Orissa wants a quick job: 55,000 villages asked to elect forest committees in 2 days

EMPOWERING TRIBALS: PART I

The implementation of the Forest Rights Act has begun in most central Indian states. This is to lead to forest dwelling communities getting titles to the land they have been living on and thus end the threat of eviction by forest officials. Villages have started taking their first steps to claiming their entitlements: forming forest rights committees where people can make their claims.

Business Standard visited villages in three states to find that the scene varied from awareness and hope to total ignorance and difficulties like the need to get enough villagers to attend the gram sabha to elect the committee. Following is the first of a three-part series.

Kuni Digmunda, a tribal woman in the Phirikinali ward of Chandaka revenue village, about 17 km from Bhubaneswar, is disappointed with the Palli Sabha meeting held on March 23 for formation of a forest rights committee in her village.

Though she along with 35 to 40 others from her village went to the panchayat office for the meeting, the committee could not be formed due to lack of quorum. This revenue village, being a ward of the Chandaka gram panchayat, is entirely inhabited by tribals, mostly belonging to Digmunda, Swain and Hembrum clans.

Kuni is typical of many tribal villagers in Orissa where the Panchayati Raj secretary issued an order this month saying that the forest rights committees in all tribal villages in the state are to be formed for the implementation of the Forest Rights Act. But the catch was that the work has to be done in two days, March 17 and 23.

About 55,000 revenue villages will execute the task of electing their forest committees.

The two-day deadline has made an already difficult task tougher. For, a committee can be elected only by a gram sabha which should also have an attendance of at least two-third of the population. Both are rare happenings in Orissa. In Kuni's village, the committee could not be formed for lack of a quorum.

Kuni has other grievances too. While the villagers were informed that the meeting would be held at 4 pm on March 23, it was actually held about two hours earlier at 2 pm. The panchayat executive officer told the villagers that the meeting could not be held due to the lack of quorum and late arrival of Phirikinali villagers.

The villagers, however, were told to sign on some papers. But they do not know what was written on these papers. "We had gone to the meeting of Palli Sabha but people of the other ward did not come in adequate numbers. We were told that the meeting will be rescheduled soon," she said.

Her point of view is shared by other villagers who are expecting the formation of forest rights committee in their area soon.

Gardik Digemunda, a 50-year-old man from the same village, said they were expecting the formation of the forest rights committee in the Palli Sabha meeting. But that did not happen as the meeting could not be held. About 40 families of this village are living on patches of land over which they do not have record of rights.

While 35 families are living on what they call minor forest land, four to five families are living on forest land. However, they are not sure about the status of the land they occupy but only say that they have been occupying the land for two to three generations.

Some of the ancestors of these families were given 'patta' about 40-45 years back, which was reviewed later. Being faced with the problems of sustainable livelihood, some old persons have left the villages. "We have not yet been given land right over the patch that we live on. We also do not know whether we will get it or not," he said.

However, most of the families belonging to this village were aware about the Palli Sabha meeting.

The low turnout for the meeting was also admitted to by Pramod Kumar Badjena, the local sarpanch belonging to Chandaka village. "More than 90 per cent of our villagers are non-tribals and do not stay on the forest land. That might be a reason for the absence of enthusiasm," he observed.

He, however, said, all possible steps were taken for the Palli Sabha meeting on March 23. Notice about the meeting was displayed on the walls of various public places of the panchayat.

Though the Orissa government is yet to get information about the number of FRCs formed in the state in the two designated days, official sources admitted that the requirement of quorum of two-third members at the Palli Sabha meetings had been an obstacle in the process of constitution of the committee.

The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognisition of Forest Rights) Act 2006, stipulates that two-third of the members of Palli Sabha will constitute the quorum. So the villages mainly inhabited by the general caste population were not enthused by the meeting and hence, requisite attendance could not be ensured.

In order to facilitate the formation of the committee, the state government had instructed the district administration that if a revenue village is too small to elect 10 members, then the villagers of the adjoining villages may be allowed to form the committee jointly in the booth where they cast their votes. However, this could not solve the problem.

Pradip Das, one of the ward members of the Chandaka gram panchayat said, "People are not aware of the purpose of the committee. That is essentially the reason as to why FRCs could not be formed in all the villages under the Chandaka gram panchayat."

However, the extent of the success of this drive taken up by the Orissa government will be known after a few weeks. "We had taken all the preparatory steps like conducting workshops, broadcasts from All India Radio, Doordarshan and ETV regarding the formation of such committees. It will take few more days to get the real picture," R K Choudhury, director, Panchayati Raj Department, Government of Orissa (GOO), said.

However, most tribal villages in Orissa have no electricity and cannot benefit from such awareness campaigns.

Tribal rights activist Prafulla Mahantara said: "The two-day deadline is meant to make the whole exercise ineffective. It is an impossible task to achieve."