Habitat rights for Chhattisgarh tribals in Naxal area soon

NEW DELHI/NARAYANPUR: While the Centre is going for an all offensive approach to combat Naxalism, the Bhupesh Bhagel government in Chhattisgarh has taken the confidence-building route to root out the menace from the state .
At a day-long meeting with the chief ministers and police chiefs of the states affected by Naxalism on Monday, Union home minister Amit Shah gave directions for surmounting Left-wing extremism (LWE) in the country.
The blitzkrieg of the Centre may unfold soon, but the Chhattisgarh government, in its soft approach, has already begun reaching out to the dwellers of Abhujmad, the area which is under the control of Naxals and notoriously known as 'liberated zone'.
After coming to power, the Bhagel government announced that it was going to grant habitat rights to the dwellers of Abujhmad, in Orchha tehsil of Narayanpur district. Section 3(1)(e) of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, or Forest Rights Act (FRA), entitles particularly vulnerable tribal groups (PVTGs) with habitat rights over their entire habitation and ensures protection of culture and way of life. Of the 75 tribal groups classified as PVTGs, Abujhmadias are one.
The official process to grant habitat rights to 40,000 tribals of Abujhmad, the only unsurveyed area in India, began in June this year. Once the process is complete, Abujhmad will be the first tribal area in the country to enjoy habitat rights.
"The Forest Rights Act mandates the government to take proactive role in applying for habitat rights for PVTGs. We have initiated the process of setting up village level committees and sent a proposal to the government. It will be an effective confidence building measure," Narayanpur collector Padum Singh Alma told TOI on phone.
As per official documents accessed by TOI, Abujhmad villagers were invited to a meeting in Narayanpur on June 23 to discuss the plan.
Around a hundred of them attended the first meeting, officials in Raipur said. The second meeting was held on August 22 at Orchha, officials said, adding that 190 village level committees have already been set up.
Tribal rights activist Shubhranshu Choudhary, who is also the founder of CGNet Swara, a citizen journalism initiative in the state's rural areas, has been working with villagers in Narayanpur to do the paper work for seeking habitat rights.
"We held a dialogue with tribals in Bastar after 'padyatra' last year. This idea to launch a campaign for habitat rights emerged there. Initially the government was reluctant but pressure from Congress in Delhi hel-ped," Choudhary told TOI.
In last several years, a considerable number of Abujhmadias have joined Maoists only to save their ‘jal, zameen, jungle (water, land and forest). The Maoists have persuaded them that they will be deprived of their natural resources by the government and corporations, he said adding that granting habitat right is the only way to make them feel secure about what is theirs.
“Many Abujhmadias do ‘penda’ (shifting cultivation) in Abujhmad. They shift to another piece of land after few years and after a rotation again come back to the same land after around 10 years. It is the only place where Gotul (a traditional schooling where life skills including sex education are taught) is still very active,” a native who had come down to a Rama Krishna health center for her ailing child had told the TOI in April this year.
That’s the way of life which the Abujhmadias cherish and will be protected by the habitat right, Choudhary said.