The Ministry of Tribal Affairs is a central component in a relatively new government focus on those communities that make up India’s Scheduled Tribes. This term refers to the 744 “distinct” indigenous groups officially recognized by the Constitution of India, comprising around 8% of the total population, as of the 2001 census. Typically even more deprived than the country’s Scheduled Castes, India’s indigenous communities make up the most underprivileged, most marginalized sections of society. The Ministry of Tribal affairs is subsequently responsible, broadly, for the welfare and development of these communities, and more narrowly for the oversight of a host of Scheduled Tribe-specific government development programs.

The Ministry of Tribal Affairs was created in 1999, the direct result of a government decision to move a Scheduled Tribe-focused department out of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and create an autonomous ministry. This capped a decades-long process in which the welfare – and regulation – of India’s vast indigenous communities was shunted from body to body. Under British rule, indigenous communities were generally lumped into the broader category of Depressed Classes. One of the most notable and long-lasting examples of this colonial-era mindset is 1871’s Criminal Tribes Act. Ostensibly passed in order to reduce banditry and related petty offences, this law came down particularly harshly on nomadic groups, perhaps due to the British legal systems relative inability to regulate such groups.

One of the most significant elements of the Criminal Tribes Act was its ability to brand a particular community “habitually criminal.” Communities thus characterized would not only have significant restrictions placed on members’ freedom of movement, but the legal imprimatur was also hereditary; thus, once imposed, it was handed down to generation after generation. Although this act was repealed after independence, the legacy of this and related legislation remains very real for tens of millions of people today, in terms of ingrained and institutionalized bias on the part of security agencies, legal terminology that characterize whole communities simply as “Ex-Criminal Tribes” and, perhaps most importantly, by the enduring poor socioeconomic development and related indicators for whole communities.

An important related British legacy that has done much to impact the well-being of India’s indigenous communities relates to the regime of control and regulation over the country’s forests. It should be remembered that the British colonial project in India was focused on resource extraction, and the country’s vast forest areas were seen as lucrative and significant. The flip side of this priority was the understanding that those living in the forest areas were to be treated as obstacles at best and competitors or thieves at worst. The Indian Forest Acts of 1878 and 1927 (and, later, the Wild Life [Protection] Act of 1972) are both infamous, effectively detailing the government’s inherent rights to most forests and clearly spelling out the penalties for any related offences. Thus the government set up what became a classic face-off between the Forest Department and the forest-dwelling village, typically composed of indigenous peoples. The generally ruthless tactics that were used over the course of this fight invariably assisted the state, and in turn did much to lead to the currently depressed socioeconomic state of India’s indigenous communities. Importantly in this regard, the new Ministry of Tribal Affairs is officially recognized as the lead body in dealing with forest-rights law.

Even while independent India has always had a body overseeing tribal affairs – first a department within the Ministry of Home Affairs, then a department within the Ministry of Welfare, and finally a division within the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment – the country’s indigenous communities have remained poor, marginalized and without adequate access to education. Although the creation of an independent ministry for the country’s Scheduled Tribes was widely applauded, the fact that it was created in 1999 struck many as paradigmatic of the larger problem faced by these communities in modern India.

The central focuses for the Ministry of Tribal Affairs are perhaps best reflected in the names of the bodies in which it was previously located: welfare, social justice, empowerment. As formulated in 1999, the ministry’s mandate stipulates that the new body provides central oversight and coordination for all government programs meant for Scheduled Tribes, including scholarships, social security, multiple welfare- and upliftment-related undertakings, the administration of autonomous and scheduled areas (lands that have been set aside legally for use by certain indigenous groups), and the implementation of various legal provisions associated with safeguarding Scheduled Tribe-related civil and human rights. Still, the ministry is clear in emphasizing that while its role is focused on the welfare and development of India’s Scheduled Tribe communities, responsibility for broader issues continues to be shared with all of the central ministries and departments.

