Development Programmes and Tribal Scenario: A Study of Santal, Kora and Oraon

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The present work is an attempt to relate tribal development with grassroots democracy and the impact of development programmes on their life situation. This book explores the less developed area in the field of tribal development and tries to make a positive contribution to the theory of comparative Political Anthropology. It reveals the obstacles to the fulfilment of development programmes, the pattern of politicization and socio- economic mobilization of the tribals. The present study examines the hypotheses: (1) most of the beneficiaries are in poverty and ignorance. They are at the margin of survival. (2) Governmental and institutional measures to reconstruct rural economy and society have not changed the semi-feudal semi-capitalist rural power structure. (3) Successful community development consists largely of choosing those projects where the balance between conservatism and change is almost even, and then trying to lighten the forces against change or to increase the factors making for change.

The author presently is a Post-doctoral Fellow of Government of India. He got twice the Post-doctoral Award from Government of India in 1999 and 2002. In 1998 the University of Burdwan awarded him with Ph.D. degree. He has produced more than two dozens of quality research articles in several journals of national and international repute and made a good contribution in the fields of Indian Politics and Tribal Development Studies. The author has written reference books like, Congress (1) in Opposition during the First Two Left Front Governments in West Bengal and Panchayati Raj and Tribal Development in West Bengal, which have been published as good research documents. Further, he held membership of various research organizations and attended workshops and seminars of national and international character.

The present study Development Programmes and Tribal Scenario is post-doctoral, based on in-depth field investigation. I am indebted to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs. State Institute of Panchayats and Rural Development, Jamalpur Panchayat Samity and District Land and Land Reforms Department. I do acknowledge with care Prof. Apurba Kumar Mukhopadhyay for his valuable suggestions and comments.

The work would make a good contribution in the fields of Tribal Development Studies and help the planners and administrators in the planning and execution of tribal development policies and programmes.

Tribe is a socially cohesive unit. An ideal type of tribe can be characterized as socially homogeneous having its own socio-political characteristics and dialectics, and an isolated, autonomous and a self-contained social unit.

Development is a human problem and planning means changing men. The components of development planning are objectives, goals and targets, resources, selection of means to mobilize resources, formulation of specific programmes and provision for its implementation. The economic programmes of the tribal development agencies are directed towards ensuring an immediate boost to agricultural production in tribal areas, to improve the economic conditions of the landless among the tribals by providing them with land and land inputs, to reorganize the co-operative and marketing structure, to provide employment and increased income to the tribals through animal keeping, agro-based cottage industries and the like. The family-based economic programmes include land reclamation, land development, supply of agricultural inputs and the like. The area-based economic programmes include construction of roads, execution of minor irrigation and lift irrigation schemes etc. The state in post-independence India recognized the special problems of the weaker sections of society and offered special programmes to improve their quality of life and for the alleviation of poverty. The Community Development Programmes were initiated to bring about awareness among the rural masses. Several land reforms measures have been introduced to redistribute land to the tillers. The Panchayati Raj has been introduced to decentralize some of the state powers in order to solve local problems by local leaders.

Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP). National Rural Employment Programme (NREP), Tribal Sub-plan (TSP), Jawar Rojgar Yojana (JRY), National Old Age Pension Scheme (NOAPS), Indira Abas Yojana (IAY), National Maternity Benefit Scheme NMBS) etc have been introduced for social mobility of individual tribals. These state-sponsored programmes have a limited success because only a small fraction of tribes reached the target level. The well-placed tribals have created a new process of social differentiation. The tribal social identity is moving towards tribal class mobility. Tribals are now found in almost every stratum of our society from administrators to agricultural labourers. There is also evidence of successful caste mobility through Sanskritization. The tribals now imitate the non-tribal habits, but they are not equal to the non-tribals. The tribal problem in India is characterized by the process of institutionalized exploitation and socio-political marginalization, produced by the twin historical process of unequal incorporation and exclusion.