TRIBALS AND POVERTY

It doesn’t require to substantiate the fact that our tribal people are the poorest segment of our society.  Irrespective of the poverty rate worked out and announced by the government from time to time, there is hardly any tribal district in our country, particularly, in the Central West belt of tribal regions, where the real poverty rate is less than 60 % of the tribal households.  I have observed that without any remarkable development in the improvement of livelihood systems in the tribal districts as well as in the tribal villages, the below poverty rate is shown to be reduced substantially in every poverty survey.  I have often argued that in a village where nothing has happened in last 5-10 years which can change the poverty status of people for the better, how can there be sharp reduction in below poverty households by 10-15 % or even much more ?  The same applies to the blocks, tehsils and districts.  I believe, poverty survey and their outcome are ridiculously unreliable.  Apart from incorrect and misleading survey, there are several inbuilt flaws in poverty survey.  For example, it doesn’t take into account those who are just marginally above poverty.  Among such marginally above poverty line households, large number of them on further division of the lands may go back to the below poverty status.  One is not sure, but it is quite possible that the percentage of households entering in to above poverty line (APL) and the percentage re-entering in to BPL may be almost the same or around the same in rural areas, particularly, among the households depending on agriculture and agriculture labour.  It is in this background that many people including National Commission on Unorganized Labour have observed very high rate of BPL households among tribals than what is usually worked out by the government.   Even National Commission on Schedule Tribes have observed that the BPL households among tribals are much higher than the government’s figures. 

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This paper was presented as Keynote Address at the workshop on “Natural Resources and Tribal Livelihood - Transforming Tribal Region of Southern Rajasthan” organized by CInI at Udaipur on 4-5 October 2007.

Author is full time Director of Sadguru Foundation, an NGO working in the field of Natural Resources Management and Rural Poverty Reduction for 34 years. 

The statistics produced by India Today issue of 24.09.2007, quoting National Sample Survey Organization (SSO) states that top 10 % households in rural areas had an average annual income of Rs. 1,94,044/- in 2004-2005, whereas the average income of bottom 10 % households in rural areas was only Rs. 8,907/- in the same year.  Besides vast gap between the income levels of top ten % and bottom 10 %, a very interesting interpretation could be made in this alarming statistics.  One can easily and justifiably argue that something between 60-80 % of our tribal households may fall in bottom 10 %.  Another interesting aspect of below poverty statistics is that both in Gujarat and Rajasthan, where we have been actively working, the government figures show reduction in below poverty households to around 30 % during last about 10 years whereas at national level such reduction during the period 1993-94 to 2004-05 was 8.38 %.  Someone has to justify and explain as to how the rate of reduction in poverty in these tribal districts was almost four times that of the national reduction.  There is definitely serious flaws in the survey of poverty in our country, either in methodology or in collecting and working out the data.  We hope, below poverty figures in every survey are not pre-decided or stage managed to impress that along with the fast economic growth among rich and middle class sections, rural poors are also moving up fast.  I would like to quote again the NSSO figures produced in India Today of 24.09.2007 that inequality between rich and poor in our country is widening at a fast rate.  This very much substantiate our argument that rural poors are not benefiting adequately, and therefore, the poverty reduction rate among rural poors is not likely to be reduced as sharply as claimed by the government survey. 

I have started my paper questioning the BPL survey and BPL reports, because everyone needs to be fully aware that the poverty among tribals is much more widespread than what has been claimed by the government in BPL survey. 

I think, the NGOs working in the tribal regions should carefully keep watch on BPL survey and in association with the respective village panchayat, the false list may be modified as panchayats have powers to modify BPL list with a condition that panchayat cannot delete any BPL household from the official BPL list, but it can, on justifiable ground add the households in the BPL list. 

