DYFI To Hold Tribal Youth Convention

 Tapas Sinha

 THE Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) is going to hold a tribal youth convention in Rourkella on December 14-15, with 300 delegates from all over the country. The event is being organised at a time the BJP-led government and Sangh Parivar are trying to dislodge the tribal people from their land and making all-out attacks to distort their identity.

DYFI, the biggest organisation of youth in India, is one of the important constituents of the democratic struggle. It is with a commitment to forge the broadest possible unity of toiling masses in general and of youth in particular that the DYFI decided to organise this convention. It has always been raising and fighting for the demands of the tribal youth, and has accorded due importance to their distinct identity. The Tribal Youth Federation in Tripura is one such DYFI-affiliated but distinct organisation. To the DYFI, the tribal youth’s problems and struggles are an integral part of the broader youth movement. Yet the latter has to pay due attention to the specific issues and demands of tribals and tribal youth. Hence the relevance of the coming tribal youth convention.

STATE OF TRIBALS & TRIBAL YOUTH

The total tribal population in India is more than 8 crore. In the 1991 census, the scheduled tribes constituted 8.01 per cent of the total population. Today, tribals are the most economically deprived and socially oppressed section of our people. They constitute a sizeable part of landless rural poor and contract labour working in mines, plantations, brick kilns, etc. In pre-independence India, the questions of land, forest produce, forced eviction; forced migration and tribal identity were at the centre of the tribal revolts, directed against the zamindars, moneylenders and British rule, in several parts of the country. But the process of ousting the tribals from their lands continued in the post-independence period too. The successive governments’ developmental and industrial activities, without removing the feudal and semi-feudal land relations, only added to the tribals’ problems and miseries. 

Under the liberalisation regime, tribals have been hit hard due to curtailment of the public distribution system and cuts in social sector spending. Reports of starvation deaths and malnutrition have come from Orissa. Maharashtra, Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand and Rajasthan. Both foreign and Indian monopolies are penetrating the mineral-rich tribal areas following the dismantling of public sector, leading to large-scale displacement of the tribals. Efforts to rehabilitate them, if any, are more of symbolic than of real value. 

Today, except in north-eastern states, the tribals and Dalits have the highest percentage of illiterates, as successive governments did not do much to impart them education. According to the data provided by the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes on literacy rates in different social groups, the rate among tribals is the lowest. There is a serious lack of even primary level educational facilities in tribal areas; the dropout rates are very high here. The seats reserved for them in higher education are never fulfilled. The BJP government’s policies of commercialisation and communalisation of education are posing a serious threat to the tribal youth as far as educational opportunities are concerned.

Today in our country, the most serious crisis facing the youth is that of unemployment, and the tribal people and particularly youth are the worst sufferers. For their livelihood, a majority of them work as agricultural labourers, in forestry-allied activities, mining and quarrying, etc. Large-scale dismantling of public sector has further aggravated the situation.

LAND AND FOREST

The question of land and forest has always been central to the tribals’ existence and identity. The ruling classes have attacked the very basic rights of tribal people as natural owners of the forest and forest land. On May 3 this year, the union ministry of environment and forest issued a circular ordering eviction of all ‘illegal’ encroachments on the forest land, estimated to be around 12.55 lakh hectares. This, in effect, means throwing our ten million tribals from their natural habitat and depriving them of their inalienable right to the forest and forest produce.

On the other hand, through fraudulent means and taking advantage of the loopholes in the laws, large-scale illegal occupation of tribal lands is still taking place in various parts of the country, despite the constitutional provisions and several land acts. Mortgages, lease agreements, benami transfers, false title deeds in collusion with revenue officials, marriage with tribal women, possession of land in the name of (bonded) tribal labourers are some commonly used methods for illegal occupation of tribal lands. In this situation, effective implementation of land reforms and distribution of surplus land among the landless tribal families is the central question. In West Bengal and Tripura, under the Left Front governments, lakhs of tribal families and youth have benefited from effective land reform measures. In a majority of other states, however, this very thing is lacking.

At the same time, denial of access to the forests and their produce under the tyrannical rule of forest guards and bureaucrats has deprived the tribals of their food, habitat and traditional way of life, with serious consequences. For, tribal people have an organic link with the forests. The latest Forest Conservation (Amendment) Act 1988 treats them as encroachers and interlopers in the forest, instead of being an integral part of it. But the fact is that the disappearance of the forests and degeneration of green cover are not due to tribals, but due to the corrupt nexus of the contractors, mafias and ruling class politicians --- an inexorable feature of capitalist development.

SOCIAL OPPRESSION

Old collective forms of tribal life with egalitarian features have broken down in the face of feudal and capitalist onslaughts. Tribals are facing the most ruthless oppression by landlords, mafias, moneylenders, contractors, corrupt police and officials, and ruling class politicians. Large numbers of tribals migrate, with entire families, to other areas to eke out a meagre livelihood. They remain unorganised, deprived of minimum wages and unprotected by labour laws and other measures. At places they are held as bonded labourers.

The tribals’ identity, languages and culture are facing the threat of extinction. Successive governments have ignored their languages. Stage-managed tribal cultures are presented as folk cultures. The need is that tribal languages must be given recognition and developed as mediums of education. Positive aspects of tribal culture, particularly their collective and egalitarian ethos, must be encouraged. This, however, does not minimise the need of fighting their retrograde practices like witch hunting, depriving women of land and cultivation, polygamy, etc.

By and large, the status of tribal women is better than in caste Hindu society. In many tribal communities, women have an equal status and right to property. But in many others, women do not have the right to land and its cultivation. Women work hard and contribute to earning, family needs and cultural activities. But the dominant society’s bourgeois or semi-feudal values are degrading these women. They are subjected to sexual harassment at workplaces by landlords, mafias, contractors and forest guards. However, several movements have brought a modicum of awakening among tribals for economic, social and political equality.

AUTONOMY AND SAFEGUARDS

Tribals are in a majority in the north-eastern states except Tripura and Manipur. Here we have a large numbers of tribal communities with distinct ethnic and social features. Their problems are different. In some areas, there are inter-tribal conflicts. The bourgeois-landlord regime’s policy has neglected them, and failed to develop the region. Only a narrow and highly opportunistic elite section has profited from the central assistance, by diverting the development funds.

The growing discontent and thwarted aspirations gave rise to separatist feelings among the tribals. But the efforts to fight separatism and insurgency have been devoid of a democratic perspective based on all-round development of the region and due recognition to the tribals’ needs and identities. This has led to a stalemate situation.

Imperialists are taking advantage of the situation to foment separatism and ethnic conflicts. At the same time, the RSS and its outfits have stepped up their divisive activities in tribal areas. While targeting the minority Christians, they are trying to divide the tribals between Christians and non-Christians. They are trying to impose the Brahminical caste order on the tribals. They do not recognise the tribals as Adivasis. For them, the tribals are ‘Vanvasis.’ The term confines the tribals to the forest and negates their rights and aspirations.

Only a strengthening of the federal decentralised set-up with genuine autonomy for minority groups can fulfil the tribals’ aspirations regarding their identity, languages and cultures. Hence the need that the contiguous areas, where tribals are in a majority or form a substantial section of the population, must be provided regional autonomy.

It is in the background of this situation that the DYFI’s tribal youth convention is going to take place. The convention is expected to play an important role in mobilising the tribal youth all over the country and initiate a war against the tribal people’s oppression.