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Tribal Situation in Rajasthan

NC Saxena

Contents

The All-India picture 1Tribes of Rajasthan 2Scheduled Area 4

PESA – The Panchayat Act in the Fifth Schedule Areas 5Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP) 6

Tribal Development Fund 8Special Central Assistance to Tribal Sub Plan 8

Sectoral Issues 9Livelihoods 9

Relations with forests 11Tribals’ livelihoods through NTFPs 12

Elementary Education 13Health & Nutrition 15

Caring for severely undernourished adivasi children 17Sanitation 19

Role for UNICEF 20

The All-India picture

The term ‘Tribe’ has not been defined in the Indian Constitution. The Lokur Committee (1965) appointed by Government of India for the study of tribals identified their characteristics as: presence of primitive traits, distinctive culture, and shyness of contact with the other communities, geographical isolation and backwardness in social and economic condition. Based on these characteristics states recommend groups of people with their local names for incorporation in the Schedule of the Constitution, and hence they are called Scheduled Tribes (STs), also known as Adivasis. The list of Scheduled Tribes are notified for each State or Union Territory and are valid only within the jurisdiction of that State or Union Territory and not outside.

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Scheduled Tribes constitute 8.6 per cent of the country’s population (Census of India -2011), traditionally concentrated in about 15 per cent of the country’s geographical areas, mainly forests, hills, undulating inaccessible areas, and at tri-junction of state boundaries. Their population has grown by 23.7% during the period 2001-2011, as against 17.6% for the total population. Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, and Karnataka account for 82.2% of the total Scheduled Tribe population of the country. About 10% of tribal population is urban in 2011, it was only 3% in 1981. There was no decline in poverty levels1 for STs between 2004-09 and 2009-10, which remained at 47% for rural STs, whereas for the general2 population it declined from 16 to 8%.

Per capita NSDP of Rajasthan compared with a few neighbouring states at Constant Prices (in Rs.) is given below.

States 2007-2008

2008-2009

2009-2010

2010-2011

2011-2012

Rajasthan 21922 23356 24304 27625 28851MP 17572 19462 21029 22091 24395Haryana 47046 49780 55044 59140 62927All-India 30332 31754 33901 36342 38037

Tribes of Rajasthan

The total population of Rajasthan is 68.5 million out of which ST population is 9.2 million (13.5%). These communities have higher incidence of illiteracy, malnourishment and poverty, and face social and geographic isolation. Nearly 95 percent of them reside in rural areas. Though the tribal population is scattered throughout the state, a major portion is concentrated in southern part of the state viz., entire districts of Banswara, Pratapgarh and Dungarpur, and parts of Udaipur, Chittorgarh and Sirohi districts. Five districts viz., Udaipur, Banswara, Dungarpur, Jaipur and Pratapgarh account for more than half (54.50%) of the total ST population in Rajasthan. The major tribes residing in these areas are Bhil, Meena, Damor, Patelias, Saharaiyas, and Gharasia.

1 Poverty figures for STs for 2011-12 have not been declared so far.2 Those who are neither STs, SCs, nor OBCs

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Saharia, the only PTG (Primitive Tribal Group) in Rajasthan and residing in parts of Baran, Kota, Dungarpur and Sawai Madhopur districts, is among the most backward tribal groups. Saharia population is about a lakh.

District wise distribution of tribal population shows that they have their highest concentration in Banswara district (72.3 per cent), followed by 65.1, 59.9 and 47.9 per cent in Dungarpur, Pratapgarh and Udaipur districts respectively. Out of twelve (12) tribes scheduled for the State, Meena is the most populous and comparatively prosperous tribe, having a population of 3,799,971 constituting 53.5 per cent of the total ST population followed by Bheel (2,805,948). Meena and Bhil together constitute 93 per cent whereas Garasia, Damor, Dhanka & Saharia combine to form 6.6 per cent of the total ST population.

 Bheel Majority of the Bheels are settled in Udaipur, Dungarpur, Banswara and Chittorgarh.

 Meena Meena is the largest tribal community and it mainly resides in Jaipur, Sawai Madhopur, Alwar, Chittorgarh and Udaipur Districts.

 Damor Majority of the Damor Tribes can be found in 10-12 Panchayats of Damriya region of Simalwara panchayat which is in the Dungarpur District.

 Khatodi Majority of the Kathodi Tribes can be found in Jhadol (Udaipur District).

 Garasiya Garasiya Tribes (Tribals) reside in Sirohi District in and around Aburoad area in 24 villages which comprises of the “Bhakkar Patta”. Garasiya originated from around here and origins can be found here.

 Sahariya Sahariya tribes, declared as Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) are settled in the Hadothi region, Shahbad and Kishanganj villages and jungles of Baran District. They are the poorest.

Patelia Patelia Tribe resides in Dungarpur and Banswara District.

Apart from Meena tribe, most other tribals in Rajasthan live in isolated groups in relatively remote areas, where it is difficult to deliver essential services. This has also made it much more difficult for them to benefit from the acceleration of overall growth as compared to other social groups. They are the most disadvantaged and vulnerable section of the society due to wide ranging neglect, deprivation and exploitation. They have historically suffered from an enormous development deficit as compared to the rest of the population. In addition, over the years they have been increasingly alienated from the traditional sources of their livelihood—land and forests3. STs have also suffered more mass displacement as a result of infrastructure projects than any other group. The government’s 10th Five-Year Plan noted that between 1951 and 1990, 21.3 million people were displaced; 40 percent of them—or 8.5 million—were tribal people. Finally, physical remoteness and smaller numbers have gone together with political isolation and low voice in decision making for the Scheduled Tribes. The Report of the

3 GoI, Planning Commission, XI Five Year Plan, 2008

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Expert Group on Prevention of Alienation of Tribal Land and its Restoration (October 2004) pointed out that the socio-economic infrastructure among the tribal people is inadequate, thereby contributing to their disempowerment and deprivation.

