Collaboration requires trust

Since independence, it has been estimated that about 25% of tribals (out of 100 million or so ) in India have been displaced from their ancestral land and dwellings. Started with large dams in eastern India (Damodar Valley Corporation), the pace of displacement picked up after economic liberalization of 1990s. Licenses for mining (coal, iron, bauxite) accelerated the pace of displacement of tribals primarily in states of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Andhra and Maharashtra. When the parliament enacted Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA) in 1996, it empowered Gram Sabha of a tribal village to decide on use of natural resources of the village. Manipulating decisions through cheating of simple and semi-literate tribals in these regions encouraged a number of civil society organisations to undertake awareness generation activities amongst tribals to understand the functioning of Gram Sabha and their rights under PESA.

Protests by tribals against illegal acquisition of their land and forests resulted in such serious conflicts with authorities as in Kaling Nagar in Odisha. Major, reputed corporates were seen to be a party to such land acquisition where tribals learnt about the same when bulldozers moved in. The process of forced land acquisition, despite Forest Rights Act 2006, has continued uninterrupted till today. A few months ago, various media reports told about the protests against land acquisition near Statue of Unity in Gujarat.

Is it not possible that tribal community, government and business discuss ways in which a potential win-win solution and policy developed? Should tribals ‘always’ sacrifice their only source of livelihood, without alternatives put in place first?

Every city in India has women vendors. They vend fruits, vegetables, flowers in push carts or on pavements. They vend near markets, homes, temples. They vend to earn a meagre insecure livelihood. Women vendors are estimated to be nearly 20 million in the country. Despite a national policy to provide support to women vendors, stories of their continued harassment by police and municipal officials are heard everyday. In Bengaluru, a recent study showed that nearly a third of women vendors (in 20 wards studied) selling fruits and flowers were facing daily harassment. When students raised the findings of the study with authorities, they were told that this is not very common. These women are entrepreneurs, they have acquired great skills in pricing, sourcing and financing. These skills are self-taught, and not recognized by any skilling scheme. Supporting these women with savings and small micro-finance are numerous civil society organisations. Their actions thus cause ‘discomfort’ to existing touts and middle-men, receiving police and official protection, informally.

Many under-represented sections of Indian society received constitutional opportunities to get elected in panchayats and municipalities since 1994 constitutional amendments. While women’s participation in panchayats has been appreciated, the situation of scheduled caste (SC) panchayat leaders has continued to be largely unchanged. In states like Tamil Nadu, many seats of panchayats reserved for SC candidates have remained uncontested due to threats from upper caste community. Even when elected, dalit panchayat Chairpersons have been forced to step down, in connivance with panchayat officials. When civil society builds capacity of dalit panchayat leaders to exercise their elected roles, they are seen as an irritant and disruptors of existing system.

In each of the above situations, improving the lives of India’s poor and vulnerable communities and people will necessarily entail changing relations of power. The present status quo system, in society, in governance and in business, keeps them marginalized. Its perpetuation needs to be ‘disrupted’ through laws and policies, as demonstrated in each of the above examples. But such progressive laws and policies, even when well-intentioned, remain unknown and poorly implemented as forces of status quo restrict and resist change. Supporting the poor, the excluded and the marginalized through access to their rights and services is one of the main contributions of civil society in India, and indeed around the world.

Such actions of civil society are mis-construed by those in authority as anti-national, or merely a nuisance. Supporting due process of protecting land rights of tribals is not an action against business community in India. Sharing data about harassment to women vendors by police is not anti-security act. Asking public officials to stand with elected dalit panchayat leaders is not engaging in caste war.

All such actions by civil society are everyday practice of India’s constitutional provisions, duly enacted by duly elected governments of India’s democracy. As the President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind read the Preamble to India’s constitution yesterday, on the occasion of the Constitution Day when it was adopted in 1949, each such action by civil society can be seen to be inspired by the same Preamble.

So, if collaboration is to be nurtured in the interest of eradicating poverty, mal-nutrition and hunger, if SDGs are to be achieved through such collaboration, it is imperative that civil society is trusted as well. Its actions to support the poor and the excluded are in national interest too.