-Agra national highway was blocked in Chandwad tehsil, and other highways were blocked by thousands of peasants in Surgana and Tryambakeshwar tehsils till February 7.

In Thane district, as a result of earlier huge mass actions on the FRA and other issues, the administration had not yet dared to reject FRA claims wholesale. Even so, over 25,000 peasants from ten tehsils in Thane district courted arrest on January 31, and it was decided to block all highways if the talks with the state government broke down again on February 7.

In Ahmednagar district, the most militant action in this stir took place at Akole on January 29. Here 526 peasants, including 47 women, refused to accept bail and they spent 11 days in four different jails at Kolhapur, Aurangabad, Pune and Nashik. They were led by Dr Ajit Nawale, Eknath Mengal, Raju Gambhire, Namdev Bhangre and others. Another big rally was held in Akole on February 3 to express solidarity with the comrades who were in jail.

In Nandurbar district, over 3,500 peasants and agricultural workers took part in rallies. Around 1,000 to 2,000 peasants each courted arrest in districts like Nanded, Yavatmal, Parbhani, Kolhapur and Pune. The stir was also carried out in districts like Beed, Solapur, Sangli, Buldana, Raigad and Hingoli. In many of these districts, other issues were taken up.

It was as a result of this statewide struggle, especially the widespread and militant peasant actions in Nashik, Thane and Ahmednagar districts, that the State Home Minister R R Patil invited an AIKS delegation to hold talks in Mumbai on February 7. He was accompanied by the Tribal Development Minister, the State Chief Secretary, Tribal Development Secretary and other senior officials. The AIKS was represented by its leaders J P Gavit, ex-MLA, Rajaram Ozare, MLA, Lahanu Kom, ex-MP, Kisan Gujar, Irfan Shaikh and Hemant Waghere.

In this meeting the state government agreed as follows: 1) All the rejected FRA claims will be reviewed and all those who have submitted any two proofs as per the FRA will be accepted; 2) Forest land up to the FRA limit of 4 hectares (10 acres) will be given to claimants who have it in their possession; 3) Appeals against rejected claims will be accepted even if they are submitted after the 60 day limit; 4) The unwarranted interference by the Forest Department will be stopped; 5) All police cases lodged in the course of this agitation will be withdrawn and all arrested peasants will be released.

The next day, February 8, there was an unprecedented 50,000-strong districtwide rally held by the AIKS at Kalwan in Nashik district to announce the results of the talks with the government and to convey the future line of action. Kalwan town had no ground in which to accommodate so many people, so the public meeting was held on the main road itself. Peasants sat on the road over a distance of over one kilometre to listen to the meeting.

The massive Kalwan rally was addressed by AIKS state president J P Gavit, ex-MLA, state vice presidents Dr Ashok Dhawale and Gunaji Gavit, state general secretary Kisan Gujar, state joint secretary Laxman Gaikwad and state council members Irfan Shaikh and Hemant Waghere. It was also addressed by CITU state general secretary Dr D L Karad, AIDWA state vice president Mariam Dhawale and DYFI leader Hemant Patil. It was presided over by AIKS leader Balasaheb Gangurde. The atmosphere at the rally was one of determination to ensure that the state government pledges are actually implemented. If this was not done, it was vowed that the struggle would be resumed and further intensified.