The share of non-tribal population in tribal districts is increasing. For instance, in district Dungarpur the decadal growth rate of the non-ST population observed an increase from below 20 per cent during 1961-71 to over 32 per cent during 1991-2001. The ST population, on the other hand, registered a decline in growth rate; from 38 per cent to 25 per cent during the same period. The proportion of ST labour population to total agricultural labour population in rural areas was recorded at about 77 percent (in 2001)- higher than their proportion in the population. Implicitly, ST population is poorer than the rest, as casual labourers are among the economically weakest sections in the Indian society.

Poor implementation of existing schemes in the tribal regions resulted not only in poverty continuing at an exceptionally high levels, but the decline in poverty has been much slower in these regions than in the entire country. Similar gaps continue between literacy levels and health indicators of STs and the general population. The health status of women from STs, especially maternal health, malnutrition, access to health facilities are far worse than that of other sections of society.

Health care is one of the major problem of tribal community. Reluctance of doctors and paramedicos to serve tribal areas is an unresolved issue that continues to affect the entire health care delivery system in tribal areas. In tribal communities, the literacy indicators show that educational development is very low. The teacher’s absenteeism is high in schools of tribal areas. The dropout rate among tribal school going children is alarming. Various steps has been taken by the State Government to reduce the school dropout which include free distribution of books and stationery, scholarship etc.

Scheduled Area

Many tribal areas in central India are part of Schedule V, just as many NE regions are part of Schedule VI of the Indian Constitution. The criteria followed for declaring an area as Scheduled Area are preponderance of tribal population; compactness and reasonable size of the area; under-developed nature of the area; and marked disparity in economic standard of the people. State Governors have a special constitutional protective role in all Scheduled Areas. They are empowered to make regulations prohibiting or restricting transfer of land from tribals to non-tribals and prevent exploitation the tribal communities. Since these Scheduled Areas are supposed to enjoy autonomy protected by the Constitution, the laws passed by Parliament and the State legislatures do not automatically apply to them, unless approved by the Governor. However in actual practice, Governors take little interest to protect tribal interests.

The Schedule Area of Rajasthan consists of the entire districts of Banswara (8 Blocks), Dungarpur (5 Blocks), & Pratapgarh districts (4 Blocks), 7 complete Blocks and 2 partial Blocks of Udaipur district, and Aburoad block of Sirohi district (1 Block). The total comes to 27 Blocks or 4544 villages. The total population of Schedule Area of Rajasthan is 5.7 million, out of which ST population is 4.2 million. Out of Total ST population of state 45% STs reside in Scheduled Area. Another 22% live in what are called MADA (Modified Area development Approach) areas spread over 44 blocks of 18 districts. Both Schedule and MADA Areas get additional funds from GOI and the state government.

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A distinguishing feature of Scheduled Areas is the provision for setting up of a Tribes Advisory Council (TAC) at the state level under Governor’s chairmanship. A TAC consists of not more than twenty members, of which roughly three-fourth should be representatives of Scheduled Tribes in the Legislative Assembly of the State. TAC’s role is to advise the State Government on matters of welfare and development of the Scheduled Tribes in the State. In reality, however, the state governments either did not constitute TACs or if constituted, did not function properly. The Tribal Advisory Council of Rajasthan met only once in a year during 1996, 1997, 1998 and 2000. According to the Rajasthan government “more meetings of TAC could not be organised due to preoccupation of the Chairman and Members”.

The track record of the Tribal Advisory Council (TACs) across India has been dismal. The TACs are seldom constituted by the State governments. When they are constituted, they seldom meet, as their meeting depends on the wishes of the concerned bureaucrats in the Departments. UNICEF may consider studying its effectiveness in Rajasthan.

PESA – The Panchayat Act in the Fifth Schedule Areas

The Panchayat (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 (or simply the PESA Act, 1996) made it mandatory for the Fifth Schedule areas to make legislative provisions in order to give wide-ranging powers to the tribals on matters relating to decision-making and development of their communities. Politically, it gives radical governance power to the tribal communities and recognizes their traditional community rights over local natural resources. It not only accepts the validity of “customary law, social and religious practices, and traditional management practices of community resources”, but also directs the state governments not to make any law which interfere with these. Accepting a clear-cut role for the community, it gives wide-ranging powers to Gram Sabhas, at least on paper.

Section 4 (m) (ii) of this Act provides that -

"while endowing panchayats in the Scheduled Areas with such powers and authority as may be necessary to enable them to function as institutions of self-government, a State legislature shall ensure that the Panchayats at the appropriate level and the Gram Sabha are endowed specifically with the ownership of minor forest produce."

Further, PESA required that state government would change its existing laws wherever these were not in consistent with the central legislation. The Rajasthan PESA makes clear that every village shall have a Gram Sabha consisting of persons whose names whose names are included in the electoral rolls for the Panchayat at the village level. However, unlike PESA there is no definition of village as habitation/hamlet on community lines. It merely says that a village shall mean a “village specified as such by the Governor”.

At first glance the Rajasthan PESA seems to have generally reflected most of the provisions of the PESA, although a closer look establishes that almost all powers has been made subject to rules/ further orders “as may be prescribed by the State Government”. The control over prospecting of minor minerals, planning and management of water bodies, management of village markets, control and management of minor forest produce, prevention & alienation of land are all subject to rules in force or as may be prescribed by the State. The fact that the Rajasthan rules are not in conformity with the central law on PESA suggests reluctance by the State Government to operationalise the mandate of PESA.

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Thus, tribals can have ownership rights over Minor Forest Produce, but only if the relevant state laws in force allow that. This is clear violation of the Constitutional Provision of the Central Act since in case of any inconsistency the relevant state laws have to be changed instead of negating the rights granted to Gram Sabha as per the Central Act in this regard. We were told that Police in Rajasthan harasses tribals who collect honey and other MFPs, although according to law all MFPs belong to the people. Clarity is needed, and state government should issue clear directions on this issue. Each tribal should carry with him the copy of this enabling government circular so that they are not harassed by the Police.

