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From the editor’s desk…
This newsletter covers more of our efforts towards
the field of advocacy. Our focus has been on influencing government in
bringing about systematic changes so as not to disturb the self-governance
of tribal. The traditional structures need to be restored as units of
social, political and economic self governance At the same time the
government should highlight the weakness of tribal self-governance and
come out with better solution in consultation with all the tribal
community. Tribal self-govenance also has some lacunae. This is with
reference to equal rights to tribal women in panchayat or gram sabha,
illiteracy and ignorance in villages. In almost all tribal villages,
tribal women have no say in the gram sabha meetings. Any conflict with the
local populace is going to bring havoc for the environment and forest
protection that has been part of the tribal self-governance and protected
under the CNT Act. Reserving the panchayat seats for ignorant and
illiterate tribals without making them aware and building up their
capacities about the election is not going pay rich dividend in terms of
development.
Further PRA 2001 is
not clear regarding powers of the gram sabhas and their traditional heads.
Once there are direct elections to the mukhia post, and it is he who
controls development funds, will the munda still command any respect? The
powers given to mundas are atleast enshrined in the CNT Act whereas the
panchayat has to obey orders issued by the government from time to time.
It is feared that with the holding of panchayat elections, even the
lingering powers of the Mundas and Mankis, which have survived for long,
will completely disappear. The experience of the panchayat elections held
in the late 1970s showed how the elected mukhia gained at the expense of
the munda. It is true that under PRA 2001 the gram sabha has more powers
now and the meetings are presided over by the traditional head and not the
mukhia, yet the likelihood of one system destroying the other remains.
Therefore if the government continues ahead with the election without any
modification, then the power at the bottom level is going again in the
hands of selected few who already have benefited as middlemen in the name
of village development. Therefore a larger forum of both tribal and
non-tribal is required to be set up under the aegis of the government
policy makers to effect quality planning in this regard. |