One of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs’ key achievements has been the promulgation, in 2006 (and updated in 2008) of new legislation relating to forests traditionally inhabited by Scheduled Tribe communities. The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act constitutes perhaps the single most significant attempt on the part of the Indian government to make up for the centuries of marginalization suffered by the country’s indigenous communities at the hands of the state, both deliberate and otherwise. Proponents point to the law’s handing over of certain forest and natural-resource-related rights to local indigenous communities, offering a strong counter to the rigid pieces of forest legislation that were seen as long prioritizing the state over local communities. The Forest Rights Act specifically describes its aim as ameliorating the ‘historical injustice’ that transpired in this regard.

In 2006, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs unveiled a second critical piece of legislation. Once promulgated, the draft National Tribal Policy would constitute the first formal, holistic government policy on the socioeconomic development of the country’s Scheduled Tribes communities. As of late 2011, however, the legislation remains in draft form.

Attached Bodies or Autonomous Bodies

National Scheduled Tribes Finance and Development Corporation (NSTFDC) The NSTFDC is a nonprofit company started in 2001 to focus exclusively on the sustainable economic development of Scheduled Tribe communities. It is wholly owned by the Indian government under the Ministry of Tribal Affairs. For the most part, the company focuses on skills training and creating income-generating schemes, particularly for self-employment, typically providing the seed capital for such ventures. Membership within the NSTFDC is open only to Scheduled Tribe individuals, self-help groups and cooperative societies. The company’s authorized share capital (the amount it can issue to shareholders) is INR 500 crores ($96,032, 884.70 USD). During the course of 2010, according to self-reported numbers, the corporation was involved in 149 new income-generating initiatives, giving out INR 153 crores ($29,386,092.72 USD).

National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST)

The NCST was created through a constitutional amendment in 2003, at which point – mirroring the creation of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs – an erstwhile commission that had been responsible for both Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes was split into two separate entities. The commission is vested with the responsibility to monitor the constitutional (or other legal) safeguards in place for India’s Scheduled Tribe communities, and is empowered to investigate allegations of inadequacy in this regard. The NCST is made up of a central office in New Delhi as well as offices in six states. At least once a year, the central commission is required to submit to the president a comprehensive report on the state of the country’s Scheduled Tribes.

The government has designated education as one of the most important interventions to the development of India’s Scheduled Tribe communities. As such, this constitutes the Ministry of Tribal Affairs’ most significant outlay of funding. This includes building schools in forest villages, training teachers, providing community-specific books and curricula, as well as building and running dormitories for residential schools. Also falling under the education rubric are additional funds aimed at particularly vulnerable populations like tribal girls. Much of the money for such undertakings are actually allocated to specific state governments as grants, with the ministry acting as an intermediary, overseeing programs and funneling funding from the central government in accordance with priorities set by the Planning Commission.

Another important funding priority for the ministry is the fostering of economic independence among the members of Scheduled Tribe communities. As such, ministry programs focus on creating small businesses, identifying niche and income-generating opportunities, a broad spectrum of skills training and additional related undertakings, including a significant priority on monitoring of such initiatives. Additional ministry money, though far less than these first two priorities, goes into typical welfare-related initiatives, relating to health, empowerment and related human development.

Recognition

The constitutional recognition of Scheduled Tribes as a marginalized subset within the Indian populace has brought with it significant compensation: reservations in school, businesses and government jobs as well asrelated government aid and affirmative-action programs. As such, since Independence there has been a significant incentive – and hence, a popular push – to have one’s community become officially recognized as a Scheduled Tribe. According to official statistics, the Scheduled Tribe population has more than doubled in the last several decades, from 29.9 million in 1961 to 67.8 million in 1991. Concurrently, there have been increased allegations of falsifying of personal and community lineage in an attempt to game this system. More importantly, there has also been public animus – at times spilling into outright violence – over the perception that one community is being given government assistance to another community’s detriment. The discussion over when and how to decrease or halt India’s reservation system has become increasingly fractious in recent years.