At the same time it should be admitted that the planning and budgeting infrastructure in the elected panchayats and lower tiers of administration is weak considering the limited capacity of officials and elected functionaries to prepare area development plans. The PRIs are heavily dependent on the Central and state governments for funds and functionaries, local planning is not fully institutionalised and devolution is limited to few subjects in terms of supervisory powers. Whatever power has been transferred is without funds or effective control over functionaries, barring in a few departments. The apathy of local legislators and unnecessary interference of the bureaucracy and line departments are further corroding the panchayat system with its tiers having no clear-cut roles under the integrated model of decentralisation followed by the state. The ZP and PS only redistribute funds through the top-down method and are unable to support the GP with technical/other staff required for implementing various projects due to lack of assistance from the higher tiers of administration.

The state government should provide them adequate resources from plan packages or in the form of allocation of untied funds for the dispensation of traditional function of these bodies. Field observations show that the people's participation (especially the role of women) in panchayat activities/planning is negligible and accountability mechanisms are practically non-existent.

Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP)

There are standing Guidelines from the Planning Commission to the Ministries of the Union government and all the state governments to ensure that plan allocations for the development of STs and SCs are proportional to their share in the total population of the state. These are known as Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP) and Scheduled Caste Sub-Plan (SC-SP), earlier known as Special Component Plan (SCP).

The objective of TSP is to bridge the gap between ST and others through accelerating the development of STs by securing to them (i) human resource development by enhancing their access to education and health services, (ii) enhancing quality of life by providing basic amenities in tribal areas/localities including housing; and prevention of exploitation, and (iii) reduction in poverty and unemployment, creation of productive assets and income generating opportunities.

Unfortunately in most cases, the state governments have not been allocating the amounts required. The total plan size of Rajasthan is Rs 40,500 crores for 2013-14. The share of tribal communities in the state of Rajasthan is 13.5 percent, therefore the allocation to TSP should be 13.5 percent of the total Plan outlay of the state, i.e. Rs 5468 crores. Unfortunately it is far less, as shown below.

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According to GOI Guidelines States should prepare a comprehensive perspective TSP document, as to how TSP has and is likely to help the STs in respect of the following key areas concerning STs:

a) Land alienation and indebtedness

b) Loss of access and control over forest and effective implementation of FRA and PESA, wherever applicable

c) Involuntary displacement due to development projects

d) Lack of proper rehabilitation

This too is not being done in Rajasthan.

Thirdly TSP funds are not being routed through the Tribal Commissioner in Rajasthan; these are being routinely spent by other departments such as Health and Education, with no coordination with the Tribal Commissioner located at Udaipur. Tribal Commissioner does not exercise any control or supervision over TSP funds that are spent by other departments. He thus plays no role in advocacy on behalf of tribals with other departments. As Tribal Commissioner is also the Divisional Commissioner, he should be in an advantageous position to coordinate the activities of all departments. However tribal indicators continue to be poor, indicating deeper malaise and lack of convergence.

The Tribal Commissioner’s role is confined to spending his budget only, which has three components; Tribal Development Fund, Special Central Assistance to Tribal Sub Plan, and grants under Article 275(1) of the Constitution. The last two grants come to Rajasthan from the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, (MOTA), GOI. Rajasthan gets about Rs 98 crore under 275(1) and 87 crores under SCA to TSP from GOI. However, releases are often stuck due to bad procedures. For instance, as against a budget provision of Rs 40 crores for Saharias, the only PTG, actual release was only Rs 7 crores last year.

Flow of funds is highly unsatisfactory. Scholarships are never disbursed every month, it is only once a year. This year so far (17th June 2014) not a single rupee has been released to the Tribal Commissioner. Procedure needs to be examined to end uncertainty and delay in release of funds. UNICEF should suggest how to ensure steady flow of funds at the cutting-edge level.

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Tribal Development Fund

The State government has created the Janjati Kalyan Nidhi or Tribal Development Fund under which about Rs 290 crore (which is less than 1% of state plan) is transferred to the Tribal Development Department, which makes development plans for the tribal area using these and GOI funds. Bulk is spent on education by constructing new Hostels to facilitate lodging and boarding facilities to tribal students who reside in far-flung area. At present there are 280 running hostels, out of which 168 are for boys and 112 are for girls. 10551 boys and 6689 girls are being benefited through these Hostels. For uninterrupted supply of electricity, Solar lights are being installed in all ST hostels of the state to facilitate studies. Then Residential Schools are being run by the Department to provide quality education to the tribal students along with residential facilities. 19 Residential schools are running, out of which 11 are for boys and 8 are for girls. 2789 boys and 1358 girls are being benefited through these residential schools. There are scholarships and incentive schemes for meritorious students to ensure retention after the enrolment, financial assistance is being provided to meet part of the cost involved.. For instance, girls who study in govt. school and achieve 65% or more marks in class 10 or 12 Board Exam are rewarded with mini-scooters, but as they do not know how to ride these, it is likely that these are sold out or used by their brothers. UNICEF should start a scheme of training girls for mobike driving.

Maa-Bari Centres & Maa-Bari Day Care Centres: To promote awareness towards health, hygiene and education Maa Bari Scheme was started in the year 2007. Through Maa Bari Centres non-school going children of age group 6 to 12 are given primary education. Efforts are made to bring an attitudinal change towards health, hygiene and education. Mid-day meal, school dress, games etc. are also provided. 32970 boys & girls of tribal families get benefit with this project. Over 300 new Maabari centres are to be opened in tribal areas in Rajasthan in the 12th Plan.

In order to cater to the health needs of tribal families, Swasthya Karmi Yojna (health scheme) is in operation and funded from the Tribal Development Fund. Swasthya Karmis (Health Workers) are working as facilitators for medical & health needs of the tribals. Extensive awareness campaign is also coordinated by Swasthya Karmis. They get Rs 1750 per month as honorarium. There appears to be some duplication between their role and what ASHA workers are supposed to do. ASHAs get no honorarium, only incentive money based on their performance. On the other hand, Swasthya karmis grudge that they get no incentive, although they are also involved in promotion of institutional delivery. Thus there is duplication of staff and lack of convergence; Swasthya Karmis and ASHA are both health workers, but under different departments and with different salary structure.

UNICEF should do a detailed study as how to bring convergence and reduce confusion between these two sets of workers.

