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TRIBAL DEVELOPMENT : The Limits to Law, Democracy and Governance
Tribal
Development Both PESA and FRA give powers to
communities that allow them to determine their future destiny. What these laws
also do is to make the state bureaucracy and for that matter elected, mostly
non-tribal, representatives accountable to community institutions. The centre
of power will, therefore, shift and allow tribals control over their own
governance and natural resources that they are dependent upon for their
livelihood. PESA and FRA can create a legitimate political space and democratic
mechanism where equity, justice and participatory democracy are the core
Tribal Development policy from its
inception has always been beset by a contradiction, namely to recognize the uniqueness
of tribal communities (including their governance systems) but yet deliver the
benefits of mainstream development. In practice, the former has, for the most
part been undermined, seemingly to attain the latter. However, even the latter
goal mostly has not been achieved because of the wider priorities of ‘growth’
and ‘development’ for the nation. Over the last two decades since the adoption
of the New Economic Policy in 1991 and the drive to speed up the growth
process, a widening gap between the goals of national development and tribal
development has emerged. The accelerated attempt to exploit natural resources
in the name of economic growth has led to maladministration and misgovernance (‘governance
deficit’) and neglect in terms of infrastructure, development and welfare
(‘development deficit’) in tribal areas. These failures of state policy have
led to the spread of Left Wing Extremism (LWE), pervasive now in 83 districts
of the country.
This is not to say that progressive Constitutional
provisions and laws that empower tribal communities have not been periodically
passed, but rather that, these have been for the most part undermined. From
Article 244 of the Constitution, which led to the establishment of Fifth
Schedule Areas, to legislation such as the Panchayati Raj (Extension to
Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 (hereafter PESA), and the Scheduled Tribes
and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006
(hereafter FRA), legal measures have been passed to empower tribal communities
to govern themselves. But invariably these legal measures have to a large
extent remained on paper because of a lack of political will to implement them,
given the economic priorities of growth.
