Of all the welfare laws of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, the Forest Rights Act (FRA) is the most crucial to its overall vision of developing an inclusive society — something that it is waking up to now, as the decision to cancel Vedanta's mining rights for violating the FRA,
among other laws, shows.
First, the FRA can help the Congress consolidate a traditional political constituency. i.e. tribals, 8 per cent of the country’s population, or roughly 84 million people. Secondly, if tribal rights are protected under the laws, it will contain the spread of Maoism, the “biggest internal security threat,” according to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Unlike other welfare measures of the UPA in sectors such as employment and health, the FRA addresses the most primary component of empowerment — the right to land (see box). A vast majority of India’s tribals live in forests without proof of residence. Until the FRA came, various laws designed to protect the forests, wildlife and environment resulted in the marginalisation of tribals and their harassment.
Post-liberalisation, tribal alienation and displacement escalated. “Since 1990, as India stepped up its industrialisation and allied activities, nearly 8.539 million tribals have been displaced,” points out N.C. Saxena, member of the National Advisory Council (NAC). More than half of all those displaced in India are tribals.
As with many other laws in the country, the FRA too has been more violated than enforced. In the cases of both Posco (in the Paradip area) and Vedanta, the projects got “in principle” clearance without complying with the FRA. In 2009, the environment ministry issued a circular making FRA-compliance mandatory before other clearances were given. “But this too has been flouted,” says Shankar Gopalakrishnan of the Campaign for Survival and Dignity, an organisation working for the effective implementation of the FRA.
The growing awareness of the links between the spread of Maoism and tribal alienation due to mining is the bedrock of the government’s thinking on the issue. UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s address to Congress MPs last week foretold what was coming. “What is most worrying is the high degree of convergence between areas that are mineral- and forest-rich and areas that are the arenas of tribal deprivation and Left-wing extremist violence,” Gandhi said. “Protecting the rights of tribals and ensuring their livelihood are central to bringing about an end to their exploitation and sense of alienation.”
“Cancelling the Vedanta project is the first acknowledgement by the government that this law binds them,” says Gopalakrishnan. “The Vedanta decision has shown that the FRA has become a reality now,” says Sunita Narain, environmentalist.
However, the new sweep of inclusive politics that the Congress is unveiling goes beyond the FRA. Industries are increasingly being forced into an adherence regime. Several projects are under the scanner for various violations. It certainly is smart politics. But can this be smart economics too? One has to wait for the answer.