TRIBAL POVERTY : CLEARLY A MAN MADE PHENOMENON

Considering the resources, more specifically natural resources such as the land, water, forests and often minerals, the tribal regions should have been much better than what they have been.  With such natural resources available in plenty, and yet, the tribal regions and people are the poorest, suggest clearly that the poverty of such region is either because of non-utilization of resources or under utilization of resources or often over exploitation of such resources (often by non tribal people and regions).  Therefore, it could be said that the tribal poverty is a man made phenomenon.  When appropriate, adequate and effective measures are not taken by the government and others in ameliorating the poverty among tribals, it is clearly a case of man made poverty for which all of us in the society, excluding the tribals themselves, are squarely responsible.  I am excluding the tribals from the responsibility for their pathetic condition, because, historically, socially and economically they have been a deprived lot compounded by the exploitation by others all throughout the history.  The impact of such exploitations and deprivation has been such that the 60 years of Independence of this country and nearly 37 years of serious and intensive efforts with massive investments through Tribal Sub Plan approach have not made desired dent in improving the conditions of our tribals, who according to me are the best of our people when it comes to simplicity, innocence and hard work.  They are the hardest working people who construct our roads, bridges, dams, canals, multi storey buildings in towns and cities and also help in the agricultural prosperity of progressive farmers of the neighbourly districts by working in their fields, while their own agriculture has been in a mess because of various factors beyond their control, rather in the controls of others. 

SITUATION IN SOUTHERN RAJASTHAN

The situation in the Southern Rajasthan’s tribal regions is not different than what I have described above.  Southern Rajasthan has five districts; Udaipur, Chittorgarh, Banswara, Dungarpur and Rajsamand.  Last one was carved out by bifurcating erstwhile Udaipur district.  Three of these five districts; Udaipur, Banswara and Dungarpur are predominantly tribal districts while two others; Chittorgarh and Rajsamand are partially tribal districts.  All of them, particularly, their rural / tribal areas and tribal people in these areas are extremely poor.  However, if we consider land, water, forests and minerals available in these areas, they should not be poor or not as much poor as they are at present.  Though the districts like Udaipur, Chittorgarh and Rajsamand have potentials for the non NRM activities, all the districts including above three and Banswara and Dungarpur have enormous potential for the improvements in livelihood through NRM to begin with, and then to divert and diversify in NRM related allied activities as well as in non NRM and non-farm activities. 

I intend to focus on NRM based livelihood enhancement in Southern Rajasthan’s above region.  In dealing with NRM based livelihood activities I am again largely focusing on three tribal districts; Udaipur, Banswara and Dungarpur and two tehsils of present Chittorgarh district. 

POTENTIALS FOR NRM BASED LIVELIHOOD ENHANCEMENT

Considering rainfall, drainage systems in the form of large numbers of rivers, rivulets, nallas, tanks, ground water, massive forest lands, etc. there is enormous potential for the development of these tribal districts and thereby improving the livelihoods of tribal households around NRM.  The major specific programmes and approximate potentials could be as follows (This is indicative potential as the exact potential requires in-depth study and survey) ;

Water Resources Development

Water harvesting Structures (Masonry)

There is approximately a scope for more than 1,000 small scale masonry water harvesting structures on various rivers and rivulets in the tribal regions of southern Rajasthan.  These small scale masonry structures on various sources including bigger rivers in the region may store huge water which can enable irrigating more than 80,000 hectares of around same number of households or nearly one lakh households as land holdings in the region is low and one household may get irrigation something between one acre to two acres.  An example of anicut on big river like Mahi is before us which stores as much as 350 mcft of water which can provide irrigation to about 3,000 hectares of land.  This river alone has potential for about 7-8 additional anicuts and with the similar approach there is potential for more than 20 -25 such anicuts on other relatively bigger rivers of the region.  Altogether these anicuts on bigger rivers may store water worth more than 4,000 mcft which can irrigate about 32,000 hectares of the land benefiting around 40,000 households.  Another about 950 anicuts - check dams - masonry water harvesting structures on other rivers of the region can store enough water to provide irrigation to something around 40,000 hectares or more.  Even if we consider overlapping of the areas with existing irrigation systems by about 20 %, the benefits to be available from above storage would be immense. 

