Kanjar Care: 2017

Thursday, November 16, 2017

India must scrap the law that tags some tribes as hereditary criminals

Sudhirendar Sharma

Over the last few months, there has been a lot of discussion and debate in India on the fate of the Rohingyas of Myanmar, who are facing State oppression. The NDA government at the Centre has argued that it wants to send the members of this community back to Myanmar because it wants to protect the fundamental rights of Indian citizens. Human rights activists opposed this view, saying that the law is clear on the issue: India cannot deport the Rohingyas.

While we discuss the fate of the Rohingyas, let’s not forget the plight of certain tribes in this country who have been facing persecution since British times. Even under the Indian government, they are oppressed and have never been granted fundamental rights.

Following the 1857 mutiny, 237 castes and tribes were given the criminal-by-birth tag under the ambit of the Criminal Tribes Act, 1931. After Independence, the Indian government replaced this Act with the Habitual Offenders Act, 1952. But far from improving their lives, the new Act only re-stigmatised the marginalised tribes.

Today several variants of ‘criminal’ tribes such as the Pardhis, Kanjars, Ramoshis, and Vanjaris continue to remain outside the reach of affirmative State action. Stripped of their fundamental right to justice, equality, and freedom, these tribes live in fear of the authorities. They are often subjected to headcounts on account of their being considered habitual offenders by the State. Quite often, the members of such tribes become easy replacements for criminals whom the police fail to apprehend.

India is perhaps the only country that continues with this Orientalist notion of tagging tribes as hereditary criminals. The Centre has constituted a National Commission for Denotified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes (NCDNT) to specify the economic interventions required for raising their living standards through asset creation and self-employment opportunities. The panel is expected to submit its final report in 2018.

The National Human Rights Commission has recommended the repeal of the Habitual Offenders Act, 1952. In March 2007, the UN’s Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination said: “The so-called de-notified and nomadic people which are listed for their alleged ‘criminal tendencies’ under the former Criminal Tribes Act (1871), continue to be stigmatised under the Habitual Offenders…,” and asked India to repeal the Habitual Offenders Act and rehabilitate the de-notified and nomadic tribes.

Sadly, there has been no movement on the issue. Since protecting fundamental rights is a moral obligation of the State, classifying all members of a tribe, including the newborn, as criminals is out of consonance with all principles of democracy and justice.

(First published in The Hindustan Times dated Nov 6, 2017), and a detailed version was published in Deccan Herald dated Dec 3, 2017.

Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Social status 'denotified'

Vijay Korra
Centre for Economic & Social Studies
Hyderabad

It is estimated that there are about 801 denotified, nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes in the country, comprising a population of approximately 13.5 crore people .Of these, 22 tribes are included in the list of Scheduled Castes (SC), 27 in Scheduled Tribes (ST), and 421 tribes, numbering 2.2 crore people, as Other Backward Classes (OBC). Yet a sizeable number of communities (227 tribes consisting nearly 56 lakh people) have not made it to any of the above lists and thus, remain outside the reach of affirmative action. A large number of semi-nomadic tribes are placed in the OBC category. The population of DNTs alone would be around 10 crore.

A study by Vijay Korra* clearly reveals that DNTs of undivided Andhra Pradesh are seriously plagued by poverty, lack of basic amenities, resources like land, and dispossession from legal entitlements such as caste certificates, job cards and ration cards. Therefore, the study suggests that concerned governments must pay attention to the problems of DNTs and thus can make targeted policies and required budgetary allocations for their welfare and overall development.

Source: *Status of Denotified Tribes by Vijay Korra, Economic & Political Weekly, Sep 9, 2017.

Innovative Initiative: To match a `thief'

WWF and the Madhya Pradesh forest department have embarked on a unique initiative to gentrify the `criminal' Pardhi tribe and stop large-scale tiger poaching. The project has two linked objectives - one, persuading the adults to change their ways and two, giving the community's children a shot at education and a subsequent normal life. Called `residential bridge course', the Pardhi children spend none months away from their families in such `borading schools' before crossing over to conventional schools. By now, nearly 250 children have gone through the bridge course in the last three years.

"Dissuading children who accompany their parents on dangerous hunts for wild boars, leopards and tigers haven't been easy,'' says S S Rajput, Chief Conservator of Forests, Bhopal. The challenge is to show Pardhi tribe that it is profitable to protect wildlife than poach it. The need is to co-opt them in the Indian state rather than fight them. . . .more

The Initiative

Started in Nov 2009, rehabilitating the Kanjar in Jhalawar district of Rajasthan is a joint initiative of IFFDC (http://www.iffdc.org.in) and Rajasthan Mission on Skills & Livelihoods (www.rajasthanlivelihoods.org) with support from UNDP. The project aims to not only develop a comprehensive understanding of the tribe's past but relate to it in devising inclusive livelihoods options for the stigmatised community. The specific objectives of the initiative are:

1. to sensitize and mobilize Kanjar families towards improvement in their living standards.

2. to strengthen the linkages of community groups with other agencies to improve their access to productive resources in Jhalarapatan and Gangdhar blocks of Jhalawar district.

3. to respond to contemporary poverty related issues, including health and primary education, of women and children.

4. to enhance state-civil society-community partnership towards policy advocacy.

Plotting Kundli as an idea to understand social dynamics

Kanjar offer a formidable challenge in ameliorating their plight. There are wide array of inter-related issues that impact their lives - from cultural isolation to social stigma, from resource poverty to low incomes and from official apathy to economic exclusion. Understanding inter-relationships between issues and the manner in which these influence an `intervention' is critical to designing livelihoods programs for them. `Kundli chart' as a `concept' is being piloted to understand how each of the variables impact the outcome and to get a sense of the combination of factors that need to be tweaked to create a tangible impact.

The `co-production' idea

Speaking of the Bhils, the Pindaris and the Thugs, Gandhiji had said: `...all are our own countrymen. To win them over is your and my work. So long as we fear our own brethern, we are unfit to reach the goal.'

In response to Gandhiji's remark, the idea of Co-production is being mooted to bring Kanjar into the mainstream. Co-production is a concept that gives responsibility to people who are regarded as `the problem', and makes them feel useful when they had been condemned as useless - and by so doing transforms their lives. It is not same as `participation' because co-production means `reciprocity'. The point is that practically everybody does have something to give and both they, and the community around them, are better for the giving.