Paharias: The Struggle of a Tribe for Recognition (United Nations Development Program)

Do Reservations Work? (by Tarun Jain, IndiaTogether.org)

The Measure of a Tribe (by Kriti Kapila, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute)

Situating Law: Adivasi Rights and the Political Economy of Environment and Development in India (by Ajit Menon, Institut Francais de Pondichery)

Maoist-Tribal Nexus

One of the defining public debates in India over the past decade has been over the violent Maoist rebellion that has taken place, particularly in the country’s central-east sections, since the late 1960s. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has famously characterized the Maoists (also known as Naxalites) as India’s foremost security issue. While the focal points of the rebellion have changed over the years, the Maoists’ central ideological motivation has centered on social justice, ostensibly fighting against the endemic poverty brought about by systemic marginalization. While India’s Maoist fighters have gained high-level support among the country’s intellectuals and activists since the very beginning, the make-up of the rebels’ fighting forces has regularly consisted largely of young men and women drawn from poor tribal communities – some 95%, according to one of India’s leading activist-intellectuals, Arundhati Roy. As such, this has at times put the Ministry of Tribal Affairs in the problematic position of attempting to ensure welfare for Scheduled Tribe communities even as other parts of the government are actively fighting a violent Maoist rebellion made up largely of these same communities.

Maoists Target Tribal Areas To Further Propaganda (by Vishwa Mohan, Times of India)

Plot to Grab Tribal Land (by Arundhati Roy, The Hindu)

State Versus Maoists: Adivasis Pay a Heavy Price (by Supriya Sharma, Times of India)

‘Our Fight is for Adivasi Identity’ (by Tusha Mittal, Tehelka)

Forest Rights Act

Although the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, passed in 2006, has generally been received as a landmark move on the part of the government to address historical marginalization of these communities, the legislation has not been without controversy. In particular, the law has received significant opposition from conservationists worried that the new way of legally defining forestlands will make it difficult to create human-less areas devoted to wildlife habitat. Still other criticism has suggested that the law is either overly vague or not being implemented in such a way that local communities are gaining from the promises inherent to it.

Fifth Schedule: One of the most emotive, contentious debates in modern India is over the delineation of new states. In the Indian context, the state structure was decided almost exclusively based on language – an eminently acceptable solution for the majority language groups in each state, but a source of regular friction for many minority groups. Since Independence, several new states have been created, particularly during in 2000, when states such as Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh were created. This process has often used as its legal basis the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution, which deals with the administration of legally designated autonomous tribal areas. Worries over the balkanization of the country have led to significant, even violent, government reactions to attempts to force through the issue of statehood, as has been seen most recently in Darjeeling and Andhra Pradesh, and in several areas of the Northeast.

Forest Rights Act

Despite the passage of the Forest Rights Act in 2006, many of the law’s promises have yet to be fully realized on the ground. A significant part of this legislation was aimed at restoring traditional lands to Scheduled Tribe communities, including ensuring their rights to various local forest products, yet implementation has been widely criticized as spotty. In January 2011, an official National Advisory Council recommended several ways to correct perceived flaws in the legislation, including increasing transparency in the decision-making process over granting rights, strengthening the government’s proactive involvement in enforcing community (rather than individual) rights, and reinforcing the ability of local-level village councils to make real choices. At the time, however, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs rejected these suggestions.

PESA: During the course of 2011, the ruling Congress party actively pushed draft legislation known as the Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Area) Act, or PESA. Seen by many as a populist measure meant to curry favor for the party’s rising star, Rahul Gandhi, PESA would nonetheless give significant new powers to local administration within designated tribal areas. This would includeincreased local decision-making powers over local natural resources, an aspect that has led state governments to drag their feet on endorsing the legislation. In what many observers have suggested is a significant electoral move, however, the Congress party has recently appointed a long-serving politician to head of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, and also given him a second portfolio, that of Panchayati Raj (dealing with issues of local self-governance). This powerful new combined position, some are suggesting, could indicate that the Congress is hoping to secure a large percentage of the tribal vote during the next national elections, in 2014, when Rahul Gandhi is expected to be the party’s candidate for prime minister.

Kantilal Bhuria

Kantilal Bhuria was the previous Minister of Tribal Affairs, a portfolio that he held from January 2009 to June 2011. Like Kishore Chandra Deo, Bhuria is a longtime member of the Congress party, and had previously been minister of state for both the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.