Community Lift Irrigation

In any tribal region due to its topography, lift irrigation technology is much more suitable than any other method of irrigation.  This has been proved in many regions of our country where good systems have been installed.  There is potential for about 850 community lift irrigation schemes in the region which can provide irrigation to more than 50,000 hectares of nearly equal number of households.  Even if the irrigation coverage of water harvesting structures and lift irrigation schemes is overlapped to the extent of 30-40 %, the actual net irrigation coverage under lift irrigation and masonry structures could be enormous.  Ofcourse, when we go for such large number of lift irrigation schemes, the state has to ensure adequate power supply for about 8 hours / day for their economic viability and profitability.  We may hope for improvement in power situation in next 3-4 years in the state as well as in our country as the seriousness of power shortage has been acknowledged and the state and central governments are expected to put their full efforts to increase power generation and at the same time improve the power management by reducing transmission losses and power theft which together comes to 80 % as reported by authentic sources and discussed in national news papers and national magazines (refer editorial in Times of India of 30.05.2007).  Against this much high rate of power losses, our deficit in power supply is only 40 %, and if we can reduce 50 % of above losses, our power deficit could be taken care of and if this happens all sectors of our economic activities such as agriculture, industries, etc. will be immensely benefited.  Preventing such heavy losses is purely a question of good and effective governance. 

Tanks - Ponds

There is scope for more than 1,000 percolation tanks / ponds of various sizes in the region.  The direct irrigation from these tanks could be around 20,000 hectares, but, its impact in ground water recharge would be very tangible in the surrounding areas. 

New wells and recharging of wells

Considering topography as well as recharging zones, there could be a scope for nearly 18,000 new wells in the region.  In addition, more than 45,000 existing wells have scope for artificial recharging to make them more effective. 

OVERALL POTENTIAL IN WATER RESOURCES

Overall, under above programmes and also improving canal water management, it is possible to double the irrigated area in the region.  In concrete term, there is potential to bring additional about 2 lakh hectares of the land under irrigation, which may benefit 2-3 lakh households, depending on the size of individual households under different schemes. 

LAND RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT

Another very important natural resource in the region is land.  The scope for development may be summarized as follows on purely provisional and approximation based on our study of the area and experience.  

Micro Watershed Development

Approximately, four lakh hectares of the land need to be treated under micro watershed development.  This may include partly the land treated under micro watershed development 5-10 years back.  Soundly designed, properly implemented, ensuring full participation of people, the watershed programme could be extremely important programme particularly for the rainfed areas.  Well designed and well implemented micro watershed development programme may increase productivity of the land, increase vegetational cover including trees and above all very importantly improve the ground water situation.  This has been proved in well implemented micro watershed projects in the tribal region of western India.  Present watershed development programme of Ministry of Rural Development, GoI, under Hariyali guidelines, is likely to be brought under newly constituted national rainfed development authorities with new set of guidelines which may offer scope for improved programme implementation involving technical departments of the government as well as NGOs.  We are sure, obvious and glaring failure of Hariyali scheme will make the government doubly careful in the design and implementation of micro watershed development programme under the new authorities.  Experienced and well equipped NGOs will have to get ready to play their role in the implementation of watershed development programme under above authorities. 

Horticulture and Floriculture Development

The present irrigation and additional irrigation mentioned in this paper may give scope for atleast 50,000 horticulture plots of half an acre each of equal number of households.  There could be scope for floriculture development in about 15,000 to 20,000 plots of equal number of households with unit size of about one fourth of an acre to half an acre each. 

Vegetable Cultivation

With the existing irrigation and future development in irrigation will give great deal of scope for vegetable cultivation on a small patch of land.  We can easily expect 50,000 tribal farmers to opt for vegetable cultivation in the region.  Each farmer cultivating vegetable on one fourth of an acre or half an acre may get handsome amount, to put him above poverty line and subsistence living in the quickest possible period as vegetable harvesting starts in about 45 days and continues for another 45-60 days atleast.  In the similar tribal region we have seen tribal farmers each earning Rs. 300 to 500 a day under improved method of vegetable cultivation like Mandwa (traillies) on small patch of the land. 

