Tribal Rights

Customary law encompasses the age old traditional practices of the people, indigenous or otherwise. These laws are flexible in nature and often ignite debate and leads to certain disagreement at local, regional or national level. The recent debate and discourse on UCC sparked many of the issues mainly concerning gender. This paper tries to highlight the contradictory position of UCC, customary law and women, tribal rights et cetera. The tribal population of the country are often thrown in the dilemma of functioning with the current issue.

Since its inception, the European Union (EU) has been continuously transforming itself to an ever increasing Union based on shared peace, democracy and security. The transformation of the EU from an economic entity towards a larger political union rests on setting up normative values around democracy, equality, social justice, political freedom, human rights etc. which strengthen the EU to a greater extent. These Intrinsic values of the EU act as glue and get entrenched into the socio-political fabric of its member states. However, in the wake of debt crisis 2008 and the recent Brexit episode, skepticism surfaces around disintegration of the EU and an imminent democratic deficit among member states. Further, the continuous pressure of immigration on member states along with a feeble transatlantic relation reinforces such perception among social scientists. In the last few years, the external and internal pressure-socio-political, economic or otherwise in nature and growing euro-skepticism, raising existential concerns about EU, have been increasingly discussed in various quarters of the intelligentsia and political leadership. The disintegration of EU as anticipated in various quarters, if is realized, will open a Pandora's box, create a vacuum in the space currently filled by EU, and may start another round of race and initiate a chain reaction among the world actors to bring the present member countries into their own sphere of influence thus, creating new set of social, economic, political and security challenges. However, this paper holds that an anticipated disintegration of the EU is a delusional concept because of the nature of the EU that posits itself as a normative actor based on humanitarian values rather than values of a realist state. The paper therefore, seeks to study various intrinsic values of the European Union that hold the EU together despite several crisis over

Tribal society gives a spectrum to access an idea about natural life of people who want to survive with natural resources instead of complicated derivatives. But due to growing pace of population and trend of growth from developing to developed country make government non-ethical rather than being welfare state which put tribal people's culture at stake. The concept of right talk about state's role for its people, so when we want to sketch a picture of tribal rights, it is nothing but the impact and role of government for tribal welfare in comparison to rest of the population of nation. Right is discussed under legal and constitutional safeguards provided to a particular society. So when we talk about challenges, numerous areas come out before us to make an inference for conclusion. Marriage, migration, health, education, displacement, effect of industrialization and forest village encroachment. The most important point is increasing number of tribal population and number of tribal groups in every decade in proportion to facility and reservation policy of India. Naxalism is nothing but a demand for Amendment in 5 th & 6 th schedule of Indian constitution for making them empowered in reality. National geography is not same form every tribal community across the country which provide them grounds for anger and protest time to time. Reflexive society is creating more challenges before tribal societies which make them aware about their right and for right to equality which is missing in policies framed by government time to time. Tribal rights should also be considered as challenge and must be discussed in mosaic manner with reference to all above said points. " We, the people of India, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a sovereign socialist secular democratic republic and to secure to all its citizens: justice, social, economic and political; liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship; equality of status and of opportunity; and to promote among them all fraternity assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the nation…do hereby adopt, enact and give to ourselves this constitution. "-Preamble of the Indian Constitution

Development of tribal is very complicated issue for the government as it need full attention from place to place and state to state. However, the problem is that, the government only see the development of tribal issue is only affected due to poverty and most of the programmes and policies implemented either to remove poverty or for the economic development. But the complex is that, there are other factors are also, in which tribal seeking government help to protect and preserve their ethnic identity, language, culture, norms and practices or belief etc. Only economic development would be utterly inadequate as they are face several problem to protect their identity from external influences (dikus and government). Since Independence, development of tribal people has always been an major concern in India. For this, the Indian Government has taken up many challenging tasks by implementing related programmes, policies and provisions from the Constitution. These initiatives have been carried out with an aim to start working from the ground level so as to provide equality and social justice to the underprivileged or scheduled tribe people. The most important rationale and object of such initiatives are to ameliorate their socio-economic conditions. That said, even after 70 year of India’s independence, the conditions of the tribal groups, in most cases, have not seen visible improvements and still constitute a weaker section of the Indian society. This could be seen from ecological, economy and educational angles. It is very unfortunate that the adopted policies, programmes and plans have not seeped deep into these underprivileged sections of the society as they are often squandered by the top echelons of the concerned authorities. For instance, in every five year plan, government of India has made so many policies and programmes to eliminate poverty, illiteracy, equality, employment, prostitution,
trafficking, child labour, bonded labour, untouchability, violence in domestic help, naxalism, land acquisition etc., but all these have remained as mere words on paper without any substantial outcome. With these aspects in mind, I would to analyze all the major policies, programme and constitutional provisions which have been implemented from time to time for the upkeep of the tribal people in India. Furthermore, in this paper, I would like to highlight and discuss the reasons behind the failure of the aforementioned programmes, policies and strategies. As a result of the improper implementation of the mentioned policies, schemes and programmes, the tribal citizens of India have been practically deprived of many civic facilities and are isolated from the modern and civilized way of living since so many decades.
Keywords- Inequalities, Tribal Rights, India, Displacement, health, Illiteracy, Land Alienation

A significant part of the lives of women in forest dwelling communities are spent in the forests, gathering forest resources, particularly for food, fuel and materials for crafts among other things. A strong gender dimension is also seen in many community driven forest protection initiatives where  women play a greater role in protection activities as well as in conservation and regeneration of forests.

