Policy Watch: The mass evictions of forest-dwellers
Our delegation visit to Poland follows PM Modi's, the first in 45 years.
Dear all,
Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Poland last month to raise Polish-Indian relations to the level of a Strategic Partnership was the first from an Indian PM in 45 years. Bridge India followed this visit with its own high-level delegation as a Partner to the 33rd annual Economic Forum in Karpacz, one of the largest and most significant economic and political events in Central and Eastern Europe.
Poland and India presented a five-year “Action Plan” (2024-2028) for the Polish-Indian Strategic Partnership, which identified a number of areas of cooperation, including defence, trade, agriculture, energy, green technologies, infrastructure, pharmaceuticals and mining.
Many of these topics were discussed during participation of the Bridge India and wider Indian presence at the Forum.
India’s economic development is a bright spot in the global economy today, as the US Federal Reserve is on the cusp of a big interest rate cut amidst slowing an economic slowdown.
But the flip side of the development, infrastructure spending and industrial activity is a fierce battle over land rights.
According to Section 4(5) of India’s Forest Rights Act (FRA) 2006:
“Save as otherwise provided, no member of a forest dwelling Scheduled Tribe or other traditional forest dweller shall be evicted or removed from forest land under his occupation till the recognition and verification procedure is complete.”
However, on 13th February, 2019, the Supreme Court ordered that all persons whose claims are rejected should be evicted from the forest lands. More than 1.6m tribal people and forest-dwelling families faced the threat of eviction as their claims over forest land were been rejected across several states. Scroll down for more.
We’ve got a session on investment management for South Asian community organisations and charity trustees with leading wealth manager LGT, on 17 October in London. Scroll down below to request to join.
If you missed the first in our series of events with Forest Essentials in their Covent Garden store in London, check out our speaker Noreen Khan’s video:
Member news
Our Advisory Board Member Dr Sarfraz Ashraf is one of the main organisers of the Asian Achievers Awards, taking place this coming Friday. He has extensive experience of working in the NHS and more widely in healthcare.
The evening is supported by pioneers of financial inclusivity Andaria, Dubai-based real estate innovators Aries Global, pioneer in luxury ayurveda Forest Essentials, India’s largest bank State Bank of India, solar system installers Solar4Good, the home of zafran tea FiLLi Cafe, Indian single malt whisky Indri, the world’s most famous cornershop Fortnum & Mason and others.
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The future of UK-India relations: In Conversation With Navendu Mishra MP (6:30pm, 15 October | House of Commons)
New Foreign Secretary David Lammy visited India in just his third week in office, meeting both his counterpart Dr Jaishankar, as well as PM Narendra Modi. He said the UK’s relationship with India had been “underperforming” and that he sought to reset it. Join us in conversation with Navendu Mishra MP for a deep-dive into what bilateral relations might look like.
When: 6:30pm, Tues 15 October
Where: House of Commons
RSVP: Email contact@bridgeindia.org.uk requesting a space. Preference given to Members.
Investment management for South Asian charity trustees (9am, Thurs 17 Oct | Bank)
Are you a charity trustee? Do you think about asset management and getting the best out of your financial resources? Do you want to know how the best South Asian charities deal with their cash reserves and investment management?
If your answer is Yes to any of these questions, please join us for the following session with LGT Wealth Management, the world’s largest private bank and asset manager owned by a single family, to explore these questions in a collaborative and confidential setting.
LGT has offices in 20+ locations worldwide, 5,000+ employees and £270bn in assets under management (as at 30/06/2023). At least 10% of group dividends paid to charity each year.
When: Arrivals 8:30am, session 9-10:30am | Thurs 17 October
Where: LGT Wealth Management, 14 Cornhill, London EC3V 3NR (closest station: Bank)
Who: 15 trustees of South Asian charities and community organisations in the UK
RSVP: Request to join by emailing contact@bridgeindia.org.uk by 12pm, Fri 13 September
Policy Watch: The mass evictions of forest-dwellers
Ahead of the Supreme Court’s final hearing of the case challenging the constitutionality of the Forest Rights Act in 2019, the law remained poorly implemented and tribals and afforded forest dwellers little respite.
The ruling came in response to petitions filed by various wildlife conservation groups, which wanted the court to declare the 2006 Forest Rights Act invalid. The act gives forest dwelling people the right to their ancestral lands, including those in specially “protected” areas that contain sanctuaries and wildlife parks to conserve wild life. The groups told the court that “tribal” people in 20 states had encroached illegally on these protected areas, jeopardising efforts to protect wildlife and forests.
In Madhya Pradesh alone, officials rejected at least 2.36m individual claims that were previously rejected or were kept pending and whose claimants had applied for a review.
India’s Adivasis account for less than 10% of the population, but 40% of people forced from their homes between 1951 and 1990, often without compensation or resettlement as more land is sought for highways and mines, according to the Centre for Policy Research (CPR) think-tank.
The FRA recognises individual rights, community rights and other forest rights of tribal and forest-dwelling communities who had possession of forest land on or before December 13, 2005. In the same case, on February 13, 2019, the apex court had directed states to evict anyone whose claims had been rejected. Yet lakhs of claims to forest-land rights were to be filed at the time.
The eviction order was stayed on February 28 2019 after the Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) – the nodal ministry for implementing the law – intervened. It contested the order by highlighting gaps in the rejection orders passed by state governments.
According to the latest MoTA data, as of June 2022, around 38% – or 1.6m claims – had been rejected of the 4.28m individual claims filed.
According to the National Family Health Survey, the average size of the Indian household is 4.8. This means 7.8m individuals will be evicted from their (putative) land – an unprecedented scale of forced eviction undertaken by a democratic nation.
The last time the Supreme Court ordered evictions in the case, it triggered large-scale protests led by tribal organisations, which pushed the Union government to urge the court to withhold the order.
The claims process goes through three levels of scrutiny. Individuals and communities claiming forest land rights are required to file applications at the gram sabhas (a general assembly of peers) of their respective villages.
The claim is then escalted to the sub-divisional level committee (SDLC), then district-level committee (DLC). Claims turned down by the DLCs and the SDLCs are returned to the gram sabhas for re-verification. The FRA also requires the committees to specify the reasons for rejection.
Researchers on forest rights say the main reason for such a high number of rejections can be attributed to the wrongful or illegal rejections done by the forest officials in SDLCs and DLCs in violation of the legal procedure. They say claimants and gram sabhas are not informed about the reasons for rejections, depriving claimants from appealing.
The reality is, tribals are uneducated and have little access to adequate legal and state support. They are unlikely to have enough money to pay bribes either, and they are significantly less likely than the average Indian to cast their vote in an election.
Read more: The Wire, Reuters, Reuters, Down To Earth.
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The Bridge India Team
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About Bridge India: Bridge India is a progressive non-profit think tank dedicated to discourse on public policy. Bridge India is a company limited by guarantee Companies House number 15283062.