Agro Forestry

Considering the topography, large chunk of so called agriculture and non-agriculture land privately owned in the region is suitable for agro forestry plantation.  This is the region where 100-125 years back the forest cover was in about 75 % of the land.  It is therefore, essential that large area of private land more suitable for tree plantation needs to be brought under agro forestry pattern.  About 1,50,000 hectare of privately owned land may have potential for agro forestry.  If this is too ambitious to plan, implement and manage atleast 75,000 hectares of privately owned land in the region could easily be brought under agro forestry plantation on wastelands such as peripheries of the field, hilly and sloppy land, etc.  Particularly, on the peripheries of irrigated fields tree plantation can go very well.  The largest number of agro forestry plantation exist in district Anand of Gujarat where there is hardly any forest land, but, farmers have opted for tree plantation in 2-3 rows around all their fields.  In district Dahod in Gujarat which is similar to the South Rajasthan region, one NGO alone has planted about 5.5 crores trees under agro forestry which when converted into acres comes to about 55,000 acres i.e. more than 21,000 hectares.  This could easily be replicated by NGOs and the government in South Rajasthan with sincere and intensive efforts.  It is very cost effective programme if allocation is made only for nursery raising and rest of the operations may be carried out by the farmers themselves without any cost involved.  It requires serious motivational efforts to convey the importance of agro forestry and tree plantation to the farmers of the region.  Raising of trees on such mass scale will transform the ecology and eco-system of the region and at the same time trees may help in livelihood enhancement as tree plantation has economic importance in such region. 

Restoration of Degraded Forest Land

Of about more than six lakhs hectares of forest land in the region, in very conservative estimate, 50 % of this may be a degraded land.  If efforts are made to restore these forest lands with protection by the people and sharing of the benefits by the people, it would help lakhs of tribal households dwelling around such forest lands.  Even the forest land with tree cover may be brought under Joint Forest Management (JFM) giving responsibility for the protection to the community and offering benefits from the same to the tribal community.  Though the government have opted for this programme, it requires much more sincere and genuine efforts to make it a success.  The Community, Forest Department and NGOs wherever they are available, have to be much more active to play a responsible role. 

Though there are many difficulties and problems in the implementation of JFM programme all the stakeholders need to work hard to make it a success as the development of JFM programme and getting success in the same would help the tribal people enormously.  Both the Forest Department and NGOs instead of complaining against each other need to develop understanding for each other and work in cohesive manner for the ultimate aim of developing, conserving and protecting the forests for the benefit of the society as well as the state. 

Dairy Development

It is obvious that dairy development is a logical development once there is substantial development around NRM as described above in this paper.  With the development in NRM programmes, I believe, there would be scope to raise milk production in the region to the extent of 3-5 times higher than the present level.  If this is achieved, it may benefit lakhs of tribal households with or without irrigated land, including those households which are residing adjacent to the forest land as on the development and conservation of forests, enough fodder will be available for the milch cattles. 

