Deeds with wrong names, misplaced applications: Adivasis detail challenges with Forest Rights Act
· Scroll
Kamal Pardhi, an Adivasi woman from Shahpur in Maharashtra’s Thane district, laughed ruefully as she narrated her experience with the Forest Rights Act.
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First the good news. After several rounds of applications, her husband, Vithal, was allotted the land title to the 20 ghuntas (half an acre) they had been cultivating. But her happiness was short-lived: the document was in someone else’s name.
Despite several appeals to the authorities, the document has not been corrected. “What am I supposed to do now?” asked Pardhi.
Pardhi’s struggle was among the 40 case studies presented at a Jan Sunwai or public hearing on the implementation of the Forest Rights Act in Maharashtra’s Konkan region held at the YB Chavan Centre in South Mumbai on February 24.
The hearing had been organised by the Yashwantrao Chavan Centre, the Shoshit Jan Andolan and the Peoples’ Union for Civil Liberties, Maharashtra, to draw attention to the numerous glitches in the implementation of an act meant to redress historical injustices to Adivasis and other traditional forest dwellers.
The Forest Rights Act was passed in 2006 to recognise the rights of Adivasis and other forest dwellers to land, resources and self-governance. It recognises both the forest rights of both individuals and communities. They must prove that they...