City based National Centre for Advocacy Studies is targeting the winter session of Parliament for proposing better implementation of the national tribal policy

According to a recent report by Delhi-based- Action First, over 1.6 million individuals have been displaced in India as a result of developmental activities such as dams, mines and SEZs since the last decade. The report says that 79 per cent of those displaced, that is over 1.2 million, belong to scheduled tribes. 

The report goes on to add that 20.05 percent of the displaced belong to scheduled castes while other backward castes make up 0.75 per cent. Citing the reason behind the high number of displaced tribals, city- based National Centre for Advocacy Studies (NCAS) is planning to target the winter session of the parliament and come up with suggestions for effective implementation of the National Tribal Policy (NTP). “The problem lies with the National Tribal Policy and the Rehabilitation and Resettlement bill 2007. Neither of the two makes it mandatory for the development organisation to rehabilitate the displaced tribes,” says Smita Jacob, researcher, NCAS.

The national tribal policy was proposed by the NDA government in 2004, which, after recommendations by the National Advisory council was made into a 23 page-document by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs in August 2006. “The authorities have been sitting on the document since then. After their win in the Loksabha elections, the UPA government had announced that the NTP will soon be approved, but then it has been three years since it has been proposed and the policy thus is not only outdated but also lacks in some of the aspects such as- participation of the tribes, formation of implementing agencies which have not been mentioned in the policy and an overall timely revision,” says Shelly Saha Sinha, researcher, NCAS.

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