Thaindian News

By Atul N Patney

An officer at the grassroots level shares innovative development schemes for tribals

Gadchiroli (Maharashtra), Nov.27 (ANI): The right approach to tackling Naxalism can be illustrated by this incident at Lohri, where a few months ago a carnage had taken place when the Naxalites attacked a police party. We decided to hold a social security awareness campaign in the villages. But the Naxalites sent out warnings against it and closed the main road to traffic.

The tehsildar and his team could not make it to the campaign function. When I asked him about it, the tehsildar replied, “Sir, I tried to come. But the Naxalites had put a huge tree across the road. I moved it aside, my vehicle passed and then I moved the tree back across the road and returned home.”

The question is not whether lack of development has given rise to Naxalism or Naxalism has given rise to lack of development. Why are 13- and 14-yearold tribals picking up SLRs and INSAS rifles? Because they get paid Rs 1,500 and get food and clothing. They don’t even know who Mao is. It is the fire in the belly that drives them to arms. Naxalism is directly proportional to the forest area. And inversely proportional to the urbanized area. On a much broader scale, we do need to ask the question as to whether the administration and the political executive have delivered on the development model adopted.Rambling thinking with respect to development, and disjointed or poor development have fuelled Naxalism. There have been discrepancies, mismatches and neglect of vital aspects of development while drawing up development plans in regions. The gap of inequality has been widening between the tribal havenots and others. The problem has nothing to do with ideology. Nandurbar, Amravati, Gondia and Thane are tribal districts. Between 1993 and 1998, Melghat region in Amravati district came into the limelight because of malnutrition-related deaths of tribal infants. Why is Naxalism not thriving there?

Today, Naxalism is taking a totally different path. Rather than talking about the oppressed, the Naxalites are talking about overthrowing the state. The line between the oppressed and the oppressor are very hard to differentiate. For the Naxalites, Gadchiroli comes in the path of their so-called march towards New Delhi in their bid to capture power there in 2030. Gadchiroli lies in the “Red Corridor” between Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa. The government has now agreed to procure modern weapons and equipment to tackle the Naxalite menace.But development is the only answer. We cannot overnight attain the level of progress of the US. We can attain it slowly. The problems are many. The Human Development Index (HDI) is the lowest in intra-State terms. Agriculture is non sustainable. The monetary benefits of government schemes cannot reach the tribals as the banking network is not that widespread in the district. As many as 720 tribal villages are not covered by the mobile network.

Today, Naxalism is taking a totally different path. Rather than talking about the oppressed, the Naxalites are talking about overthrowing the state.

The tribals here are so poor that they cannot even afford to pay for the subsidized health, electricity, housing and food schemes of the government. One tribal development officer based at divisional headquarters in Nagpur looked after five districts in the State. So the additional District Collector is now Member Secretary of the district-level committee to monitor implementation of development work.After taking over as District Collector, I advocated the need for convergence of the Forest Rights Act, 2006, and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). Under the provisions of the Forest Act, tribals were being denied the right to sell even minor forest produce. I allowed them to sell it in the open market.Seventy-eight per cent of the district’s economy is forest-related. Those whose lives are dependent on the forests should be made essential partners in natural resource planning, conservation and protection. Only then can we overcome the problem of Naxalism.With the help of the agriculture department, we have implemented a tree plantation programme under which the tribals are being given saplings free. They also get ownership rights.

After the first three years, they can sell the produce in the open market. I have also advocated allowing Women’s Self Help Groups (SHGs) as units in MGNREGS. Land has always been at the centre of the concept of development. I have tried to move this centre of development away from the district headquarters to the remote and border areas of the district.

There have been problems of connectivity and trained technical manpower. Just the other day the Naxalites burnt one of our vehicles engaged in GPS mapping. To ameliorate the conditions that the tribals live in, I have begun implementation of the e-Health, e-Disha and e-Vidya schemes. Project Dhannankur is aimed primarily at tackling Naxalism head-on.