With the beginning of this New Year we are completing
almost six months at Koraput. These
initial days were filled with excitement and zeal to do something new and
better in the district. The topography and difficult terrain of the district
does provide an interesting opportunity to work amongst the tribal communities.
Within this period we visited a number of places, met a
number of people from different backgrounds to expose myself as much as
possible to the various issues and challenges concerning this region. We have
had series of meetings with civil society groups. We had discussions with
journalists, academicians & researchers. We tried visiting some of the
interior pockets of the district which coincidentally happen to be the
stronghold of our ‘bhai log’ (as naxals
are usually known in this region) to get a first-hand understanding of the
ground reality.
As known to everyone
Koraput has remained as one of the most backward districts of the country with
poverty rates as high as 90 percent. Historic exploitation of the tribals
coupled with administrative negligence (we
don’t mean negligence by the district administration only but also by the State)
has made the situation worse. Our interaction with all stakeholders and my
exposure to ground reality reaffirms our thought that many core issues
affecting the tribal communities that have not been addressed ever since
independence, whether it is the recognition of their customary rights, or
access to productive assets such as land, market and credit.
From all my interactions
and visits so far few things stand out very prominent; first being the gap
between the administration and the people in the region and second being the
mismatch between the real need of the people and our planning process. These
two major issues have been manifested in many different ways as described
below.
As we were trying to
glance through the budget of the district over the past few years, we were
surprised to see the proportion of money being spent on connectivity related
infrastructure (mainly roads) and very little on improving the lives of the
people. Roads, despite being a critical factor for improving lives, cannot alone
bring change in the lives unless supplemented with substantial investments to
improve the delivery of basic services, which has not happened.
Second prominent issue is
the land-livelihood issue. As official statistics reveal that only 20 percent
of the total population is landless but the actual scenario is completely
different & grave. Thousands are yet to see their land patta even though
official records have their mention, many of them who have been lucky to get
the patta find it difficult to identify their land in absence of proper
demarcation and there are many who are waiting to get their land surveyed and
registered in their name. In the absence of any productive asset people depend
on the forest or migrate to work elsewhere for pittance.
Third is the
administrative deficiency in matching the planning process with the real need
of the people. There is a gap between the administration and the common tribal
man. As a result the needs and aspiration seldom get addressed or even heard in
the planning process. The recently concluded Gram Sabha Empowerment Programme
of the State Government does bring in a positive hope, where probably for the
first time Gram Sabha was conducted in its true sense across the state.
Fourth, as we are trying
to understand the banquet of schemes being implemented, each and every day we
get new learnings and insights both positive and negative in nature. While we
see the success of MGNREGA in various places we are pained by the misuse of
funds in many places. In some places you get to see beautiful IAY colonies on
the other hand you will come across hundreds of cases where the beneficiary had
to bribe the issuing clerk and other officials or the local MLA pressurizing
the officials to include his supporters in the IAY list.
While many of the problems
can be solved locally there are many problems which need policy level changes
at different tiers. One very clear case is MGNREGA. All of us every now and
then do hear about the delay in payment among the many other complaints. But if
one critically analyses the fund flow process then it won’t be very difficult
to realize that the sheer design of the programme has been on a supply driven
mode instead of being demand driven in much contradiction to the high decibel
rhetoric of our politicians.
Left Wing Extremism or in
plain words Naxalism is a completely different arena all together. While, like
many of you we do believe that it is not a law and order problem but my limited
experience in these region makes us to feel that it is slowly turning out to be
one soon! This statement is not devoid of our understanding of their demands
which are genuine including the demand for land for the tribals, which have
remain unaddressed till date nevertheless this cannot be superimposed with
extortion and rampant violence which is on the rise.
While our daily schedule
involves undertaking review and monitoring visits, attending various meetings
and brainstorming with the collector, our focus has been to find answers to the
questions of poverty, deprivation and backwardness.
We are trying to explore
things as much as possible with the limited resource available. Weather is
extremely good round the year as Koraput stands at an altitude of 2900 sq.ft.
The region is endowed with natural beauty and thus Koraput is truly
Heaven’s own (as the tagline goes...).
Kuldip & Omprakash