Special Central Assistance to Tribal Sub Plan

The Special Central Assistance (SCA) is provided by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs to the State Government as an additive to the State TSP. SCA is primarily meant for family-oriented income-generation schemes in sectors of agriculture, horticulture, sericulture, and animal husbandry cooperation. A part of SCA (not more than 30%) is also permitted to be used for development of infrastructure incidental to such income generating schemes. SCA is intended to be additive to State Plan efforts for tribal development and forms part of TSP strategy.

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The SCA to TSP in Rajasthan is utilized towards providing subsidy to bank-linked income generating schemes, and are not related to the overall plan for STs. Critical gaps are not identified and the bank linked schemes are not linked and converged with the schemes planned under the TSP. In almost all States, the SCA is transferred to the State Scheduled Tribes Finance and Development Corporation(s) for providing subsidy to the bank-linked income generating schemes. In addition, the income generating schemes implemented by these Corporations are not, in any way, linked with the sectoral schemes being implemented by the State Governments under their TSP. The senior officers of these Corporations do not know as to what are the critical gaps in the various schemes that are being implemented under the sectoral schemes of the State's Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP).

The Commercial Banks do not trust tribals, and feel that they would never return the bank loans advanced to them. Hence, they only release the subsidy amount to the tribal as loan, although that money has been transferred to the Bank as grant. Since no further instalment is given to the tribal, he becomes a bad defaulter, with no risk or loss to the bank. There is also huge corruption in the release of the subsidy amount. GOI must reconsider the design of this programme.

The present approach of SCA to TSP where 70% of the funds are to be spent on individual family oriented income generating schemes is overlapping with IRDP programmes, now renamed as SGSY programmes. In the absence of any mechanism to prevent overlapping, we should implement family oriented income generating schemes only through SGSY type schemes. One should use the SCA to TSP for infrastructure development, strengthening administration and monitoring, and matters incidental thereto. If necessary, an amount of about 20% of the funds could be kept for Family Oriented Schemes such as pensions to meet certain exigencies where it is considered essential.

Although there is a M&E Cell located in the Commissioner’s office, but it does not and cannot do objective and critical evaluations. It is mostly busy in collecting and forwarding information. UNICEF may consider strengthening the Cell to ensure that authentic data is generated at the ground level. It should be able to hire credible professional agencies

Sectoral Issues

Livelihoods

The economy of tribals in Rajasthan continues to be predominately agriculture based with small landholding and little irrigation. However, Saharias (PVTG) are mostly landless and survive on wage labour. The Southern region lacks productive land, irrigation facilities, industrialization and skill building opportunities. They also depend on collection from forests. The state has high concentration of poor in the resource-poor regions – largely occupied by the Scheduled Tribes. Though various anti-poverty initiatives have been implemented by the government of India and the Rajasthan government, the results have been dismal on account of various reasons, mainly poor targeting and inefficient management.

As brilliantly analysed in the Approach Paper to the X Plan, from the viewpoint of policy, it is important to understand that tribal communities are vulnerable not only because they are poor, assetless and illiterate compared to the general population; often their distinct vulnerability arises from their inability to negotiate and cope with the consequences of their forced integration with the mainstream economy, society,

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cultural and political system, from which they were historically protected as the result of their relative isolation.

Post-independence, the requirements of planned development brought with them the spectre of dams, mines, industries and roads on tribal lands. With these came the concomitant processes of displacement, both literal and metaphorical — as tribal institutions and practices were forced into uneasy existence with or gave way to market or formal state institutions (most significantly, in the legal sphere), Adivasis found themselves at a profound disadvantage with respect to the influx of better-equipped outsiders into tribal areas. The repercussions for the already fragile socio-economic livelihood base of the tribals were devastating — ranging from loss of livelihoods, land alienation on a vast scale, to hereditary bondage.

As tribal people in India perilously, sometimes hopelessly, grapple with these tragic consequences, the small clutch of bureaucratic programmes have done little to assist the precipitous pauperisation, exploitation and disintegration of tribal communities. Tribal people respond occasionally with anger and violence, but often also in anomie and despair. However that too is branded as a typical ‘law and order’ problem, ignoring its socio-economic dimensions.

Thus it is the forced assimilation caused by government policies and lack of protection to the simple adivasi folks against the tyranny of distorted market forces that has been their main problem. Without adequate safeguards, such an interaction is going to be on unfair terms and likely to cause more harm rather than any good to them.

Our ex-Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh during the Chief Ministers’ Conference on implementation of the Forest Rights Act on November 4, 2009 admitted, ‘There has been a systemic failure in giving the tribals a stake in the modern economic processes that inexorably intrude into their living spaces. The alienation built over decades is now taking a dangerous turn in some parts of our country’.

This frank admission of the present sorry state of affairs was unfortunately not followed up by concrete suggestions how corrective action can be initiated, and by developing a system of oversight that would enable the planners to measure the extent to which progress is satisfactory. The net result is that tribals in central India have made little advancement as compared to other social groups. The Human Development Report, 2011 of the Planning Commission candidly admits that though the consumption expenditure for STs (and Muslims) has been rising over time, the rate of increase was lower than the all India average. Further, while there has been a divergence in Monthly Per Capita Consumption Expenditure (MPCE) from the national average for STs and Muslims during 1999–2000 and 2007–8, they are also diverging from the national average in terms of female malnutrition during 1998–9 and 2005–6. Only one-third STs and around half of SCs reside in pucca houses, compared to 66 per cent for all India. Over time, ST households, due to a slower pace in improvement, have experienced a growing divergence from the national average of households residing in pucca houses.

Rajasthan was doing very well in NREGA, particularly in Southern districts upto 2008-09. However, since then with a massive decline in NREGA funding for Rajasthan, outmigration of tribals has increased to Gujarat. It is unfortunate that government has stopped doing social audit of NREGA with the help of professional organizations; Sarpanches spend money and do their own audit!

