AP tribals need Dt councils

August 9 is World Indigenous People’s Day

Palla Trinadha Rao

The political decision of the UPA to create a separate Telangana sidelines the constitutional directive to the State Government for creation of district tribals' autonomous councils in the Scheduled Area of the State. Tribals’ demand for self-governance in the Scheduled Area is justiceable. But taking up of “Polavaram” as a national project to woo the people in Seemandhra undermines the survival rights of tribals living in Telangana.

In fact, over 276 tribal villages in the Scheduled areas of East Godavari, West Godavari and Khammam districts are expected to be submerged under Polavaram Project. According to the 2001 census, 2.37 lakh people will be displaced, of whom 53.17 percent are tribals, a majority from Telangana.

The UPA should have declared separate Telangana statehood excluding the Scheduled Tract of the State of Andhra Pradesh. The total tribal population of Andhra Pradesh, according to 2001 Census, is 50.24 lakhs, constituting about 6.59 per cent of the total population of the State.

The Scheduled Areas extend over 31,485.34 sq km, i.e., 11 per cent of the total area of the state, with 5,938 villages distributed in Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, East Godavari, West Godavari, Khammam, Warangal, Adilabad and Mahboobnagar districts; l30.47 lakhs tribals are found in the above-mentioned nine districts. The remaining tribal population of 19.77 lakhs is distributed over other districts. Division of the State will impact on the cohesiveness of tribal communities living in the forest landscape.

Interference of non-tribals and varied policies and programmes on forests, exploitation, alienation, and loss of control over the tribals’ environment has led to a massive fight for survival. About 50 per cent of the population in the Scheduled Areas comprises non-tribals, who control more than 50 per cent of the lands, in spite of the Tribal Protective Land Transfer Regulations that have been in force since 1917, which prohibit transfer of lands between tribals and non-tribals.

There is a voluminous record to show the wide disparities between the tribal areas and plains. The GOMs No 45 in 2007 issued by the Social Welfare Department says that “since Independence, governments have been spending crores of rupees towards the uplift of the Scheduled Tribes to bring them on par with the general society. However, there is still a wide gap between the general population and the Scheduled Tribes in many respects.

The literacy rate amongst the Scheduled Tribes is only 37 per cent against 60.5 per cent for the total population. Similarly, the infant mortality rate among the Scheduled Tribes is about 126 per 1000 births, while it is only about 62 per 1000 births for the total population.

The Scheduled Tribe population below the poverty line is 23 per cent, while it is 11 per cent for the total population. Tribals have different traditions, culture, lifestyle, and socio-economic situation from others. Thus, the situation of tribals is different from that of the rest of the population either in Telangana or Seemandhra. Parliament enacted the Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Area (PESA) Act in 1996 to extend Part IX of the Constitution to the Fifth Schedule Areas. Being an extension to the 73rd Amendment to the Constitution, this PESA is an integral part of the Constitution.

PESA directs the Fifth Schedule States to follow the pattern of the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution while designing the administrative arrangements in the panchayats at district levels in the Scheduled Areas. The administrative arrangement at the district level shall be on the pattern of the powers (legislative, judicial and executive powers) and structure of the District Councils. This also means the reorganization of the administrative divisions into districts so as to ensure that all the habitations in the Scheduled Areas are organized into districts as far as possible.

It would also require transfer of powers as provided for in the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution to the District Councils in Fifth Schedule Area. In other words, PESA envisages that the Fifth Schedule Areas adopt the Sixth Schedule pattern in addition for an autonomous existence.

Gonds, Koyas, Kolams, Chenchus and other backward tribes living in the Scheduled Area of Telangana will be the sufferers compared with the other developed tribals. In AP the Telangana region was affected by the political decision in 1977, notifying lambadas (tribe) as ST, which resulted in increased influx of lambada families from neighbouring districts of Maharashtra State that increased the pressure on forests and further loss of the indigenous Gond tribals’ lands to the more aggressive lambdas.

The Lambadas are, in fact, the single largest tribal group and constitute about 40 percent of the ST population. Their voice can be expected to be more effective in separate Telangana. Their representation in the state legislature and other elected bodies expected at different levels would be proportionately greater than that of other underdeveloped. It would result not only in economic loss to Chenchus, Koyas, Gonds, Kolams, etc, but also in erosion of their cultural identity, which was hitherto based on resources.

Hence, it is the duty of the Union Government to exclude the Scheduled Tract of Andhra Pradesh while carving out Telangana, and take steps for creation of district autonomous councils in tribal areas. Tribals living in the Scheduled Areas shall be given autonomy and must be given all help to bring them up in their economic and social status, since they have been victimized for thousands of years by terrible oppression and atrocities.

The writer is a tribal rights activist.

ptrinadharao@sify.com