Draft National Policy For Tribals:Suggestions For Improvement

The draft tribal policy (hereinafter referred as draft or DTP) prepared by the Ministry of Tribal affairs appears to be a mere reiteration of the existing policies and programmes. The paper suggests that the Ministry incorporates the following suggestions in the policy: 1. Close monitoring to ensure state legislation for genuine compliance with all features of PESA. 2. Special EGS for all tribal areas related to forest regeneration, soil and water conservation, and other locally relevant livelihoods. 3. Recognise shifting cultivation as a form of agriculture, and not forestry. 4. rejuvenate tribal agriculture through irrigation. 5. Stronger legislation on tribal land alienation and usurious money lending. 6. Special focus on tanks, ponds, and rainwater harvesting. 7. Prepare land records in the north-east. 8. Recognise communal tenures. 9. Lands wrongly classified as forest to be returned to tribals. 10. Convert forest villages into revenue villages. 11. Special tribal health plan. 12. Appropriate silvicultural changes to maximize production of NTFPs.