Migration mostly to Gujarat is common to almost all tribes in Rajasthan, often such families have no ration card in the cities, where they work for several months. The

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labour laws governing migrant labour are poorly implemented, as there is little knowledge about such laws, and no legal aid is available to help the tribals. A World Bank study on Rajasthan showed that around 80% of the ST migrants earn less than Rs. 20,000 whereas, more than 80% General households earn more than Rs. 20,000 during one cycle of seasonal migration. A research study on ‘Migrant Tribal Women Girls in Ten Cities’ for the Planning Commission found that the employers paid very low wages below the level of minimum wages, made illegal deductions, and forced them to work for very long hours beyond the hours fixed by law. The principal causes of financial and sexual exploitation of the migrant tribal women and girls in cities were poverty, lack of employment opportunities, unorganised nature of labour force, misunderstanding of the local people about free sex amongst tribal societies, and lack of community support to victims of sexual exploitation.

There appeared to be confusion about BPL list, as there was no awareness about the latest circular from GOI. Many Saharias are outside the BPL list which should be looked into, as all PVTGs are now to be declared as automatically in the BPL list.

Relations with forests

A large percentage of STs are dependent on collection of forest products. However, a government report (2010) found many inadequacies with the implementation of Forest Rights Act (FRA). We quote below from the report;

‘As in several other states, gram sabhas in Rajasthan have been wrongly defined as being at the panchayat level, often including 4-5 villages; FRCs formed at this level have not been able to do their job satisfactorily, and gram sabha assessments or resolutions are either absent or cursory. This is the case even in PESA areas, though the Act is clear that gram sabhas should be at individual village level. Compounding the problem is a state government circular of 17 March 2008, specifying that the gram sabha should be at the panchayat level, in non-PESA areas. Many cases were also reported of FRCs being formed by panchayat or tehsil officials without gram sabha meetings, and without the members even getting to know that they were being nominated.

One of the biggest problems faced by claimants in Rajasthan is a 11-page kulak (claim form set) that has been circulated, requiring claimants to not only fill in the forms prescribed by the FRA Rules, but also to get endorsements from a number of officials such as the patwari, tehsildar, district authorities, forester and RFO, and president and secretary of gram sabha. Due to this several claimants are having to chase various officials, whereas actually the task of verification is the responsibility of the SDLC. This issue has been repeatedly taken up by people’s groups such as the Jangal Jameen Jan Andolan, but with no results. Though official statistics show a very low level of CFR claims, the Committee’s interactions suggested that dozens, possibly hundreds of villages in this region are in the process of making CFR claims. For instance, 4 villages of Madla panchayat in Jhadol block have claimed about 1400 hectares; another 75 CFR claims over several thousand ha. (precise figure not known) are being claimed through village bodies collected under the Van Utthan Sansthan, in Udaipur district. In Pratapgarh district over 400 CFR claims are under process of being filed. Local CSOs feel that with time and spreading awareness, and some pro-active help of officials, CFRs could be filed over several lakh hectares.

One widespread problem is that villagers are being told they do not need to file CFRs, since they already enjoy benefits from JFM. Another problem is that CFR rights are being curtailed by conditions, such as a June 2010 decision by the Bhilwara District

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Collector to not extend rights to tendu patta and gum, and the power of the FD to close off the CFR area for 5 years.

Tribals’ livelihoods through NTFPs

In addition to strengthening community rights over forests, government would have to address three inter-related issues; how to increase NTFP production, how to improve access of the poor to NTFPs, and how to maximize their incomes through marketing.

Norms for silvicultural practices were developed in times prior to the current scenario of high human and cattle pressures, and must now be adjusted accordingly. If the national objectives have changed to prioritise people's needs, there must be an accompanying change in silvicultural practices and technology. One requires a complete reversal of the old policies, which favoured commercial plantations on forest lands, and trees for consumption and subsistence on private land. "Scientific" forestry should therefore mean that environmental functions, wild fruits, nuts, NTFPs, grasses, leaves and twigs become the main intended products from forest lands and timber a by-product from large trees like sal. The reverse has been the policy for the last 100 years. Although after the advent of the new forest policy in 1988 there has been great efforts to involve forest communities in management, more thought should be given to make necessary changes in the technology which will be suitable to the changed objectives.

Secondly, a government agency like the Forest or the Tribal Development Department assisted by civil society should be involved in informing tribals and gatherers about the prices prevailing in different markets, improve marketing practices, and act as a watch-dog. It may be worthwhile to examine if promotional Marketing Boards, as distinct from commercial corporations (which are inefficient, and hence demand monopoly), should be set up with responsibility for dissemination of information about markets and prices to the gatherers.

On paper the state agencies have worked with multiple objectives: to collect revenue; to protect the interests of the tribals as sellers; and to satisfy the confl icting demands by industry and other end-users. In practice, a hierarchy of objectives developed: industry and other large end-users had the first charge on the product at low and subsidized rates; revenue was maximized subject to the first objective which implied that there was no consistent policy to encourage value addition at lower levels; tribals and the interest of the poor [were] relegated to the third level.

Clearly laissez faire is not going to help the poor in all cases. Where government alone does marketing it is inefficient; and where it is left to private trade, it may still not provide sufficient returns to the gatherer on his labour. Thus de-nationalisation per se may not remove all market constraints which inhibit a gatherer in realising the full value of his labour.

Government should encourage bulk buyers and consumers such as exporters of herbal medicines establish direct links with the villagers. Government should also address issues like creating proper marketing yard, market information system, storage space and minimum processing facilities at the local level. Simple processing activities such as broom making, leaf plate making, tamarind processing, mat and rope making should be encouraged in the household/ cottage sector.

There should be minimum support prices for non-agricultural produce on the lines of minimum support prices for agricultural produce. Aggressive buying of NTFPs by state agencies, as has been done for wheat and rice, alone can break the dominance of the

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wholesale traders and their linkages with the village level market. The nature of produce and actors involved makes it obvious that without government support there can be no justice to forest gatherers. Therefore such organisations should compete with private trade, and not ask for monopoly.

To conclude, rather than be a monopoly buyer of NTFPs, government should adopt market friendly policies, facilitate private trade, and act as a watchdog rather than eliminate the trade. It should encourage local bulking, storage and processing, and bring large buyers in touch with the gatherers, so as to reduce the number of layers of intermediaries. Lastly, it should provide minimum support price, as is done for wheat and paddy farmers. It is understood that a scheme to do so is under formulation in MOTA’.

