Why is FRA moving at a snail’s pace?

Danish Yousuf
In spite of the fact that the Forest Rights Act (FRA) is known to be a historic pro poor, pro tribal legislation even after 14 years of its enactment the enforcement of this law has been largely half-hearted, if not down-right abysmal. The key challenges for implementation relate to the institutional, systematic and functional barriers that determine the state’s power versus the helplessness of the proposed tribes and other forest-dependent communities. The Government of India data suggest that only 17% of the total potential area has been recognized till date. Also there has been a great deal of variation in implementation among different states.
FRA is a central legislation but implementation lies with the states. But there has been a lack of political will to enforce this act because the assertion of forest dwelling communities’ control is in direct contrast with profit aiming corporates. Bottleneck primarily lies in the mindset of Government, implementing agencies and of course in the mindset of local stakeholders.
This act questions the power and authority of the Forest Department, which has been controlling the forests for commercial benefits since colonial times. The forest bureaucracy, which does not want to accept and respect the rights of people because they think it is a challenge to the immense control they possess over the forests that cover a large part of the country, was and continues to be the single largest obstacle. What has been observed is that forest officials have a feudal mentality of possessiveness which is undermining the implementation of FRA. The forest department’s resistance towards implementation as well as its active use of coercive means to restrain communities from claiming rights is due to fears of loss of control over forest as well as over the produce from it which means a loss of revenue to them.
There is evidence of that in the form of trench digging, fencing of village premises so that people can’t access the forests. There are cases of fencing of forest land that the forest department claims to be its territory, when communities have already filed claims for these.
There is a lack of understanding of the nuance that the act has made provision for. There is a lack of training for implementing staff as well. And unless a systematic training and then outreach campaigning are planned there is going to be very little effective implementation of this act.
Tribal Affairs department
As far as the Tribal Affairs Department is concerned, there are structural and operational issues at play here in terms of bottlenecks. Even if there are positive pronouncements in the tribal affairs department at the national level the state level department is hardly taken on board. Jammu & Kashmir is its classic example. People even don’t know the office address of Director Tribal Affairs J&K in Srinagar or Jammu. The officers of this Department are hardly called to the meetings convened by Govt. Instead the officers of the Forest department are moderating workshops and training programmes which should be otherwise discouraged by the Government. Forest department is a kind of accused party under FRA implementation and they should not be given charge of FRA awareness. As the tribal affairs department has primarily been involved in implementation of welfare schemes for tribals like education, health and area development etc. and to be a department that is actually implementing an act for restoration of rights and restoration of historical justice, there needs to be a far more asserted effort in the direction of enabling them. Over the past few years what we have witnessed is that the mandate which is given to the tribal affairs department has been diluted to a considerable extent and there has been no investment in capacity building. This is being repeated in J&K as well where the law is being rolled out by the Government.
Lack of coordination
There are four pioneer departments to implement the FRA. First is the Tribal Affairs Department, second is the Revenue Department, third Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Department and the last is the Forest department. Along with this there are defined roles for village assemblies i.e. Gram Sabhas are also called DehMajlis under JK Panchayati Raj Act 1989. The Gram Sabha under village panchayat is looked after by the Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Department. All these departments have to act in coordination and in close link. But what we see on ground is a lack of cooperation between the Department of Tribal affairs, Rural Development , Revenue and Forest Department on the implementation of the FRA. In J&K we have witnessed some unholy practices like holding of Gram Sabha’s in closed door rooms with handful of villagers appointing Forest Rights Committees (FRC’s). Govt is also responsible for this as FRA was rolled out at a time when there was 5 to 6 feet snow in villages near forests. If we could wait for the last 14 years to get this law extended to J&K , why could not the Govt wait for another two months? At the District level committee (DLC) and sub division level committee (SDLC) though there is an expectation for participation of all these departments but it is the Forest Department which dominates. The overwhelming presence of the forest department plays an obstructive role in implementation of FRA.
Clash of laws with FRA
There are many laws that clash with FRA. Indian Forest Act 1927, Compensatory Afforestation Act (CAMPA) , village forest regulations, wildlife protection laws have provisions that dilute or contradict the FRA. There are institutional and structural challenges and a number of procedural bottlenecks in the process of claim making, verification of claims and recognition of rights. And more importantly operation of a host of conflicting laws and policies. Some states like Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Odhisha, Rajasthan, Uttrakhand, Karnataka and Jharkhand, have high potential of acceptance of rights. But except Maharashtra and Odhisha remains largely unimplemented in the vast majority of states and forest and tribal areas. Changes in the number of state laws, excise regulations, Panchayat laws, etc. is required. The Ministry of Tribal Affairs has written to State Governments that in case of rejection of claims, reasons have to be communicated and chances of appeal to be given to claimants, which is hardly happening. The other important issue is of the evidence and particularly the documentary evidence which is insisted by the Govt authorities to claim rights.
Gender justice is part of FRA
This act is premised on the restoration of historical justice but the issues of gender justice along with feudal attitude remains. Gender justice has not been incorporated into the approach that agencies have adopted despite the provisions being there. This is largely due to the deeply patriarchal and structural biases that exist within the state bureaucracy. For the women the constraints are further complicated by traditional mind-set that don’t recognise women as title holders and decision makers. In mainstream societies as well as tribal societies women are not part of traditional decision making committees and to make that happen we need to have much more leadership development, more investment in organising Women Sabhas before the Gram Sabhas. These initiatives will certainly help and need to be demonstrated or concentrated upon more. In the recently held Gram Sabhas across J&K not even 1 % women participated in these meetings and this was never reported by the mainstream media. This indicates that these issues are not of great importance. There are names of women members in the Forest Rights Committees (FRC’s) but these women were hardly present in the gram sabha that elected them? It was only a legal requirement that their names were enlisted. In future also nobody will take their suggestions, either their husbands, brothers or father in laws will be representing them in the FRC meetings.
Tailpiece
FRA has the potential to restore rights of forest dwellers on 40 million hectares of forest land in around 1.70 lakh villages across India. This covers one quarter of villages of India. At least 150 million people including 90 million tribals who are largely dependent on forest resources, are going to benefit from FRA. In J&K 12 % Gujjar population plus other traditional forest dwellers will get benefited as well
Well the success of FRA depends upon the Govt.’s sincere endeavour to follow and implement provisions of the act…
(The author is pursuing a Master’s programme in Social Work (MSW) at Delhi University)
feedbackexcelsior@gmail.com

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