It is high time we got back to the policy reform mode. Land rights and a market for land transactions, which protect the rights of tenants, is one such tough issue. It is tougher when we talk about forest dwellers. Adivasi is a translation of the term ?aboriginal? from colonial times. This is wrong because tribe refers to the political organisation of the community, while aboriginal means one present from the beginning (origin). This genetic sub-text may have some limited validity in the ?new world? but none in our country. Hinduism as a religion of the people was propagated by the saints of India. The Bhakti movement, the Sufis and the Sikhs were the saints of the people of India, many of whom were dalits, adivasis or OBCs. Gandhiji started the Bhil Seva Mandal when the then government hanged a nationalist Bhil leader. The Gandhians, in fact, called them ranipaja, vanyajati or girijan.
Forest land has always been an issue for the Indian state, right from the time of the Mauryas. Recent history begins with the Forest Act of 1864 and the Indian Forest Act of 1927. There is also The Forest Policy of 1952, the Wild Life Protection Act of 1972 and the Forest Conservation Act of 1980. Finally, we have the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers Recognition of Forest Rights Act of 2006, notified in January 2008. NC Saxena has pointed out that the rights of ?other forest dwellers? are inadequately recognised and so ?many claims are being erroneously rejected?. Eleven states are to implement the law. Saxena says that the number of claims processed is very low in Gujarat, Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu. The environment minister Jairam Ramesh has said that the Indian Forests Act of 1927 will be suitably amended and could be introduced in the ?next? session of Parliament, another important reform lying with our sovereign elected masters. He also feels that efforts to recognise communal rights need redoubling.
Recognition of land rights is central to reform in rural India because land can be collateral for investment. This can be seen in states like Gujarat, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, where progress has been made. This is also very important for forest areas because the fact is that forests are a source of wealth, not just green wealth but GDP. Demand for forest products is rising very fast in India and it is becoming a major importer of forest products. This could be a leading sector, with growth rates of around 7% annual. India, wisely, does not allow trees to be cut but forests produce a lot of wealth apart from wood. We used to call this, somewhat contemptuously, ?minor forest produce?. We do not have organisations like producer companies or financing mechanisms, including special financial products, for forest economies since trees need long-term funding. Today, a forest dweller with rights can grow a tree for five years but funding for the sixth can be a problem if she runs out of cash because there is no collateral. Community collateral is also not accepted. The minister is quite right in saying that we cannot go on with a government-owned forest model. In the Bhopal Declaration on community-based organisations, we lamented the bureaucratisation of Joint Forestry Management. The Eleventh Plan accepted this but progress in creating market savvy institutions is slow.
Apart from producer organisations linked with trading and processing companies, and financing mechanisms, the question of trade policy is also never raised. Take a product like vanilla, which gained acceptance as a profitable crop in the ghats a few years ago. Although it is in great demand, it has been overtaken by synthetics and subsidised imports. There are no standardisation rules or tariff policies in place. This is applicable to a large number of forest products demanded by a fast growing economy.
IRMA, which I chair, has a vested interest in all this. We have a chapter in our state of Panchayat Raj report, which has to be commented upon by the sponsors before we publish it. When Rahul Gandhi came to IRMA, I asked him what we will do if the young scholars who worked on PESA were jailed. He said he would go with them. Now Sonia Gandhi, following Indira Gandhi, has asked for the land the Jarawas need to survive in the Andamans to be protected. More generally, with policy and institutional support, forests and their dwellers can be the next growth sector.
?The author is a former Union minister