I suggest that Tribal Commissioner should take up these issues with the Forest Department at Jaipur.

Elementary Education

As already described, schools do not function well in tribal areas, particularly for girls. Literacy Rate (%) of ST Female in Rajasthan was only 4.42 in 1991 but increased to 26.16 in 2001. Figures for 2011 are not known. Drop-out rates are very high, as shown below.

Drop Out Rates: Girls in Rajasthan ST All Categories Classes I - V 33.9 25.1 Classes I - VIII 55.4 41.0 Classes I - X 71.3 47.9

The tendency to remove girls from school after IV or V standard is a major challenge in Rajasthan. It can be countered by effective awareness campaign. For ST children, the drop-out rate is high even for boys, as shown below for India.

An evaluation carried out by the Ministry on the Ashram scheme reveals that the performance of Rajasthan in providing matching grant, and maintenance of services and management of hostels is not encouraging. The pace of construction of hostels has been

14

very slow and the basic amenities provided therein are of substandard. A review of the scheme of Ashram Schools revealed that some of the schools are very badly maintained and deprived of even basic facilities. Also, no separate sections exist in the hostels for primary school children, which is a pre-requisite. Such evaluations should be more frequently done by UNICEF so as to understand the shortcomings and suggest corrective measures.

In Rajasthan there is a clear trend of children going for private schools where parents can afford it. This shift also underscores the poor quality of education in the state run schools. Poor quality of government run schools is encouraging migration to private schools where enrollment in Rajasthan has risen to about 40% in 2012, as shown below.

If the trend continues, then by 2018, Rajasthan may have 60% children in private schools! It means they have to pay for their own education even at the primary level. The irony is that most of the government schools not only have better infrastructure but better paid teachers4 compared to the many small private schools. Private schools have proved to be better than government schools because of higher level of commitment of teachers, though government school teachers are more competent generally but indifferent to teaching.

One idea that has been tried to discourage absenteeism of teachers in rural Udaipur in Rajasthan was using cameras with tamperproof time and date functions (Narayan and Mooij 2010). Teachers were required to take their snap along with students at the start and close of each school day. Together with other measures (a bonus in addition to the base salary contingent on presence, and a fine in case of absence), the experiment led to a decline in the teacher absence rate from 44 per cent to 27 per cent in a period of 27 months. The test scores of students also improved. It is however interesting that in our discussions with Tribal Commissioner and his staff, this pilot was not mentioned. It may have been discontinued. UNCEF may like to ascertain reasons why it could not be sustained.

As there is a lot of intra-tribal inequity, especially between the two major tribes of Rajasthan, I suggest that UNICEF should do a special study on Bhils, and how their socio-economic indicators can be improved.

4 Rajasthan does not have the system of low-paid para-teachers in government schools.

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Health & Nutrition

One of the basic factors which affects the tribal health is the physical environment from which majority of them draw their sustenance. Degraded eco-systems are no longer able to support tribal population, many of whom have registered a higher growth rate than the national average. The diseases which can be easily cured, assume epidemic proportion among tribals because of isolation of their habitats, illiteracy and lack of access to medical care. Reliable and comprehensive data on disease level, patterns and trends in tribal areas are required to monitor local epidemics and to assess the effectiveness of public health programmes and prevention and control of diseases. The persistence of ill health in tribal areas is strongly correlated to social variables. Health status of the tribal women is reflected by its sex ratio, female literacy, women-child ratio, and marriage practices, age at marriage, fertility, mortality, maternal and child care practices and here women are more vulnerable to diseases that afflict the population in general. Expectant mothers and girl children are neglected.

Health Index - Health index is an important indicator of human development. The more developed a region is, higher is the value for health index and vice versa. Health index for Rajasthan is 0.588 in 2008. However, the health index for tribal dominated districts is much lower than the state average of 0.558. For instance, the health index for tribal predominant district viz., Dungarpur is 0.282, Banswara is 0.309 and other tribal predominant districts fall around between 0.2 and 0.4.

Health indicators:

Indicator Rajasthan Scheduled Area

IMR (Infant Mortality Rate) 55 63

MMR (Maternal Mortality Rate) 318 364

U5MR (Under Five Mortality Rate) 69 89

CBR (Crude Birth Rate) 24.4 27.5

CDR (Crude Death Rate) 6.4 7.0

Low Density of Population as a Constraint - A crucial demographic feature of Rajasthan that possibly affects both the utilization of ICDS services and accessibility to health care services is the low density of population. The state has a much lower density of population than the average for the country (165 as compared to 324 at the all-India level). Estimates based on national norms using population alone therefore understate the requirement in terms of the number of facilities within a specified area. The problem is particularly severe in the case of rural health facilities. Even if Rajasthan meets the population-based national norms, the radial distance covered by different categories of rural health facilities in the state will be much larger than the radial distance that ought to be covered by health facilities as per the national norms (Table below). This calls for caution in judging the adequacy of physical infrastructure like health facilities and Anganwadi centres in the state.

Normative Radial Distances and those Actually Served by Rural Health Facilities in Rajasthan under the National Population Norms in Rajasthan

Facility Radial Distance Served

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As per National norms Rajasthan: after meeting National Population norms

Sub-Centers (SCs) Plains - 2.2 kms Hills/tribals/difficult terrain - 1.72 kms

On average 3.2 kms

Primary Health Centers (PHCs)

Plains – 5.4 kms Hills/tribals/difficult terrain – 4.4 kms

On average 8.1 kms

Community Health Centers (CHCs)

Plains – 10.9 kms Hills/tribals/difficult terrain – 8.9 kms

On average 16.5 kms

(NIPFP 2009)

Vacancies and absenteeism - The Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes of the 13th Lok Sabha in its 23rd Report of February 2003 stated that hundreds of posts of medical staff in Tribal Sub-Plan areas in Rajasthan have been lying vacant. The State government of Rajasthan could not give any answer as to the reasons for not filling up the vacancies.