The FRA among the various rights also recognizes rights including community tenures of habitat and habitation of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTG) and pre-agricultural communities enumerated under section 3 (1)(e) of the act. However the process of recognition remain unexplained under FRA, respecting the tribal land rights which might be difficult to formalize in a one fit in formulae, the recognition process remained unexplained so that it can be further interpreted based on research which must be tribal specific keeping the best intention of the law. However the objective has not been achieved yet.

Inclusion of marginalized sections and minorities remains one of the most vexing problems for democratic politics. This article discusses the enactment of a recent Indian law, ‘The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Rights) Act, 2006’, as exemplifying the possibilities of inclusion of marginalized groups in democratic processes. The law was enacted in response to a nationwide mobilization of marginalized forest dwellers and their advocates demanding rights over forests. Grassroots-level formations representing forest dwellers came together across scales and spaces to form a network that successfully negotiated India's democratic politics to achieve the passage of the law. The case illustrates the role of grassroots mobilizations in creating alternate discourses of legitimacy, networking across scales and locations, and using spaces provided by representative democracy to include the voices and demands of the marginalized in democracies.

This paper is an enquiry into the extent to which institutionally designing Pakistani democracy, so as to optimally accommodate the challenges posited by the tribal regions through the implementation of participatory democracy, would advance the cause of democracy. Its speculative nature is validated and adequate given the failure of the only other ideological and axiomatic rival to liberal representative, the Great Experiment. Dearth of competition in real system terms posits the danger of democratic stagnation or decline in the face of undisputed dominance without incentive to innovate and improve. Schumpeter’s view of democracy as method rather than end demands the refining and revising of its methodology though ever-evolving and inclusionary institutional design to make it individually enabling and emancipatory. Democracy must  submit to a far more rigorous test, at both the normative level of democratic theory and in the world of practice , in keeping up to the “ordinary citizens’” expectations ‘long subordinated ideals of equality, participation, accountability, responsiveness and self-realization’.
Why have I targeted the Tribal Areas?
The Pakistani tribal areas stretch from Chitral in the northeast to Balochistan’s Mt. Suleiman’s southwest end and the Afghanistan-Pakistan 2430 km Durand line frontier, which is porous owing to the tribe’s preserved ancient ethno-tribal links and lifestyle. The centralist nature of the Pakistani state is out of touch with the tribal dimension and needs to incorporate it accommodatingly.
It would be wise to pre-empt tribal secessionist movement through regional equitable growth instead of the current unsustainable growth model that I call urban explosion, which could happen through a participatory system. 
The tribal region’s volatility owes its origin to the Cold War-era US-instigated Afghan expulsion of the USSR through using madarasahs to create radical fighters called mujahedeen. Participatory democracy would neutralize this.
There is a military anti-terror operation in Waziristan  which has led to retaliatory suicide bombs in Pakistan’s cities. The US not only supplies Pakistan with military hardware but is interested in a strategic partnership in civil sectors,  showing the US would not ipso facto be opposed to democratising the tribal areas for which the money exists in the form of the $7.5 billion Kerry Lugar aid bill to help the Pakistan balance ‘democratic imperatives with security requirements.’ 
The tribal areas have been notoriously troubled as they are thought of as non-governable, but troubles arise because the tribes feel disenfranchised.

The newsletter provide some insight about the concept of 'Habitat Rights', its determination process and one case study with Kutia Kondha PVTG under Forest Rights Act (FRA). The basic objective in publishing the newsletter is to share developments regarding the status of implementation of the recognition of Habitat Rights of PVTGs, ongoing initiatives, learning's and key issue/challenges relating to its implementation, our objective is also to keep the reader informed and involved who were involved in the habitat rights recognition process across India.

The Asian Development Bank claims that, from 2009 onwards, food security is a major focus of their support and assistance in India and the rest of Asia.  This analysis of their overall approach and projects in India indicates that their support may in fact exacerbate the problems that have led to the ongoing food crisis in this area.

Development of tribal is very complicated issue for the government as it need full attention from place to place and state to state. However, the problem is that, the government only see the development of tribal issue is only affected due to poverty and most of the programmes and policies implemented either to remove poverty or for the economic development. But the complex is that, there are other factors are also, in which tribal seeking government help to protect and preserve their ethnic identity, language, culture, norms and practices or belief etc. Only economic development would be utterly inadequate as they are face several problem to protect their identity from external influences (dikus and government). Since Independence, development of tribal people has always been an major concern in India. For this, the Indian Government has taken up many challenging tasks by implementing related programmes, policies and provisions from the Constitution. These initiatives have been car...

Nine years after one of the worst communal violence India has witnessed, the victims in Kandhamal still wait for justice. Despite the mainstream Indian society and media trying hard to erase the memories of the gruesome inhuman violence, it remains fresh in the minds of those who were victimised due the communal frenzy in Kandhamal. Odisha has for long been witnessing a series of violent attacks on minority communities, particularly the Christians and more specifically those hailing from Adibasi and Dalit background.

Writing about Kandhamal is to write about my home and writing about the riot on Christians in Kandhamal is to write my story. I was victimised and I still am a victim. Yes! I am an Adibasi and I believe in Jesus Christ! Is that a crime or anti-Constitutional?