MODIFIED NREGA WOULD BE USEFUL

I think, it is pertinent and very much relevant to mention on NREGA in this paper, as this national programme is implemented in all the backward districts which include three tribal districts of Southern Rajasthan also, and with some modification it can be made very useful for NRM based productive assets creation for the sustainable and long term benefits of poor people.  There is no denying the fact that the ongoing programmes under NREGA are definitely useful for immediate purpose of providing immediate and short term employment.  However, NREGA in its present form and pattern is not going to remove rural poverty nor bring prosperity in the tribal regions.  With the nature of activities being undertaken under this programme, providing the limited days of employment, that too, for one person per household and the field observations that an average amount earned by one person is around Rs. 50/- a day, are some of the realities which are not going to result in the long term and sustainable help to the tribal households.  Though this programme is very important programme, it cannot be described as a development programme in pure term.  In its present design it looks like a temporary relief programme.  In order to take benefit of massive allocations to the backward districts under this programme, it is essential that part of NREGA amount, say 10-20% is earmarked for the creation of sustainable productive assets both community assets as well as individual assets in the selected backward districts.  This mixed approach of providing immediate employment and also to create productive assets will be much more helpful and beneficial in the long term.  Infact, one of the major objectives of this programme should be to ensure that some definite percentage of rural poors should get out of need for immediate employment by engaging themselves in self employment created through sustainable and productive assets.  For this kind of sustainable programme as a part of NREGA there is a need to have separate set of rules so that the work on productive assets creation is carried out smoothly well in time to benefit the poor people.  When relaxation in existing rules is given in the modified NREGA, necessary care needs to be taken to see that such productive assets creation activities are taken up for those who are poor and residing in backward districts.  Such modification would be almost on the line of earlier JRY programme and existing SGSY programme under which there was a provision for special project giving relaxation in the normal rules and offering a scope for productive assets creation based on local need and potential. 

CONCLUSION

To conclude this paper, I would clarify that I have restricted to only major NRM based activities and not touched many other important programmes which may help improving the conditions of the tribals. 

In this paper I have also highlighted the potentials in NRM in Southern Rajasthan on the basis of our 34 years of experience in NRM in the similar region in Western India’s semi arid areas and 15 years of experience in Southern Rajasthan itself, of which last 12 years have been of more intensive interventions with rich, useful and tangible results of NRM programmes in the region.  The scope and extent of the replication of suggested programmes may perhaps, be debated, but not the merit of the suggested programmes as they are very well proven programmes.  The NGOs in the region associated with NRM programmes need to develop faith in these programmes and also develop the essential capability, technical and social, to design and implement these programmes at a scale.  These kinds of programmes cannot be implemented without the support of the government.  No one else possesses requisite financial resources for implementing such programmes at a massive scale in limited time frame.  Also, these programmes come under the purview and regulatory frame work of the government departments, and therefore, the government support and association in these programmes would be imperative.  The NGOs have to work hard in winning the confidence of the government by our work rather than talks. There would be many problems in working with the government, which I am fully aware of in my 35 years partnership with the government, but, in a democratic set up we have to learn to work with the government.  If we do not have any political bias, every government is our government as it has been duly elected by the people.  It is also necessary to realize that all the NGOs put together cannot implement such massive programmes, even if financial support is guaranteed.  We all can do a portion of the work against the overall potentials.  It is the government and its different departments which have to be more effective and accountable in terms of physical achievements as well as results of the programmes.  As for NGOs, I think, time has come for like minded NGOs to work in consortium mode, joining hands and supplementing and complimenting each other with our respective strengths. 

To re-emphasize on NRM based programmes I would like to remember well known international researcher and expert in rural development, Dr. Robert Chambers and in his famous book written in early 80’s under the title, “Trees and Water in the Hands of Poor”, providing examples that these two important elements, “Trees and Water” can change the living condition of rural poors.  This is amply applicable to the tribal people and tribal region of Southern Rajasthan as these two elements can transform the region and lives of lakhs of tribal people of the region.  This has been well demonstrated in this region as well as in similar regions.  To repeat, this could be replicated at a massive scale by joining the strengths of the government, PRIs, NGOs, corporate sectors and all. 

FINAL WORDS

Tribal region of Southern Rajasthan is capable of converting itself in to progressive region by adopting appropriate measures covered in this paper and adding few more other interventions as may be necessary. 

Transforming this region is a challenge before every one of us. 

I would end up with the remark that it is in the national interest to develop all the tribal regions and all such backward regions, as they can meet our present food grain deficit and take care of future needs and in the process bridge the gap of great inequality that exist in our so-called fast growing economy.

15.10.2007