A World Bank study (2003) showed that the bulk of expenditures in education and health typically flow to the salaries of teachers and health workers, yet rampant absenteeism and shirking by these service providers means that no services are effectively provided in many cases. That is, governments use these resources to provide (targetable) jobs rather than (less targetable) high quality services. System exists for the service providers but not for service provision. Similarly rural health care in most states is marked by absenteeism of doctors/health providers, inadequate supervision/monitoring and callous attitudes. A study by the Planning Commission (2009) described the physical availability of staff at the Community Health Centres5 (CHCs) as follows:

Thus Andhra Pradesh has the best record whereas Rajasthan has dismal attendance, just 24%, in respect of medical doctors at CHCs. If this is the average for the entire state figures for tribal region would be far worse.

5 These operate at the sub-district or block level.

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Functionaries are not local in tribal areas which adds to absenteeism and lack of interest. Vacancies in health are almost 60% and in education 40%, as staff that are posted do not join, go on leave, or use political pressure to get transferred out. In many PHCs there is only one doctor, as against the sanctioned strength of six. Private expenses on quacks is quite high. Teachers for Ashram Schools come on deputation with no sense of loyalty to the Tribal Department. Recruitment is for the entire state, and is not district or block centric. Same for doctors and medical staff. Vacancies are also due to 45% reservation for locals, who are not qualified and hence are not recruited. In many remote government schools the PTR is as bad as 150. According to Mrs Gini Srivastava, Chairperson of a NGO, many schools open only once a week.

While it is easy to talk of long tenures and posting officers with commitment in the tribal regions, the reality is that postings are done by the state governments who generally succumb to pressures from the officials who wish to move out of tribal blocks on one pretext or the other. The only way to combat political compulsions and opportunism, and promote good governance is by prescribing hard punishment in terms of loss of central funds for those states who do not follow prescribed norms. In addition we suggest that the Ministry of Tribal Affairs should link devolution of part of its plan funds with filling up of all vacancies and performance. However, the pre-requisite for achieving this would be a good system of monitoring which will capture the performance of the states on key indicators. In addition, one would have to think of innovative solutions, such as empowering tribal panchayats to hire staff on contract, Mobile Health Services, and compulsory tenure in tribal regions before confirmation of government staff, to improve programme delivery.

Serving in the rural areas for a period of 10 years with five years exclusively in Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP) areas must be made mandatory for all government doctors. All the vacancies of medical staff in the TSP areas need to be filled up within a specified time frame. The government may consider additional benefits to medical staff working in TSP area and concomitant budgetary allocations need to be made under the TSP.

UNICEF may start forthwith an annual review of the state of administration in the Scheduled Areas, with a clear goal to raise it to the level obtaining in the rest of the State within a period of five years.

Caring for severely undernourished adivasi children

The starkest marker of tribal deprivation is child mortality. Under-five mortality rates among tribal children in rural areas remain startlingly high (at about 100 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2005 compared with 82 among all children). Age decomposition of mortality rates suggests that rural Scheduled Tribe children start on par with other groups but are more likely to die by age 5. Several explanations are offered for this. First, Scheduled Tribe children are less likely to receive qualified medical assistance as they grow up (for instance, only 56 percent of Scheduled Tribe children were taken to a health facility for treatment of fever and cough in 2005 compared with 67 percent of non–Scheduled Tribe children). Poverty undoubtedly can play a role in the decision to get treated. But more significant are supply-side problems particularly the tribal groups’ poor access to health facilities. In Rajasthan, Scheduled Tribes are physically isolated, concentrated in remote regions and districts and in hilly and forested areas with poorly staffed health centers. Limited coverage of all-weather roads makes transportation in emergencies virtually impossible, even if health centers were attended by medical personnel. There is also a deep-rooted cultural chasm and mistrust between the largely

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nontribal health providers and tribal residents. Unlike other excluded groups in India, such as Scheduled Castes, tribal groups do not face any ritually endorsed exclusion—say, in the form of untouchability. Instead they lag behind in the development process because of their physical location, practicing mostly subsistence hill cultivation and collecting minor forest produce. Migration to cities in Gujarat or nearby areas to work as construction workers or as agricultural laborers further increases their isolation from government services.

The district of Baran - home to one million people of whom 23 per cent are Adivasis - has experienced severe droughts since 2002. In Baran, the blocks of Kishanganj and Shahabad - regarded as malnutrition hotspots - are home to 93 per cent of the state’s Saharias, Rajasthan’s earliest Adivasis. In September 2012, Baran became the focus of unprecedented public attention when print and electronic media ran headlines reporting: Malnutrition kills 3 in Baran. The three children who died were Adivasis and one of them was a Saharia.

Deaths of children in the age group 1 to 5 years is quite high in Rajasthan (World Bank 2010). Medical practitioners and others often cite the reasons for poor outcomes for women as being “lack of demand” or “ignorance”. Nagda (2004) for instance attributes poor health outcomes to the reluctance of tribal women to accept modern treatment. Using his research from Rajasthan he elaborates how about 86 percent of tribal deliveries in the state are performed at home and over three-fourths are conducted by untrained dais or other personnel largely because acceptance of antenatal care is “not necessary or customary” in tribal societies. Rather, the decision about the nature of treatment is taken at the community level (mostly by traditional healers known as Bhopas) based on traditional health care systems and a deep understanding and observation of nature.

However, low demand for health or nutrition services is often disguised as demand for public employment, food security and access to roads. And what is the extent to which quality of health services, attitude of medical providers and issues of trust influence demand? There is a deep rooted cultural chasm and mistrust between the largely non-tribal health providers and the tribal residents, with several reports of the former treating the tribal patients with little dignity,

In Anganwadi centres there is no meal for children under three. Absenteeism of children at AWCs and schools is encouraged by the staff so that funds for supplementary nutrition and mid-day meals can be siphoned off.

It appears that the hygiene standards of Ashram schools are very poor, UNICEF should be able to suggest to the Tribal commissioner how it can be improved.

There is not a single PPP in the tribal sector, either with civil society or with the corporate, except in mid-day meals. This may be considered in health and nutrition programmes. UNICEF should lead and give appropriate suggestions to the Tribal Department.

