Below we produce the text of the Diphu Declaration, passed in the North-East Tribal Convention held at Diphu, Karbi Anglong district of Assam on 14 September 2003 on the topic ‘Tribal Problems and Indian Democracy’. It was participated in by nearly 300 delegates representing tribal organisations and movements from Assam, Karbi Anglong, North Cachar Hills, Manipur, Nagaland and Tripura.
W e, activists and well-wishers of various tribal movements in the North-East, assembled here at the North-East Tribal Convention on Tribal Problems and Indian Democracy sponsored by the North-East Zonal Coordination of the CPI(ML), hereby adopt the following agenda containing some of the most deeply and widely felt needs, aspirations and demands for which the tribal and indigenous people of the North-East have been waging relentless and heroic struggles for decades. While reiterating our shared resolve to carry forward the movement for the realisation of this agenda, we submit it to the wider democratic opinion of the country with the hope that the agenda would be strengthened and carried forward with broader cooperation and popular involvement.
1. The political rights of the tribal people to govern themselves and decide their own destiny must be upheld without any delay or dilution. The Union and concerned State Governments must urgently give due recognition and constitutional expression to the demands and movements by tribal/indigenous people in various parts of the country articulating their longstanding and overwhelming aspiration for autonomous state under Article 244-A, or autonomous councils under Sixth Schedule or separate state or for that matter any other form of effective autonomy. All attempts to forcibly suppress these demands and aspirations or make a political mockery of them by signing selective and partial accords and in the process pitting one section against another must be stopped forthwith.
2. Eviction of the tribal people from their traditional and natural habitat in the name of enforcement of environment laws must be stopped immediately. Tribal rights over land in their habitat and over forest and other natural produce must be made to prevail over all other related laws in these regards. All mining leases granted to foreign companies in scheduled areas must be reviewed and cancelled wherever so desired by the local people.
3. Tribals constitute the largest single group of population that has been subjected to systematic harassment and displacement from their homeland in the name of developmental projects in independent India. This has resulted in an endless saga of inordinate human sufferings in socio-economic as well as cultural and psychological terms. This dark and often forgotten and suppressed history is inescapably associated with almost all the big cities, large dams, natural parks and sanctuaries and industries in our country. This pattern must be stopped and the inalienable right of the tribal people to live in their homeland cannot be sacrificed at the alter of corporate good. The injustice done already to the tribal and indigenous people on this score must be immediately redressed through effective and comprehensive rehabilitation of all affected families.
4. The colonial mindset of branding entire sections of a population as ‘criminal tribes’ has not changed much even in the post-British era. Tribals continue to be among the worst victims of brutal laws like the Assam Manipur Armed Forces Special Powers Act, Disturbed Areas Act, TADA, POTA and so on and so forth. Incidents of unprovoked and indiscriminate killing of tribal people by the armed forces of the state remain galore. Violation of human rights of the tribal people, specially those of tribal women, must be stopped and exemplary punishment meted out to the perpetrators of any such crime. All the draconian laws must be withdrawn forthwith.
5. Tribal communities do not aspire for ‘protection’ that will increase their plight and isolation. At the same time they hate those notions and models of integration where their lives are treated as a hunting ground for the big players of the capitalist market economy. The terms of development in tribal areas must be determined on the basis of the needs and aspirations of the tribal people themselves.
6. The National Forest Commission (NFC) constituted by the Union Government on 7 February 2003 does not have any tribal representation. It is grossly unjustified that the tribal and indigenous people have no say in the affairs of a commission having wide and sweeping powers on forest matters, and whose decisions are liable to influence the lives of crores of tribal and indigenous people. The NFC must therefore be immediately reconstituted with adequate representation from the tribal society.
7. The Union Government must carry out comprehensive land reforms with due emphasis on restoration of tribal land to their legitimate owners and issuance of appropriate land ownership documents.
8. Right to work must be incorporated as a fundamental right in the Constitution and the private sector must immediately be brought within the purview of job reservation for SC/ST communities. The Union Government and all the State Governments must ensure immediate clearance of all backlog of SC/ST vacancies.
9. The Union Government must immediately enact a central legislation for all agricultural labourers to ensure living wages, round the year employment and comprehensive social security for this biggest contingent of the working people in the country, in both tribal as well as non-tribal communities.
10. It is most shameful for a country like India to witness the growing incidence of starvation deaths even as millions of tons of foodgrains are reportedly rotting in FCI godowns which are full to the brim. The coverage of the public distribution system must therefore be immediately expanded and strengthened to ensure adequate supply of all essential articles of mass consumption at affordable rates to the poor and weaker sections of the society. District authorities must be held accountable for any incident of starvation death.
11. The constitutional directive of free universal elementary education for all children up to the age of 14 must be fulfilled immediately with special emphasis on imparting primary education to all tribal children through their own mother tongue. The Eighth Schedule of the Constitution should be amended in a comprehensive way to include more tribal languages.
12. Tribal culture is an important component of our national heritage. The diverse and uniquely colourful cultures of our tribal communities can develop and prosper only in an environment of secularism, democracy and pluralism. Any attempt, legislative or otherwise, to impose a particular religion, language, food habit, dress code or any other aspect of culture or any attempt to stifle the freedom of expression and the freedom to choose one’s own religion, language and culture, runs counter to the basic spirit of democracy and pluralism and must be stopped by all means.