Sanitation

In 2011, Rajasthan government was reporting that more than 60% rural households had individual toilets (IHHL). However, the Census 2011 revealed that only 20% households in the state had a functional toilet. Same trend of over-reporting was seen in almost all states, as shown below.

Coverage of rural toilets by Census 2011 and by state governments

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JHAR

KHAN

D

ORI

SSA

BIHA

R

UTTA

R PR

ADES

H

KARN

ATAK

A

GUJ

ARAT J&

K

MEG

HALA

YA

HARY

ANA

HIM

ACHA

L PR

ADES

H

PUNJ

AB

TOTA

L

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Fudging by Statescensus

Although Census figures were contested by the Ministry, the baseline survey is also giving an indication that the scenario is not good in the BIMARU states. Figures for toilet use by STs is likely to be even more disappointing. There may also be a large number of dry latrines in Rajasthan, where humans have to clean the other human’s excreta by hand. Despite tall claims and high promises, we are not able to abolish this inhuman practice and tradition.

Rajasthan’s progress in sanitation during 2001-11 was not as good as in Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, or even Chhattisgarh.

Changes during 2001-11 in the percentage of rural households with access to toilets

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More than 85% tribals practice open defecation in Rajasthan, as against 50% for the total population, counting both urban and rural.

Percentage of ST households doing open defecation

Although GOI has increased subsidy for each toilet from 625 in 2002 to 10,900 in 2014, Rajasthan is not able to utilise the NREGA part which has been enhanced to Rs.5600, because of problems of convergence between NBA and NREGA. UNICEF should study how Maharashtra has been able to use the additional help and advise Rajasthan accordingly.

Role for UNICEF

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From our discussions in the previous sections it is obvious that tribals in Rajasthan have suffered because of the poor quality of governance, massive vacancies, absenteeism, lack of motivation, distorted personnel policies, short tenures, and lack of monitoring. However these problems continue as they are not quantified through good quality evaluations that may not only point out the shortcomings but also suggest remedial action. UNICEF needs to redefine its role keeping the nature of problem afflicting tribal areas. At present it appears to me that UNICEF’s resources in Rajasthan (as also in other states), both in terms of staff time and funds, are mainly for supplying manpower who work in subordinate positions in Jaipur and in the districts. Happily there has been an effort in the last two years on the part of New Delhi office to shift the focus to larger issues of inducing systemic change in public management that will help state government to identify the reasons for poor performance, which then makes it possible the initiating of new policies. Thus UNICEF can facilitate better implementation by improved knowledge management and more meaningful analysis of information.

Keeping this broad direction in mind UNICEF should help the state government to start a review of the state of administration in the Scheduled Areas in terms of its responsibility under the first proviso to Article 275(1), with a clear goal to raise it to the level obtaining in the rest of the State within a period of five years.

UNICEF may consider bringing out a quarterly newsletter with good practices from the field, as well as news about assessment of schemes in tribal areas as come out from their own studies as well as studies done by other donors and academics.

It is obvious that such efforts will have a high visibility, though requiring much less fund support. UNICEF should develop partnerships with professional and research organisations working on the subject of tribals that are policy oriented, pro-poor, and can be trusted with quick but reliable results. It should also build the capacity of existing government and semi-government organisations for this task. UNICEF should develop better linkages with the State Training Institute and encourage it to organise training programmes and undertake impact studies from time to time. These studies should then be discussed with key stakeholders so that improvements in design and delivery can be effected at the earliest. UNICEF should also put on its website findings of the impact studies, and distribute these in the workshops it organises. At present storage and retrieval of information in the state offices needs a great deal of improvement.

UNICEF should strengthen the capacity of the state government to do better monitoring, and of civil society in impact analysis (to analyse whether outlays are leading to the desired outcomes) in tribal regions. Inflated and unreliable reporting is another serious problem in tribal districts, especially in health, nutrition, and sanitation. Although there is a M&E Cell located in the Commissioner’s office, but it does not and cannot do objective and critical evaluations. It is mostly busy in collecting and forwarding information. UNICEF may consider strengthening the Cell to ensure that authentic data is generated at the ground level. It should be able to hire credible professional agencies to do quality assessments of important programmes.

UNICEF should encourage teaching riding bicycles for girls in upper primary schools, and scooters/mopeds in high schools as a part of their syllabus. This will not only improve their mobility and usefulness to their parents, but also give them more confidence in their ability. The sight of a young girl riding a motorbike is also likely to inspire and empower all female adolescents.

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Rajasthan is not able to utilise in sanitation the NREGA funding which has been enhanced to Rs.5600, because of problems of convergence between NBA and NREGA. UNICEF should study how Maharashtra has been able to use the additional help and advise Rajasthan accordingly.

The track record of the Tribal Advisory Council (TACs) across India has been dismal. The TACs are seldom constituted by the State governments. When they are constituted, they seldom meet, as their meeting depends on the wishes of the concerned bureaucrats in the Departments. UNICEF may consider studying its effectiveness in Rajasthan.

Flow of funds is highly unsatisfactory. Procedure needs to be examined to end uncertainty and delay in release of funds. UNICEF should suggest how to ensure steady flow of funds at the cutting-edge level.

In health there is duplication of staff and lack of convergence; Swasthya Karmis and ASHA are both health workers, but under different departments and with different salary structure. UNICEF should do a detailed study as how to bring convergence and reduce confusion between these two sets of workers.

A review of the scheme of Ashram Schools revealed that some of the schools are very badly maintained and deprived of even basic facilities. It appears that the hygiene standards of Ashram schools are very poor. Also, no separate sections exist in the hostels for primary school children, which is a pre-requisite. Such evaluations should be more frequently done by UNICEF so as to understand the shortcomings and suggest corrective measures.

As there is a lot of intra-tribal inequity, especially between the two major tribes of Rajasthan, I suggest that UNICEF should do a special study on Bhils, and how their socio-economic indicators can be improved.

There is not a single PPP in the tribal sector, either with civil society or with the corporate, except in mid-day meals. This may be considered in health and nutrition programmes. UNICEF should lead and give appropriate suggestions to the Tribal Department.

UNICEF should do a study of all pilot projects tried in Rajasthan in the last two decades and assess why these could not be sustained.