The Hindu Editorials (03rd Aug 2019) Notes Mains Sure Shot (with 360 degree additional inputs of Arora IAS)
Question – Discuss the Forests Rights Act, 2006 and its different aspects. (250 words)
Context – the debates regarding the FRA, 2006
What is FRA, 2006?
• The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 also known as Forest Rights Act is an act that secures the rights of the marginalised and tribal communities to assert their rights over the forest lands over which they were traditionally dependent.
• It was enacted by the parliament to recognise the claim of Tribals on forest resources and ownership of land. The act Grants legal recognition to their rights.
• If implemented well it has the power to empower over 200 million tribals and other forest dwellers in over 1,70,000 villages.
• But the enforcement of this Act has not been upto the mark.
• Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) is the nodal agency for implementing.
Background:
• These people have lived in a symbiotic relationship with nature for centuries.
• But right from the colonial times their rights over the forest and its resources have been exploited for commercial purposes.
• Even in the modern times the forests rather than being a resource for the tribal communities has become a resource of the State for commercial use and agriculture.
• Furthermore, after independence, the economic policies of the government led to increase in industries like mining and other development activities which led to large-scale displacement. This has alienated them from their basic source of existence.
• In this situation after numerous protests by environmental conservation groups, the government enacted the FRA, 2006 which came into force from 2008.
The rights under the act:
1. Title rights – right two ownership over the land cultivated by tribal forest dwellers, subject to a maximum of 4 hectares per family. No new land will be granted.
2. User rights – right to minor produce of the forests, grazing rights etc.
3. Relief and Development rights – rehabilitation and right to basic amenities in case they are illegally evicted or forced displacement.
4. Forest management rights – to conserve and protect the forests.
How does it work?
• The tribal forest dweller who wants his rights to be recognised submits his claim to the Gram Sabha.
• The Gram Sabha recognises the claim and sends its recommendations.
• Recommendations are screened and approved by a screening committee consisting of 3 government official and 3 elected member of the local body.
• These recommendations are screened and approved by a screening committee consisting of 3 government official and 3 elected member of the local body.
Progress made so far: According to the status report of MoTA as of May 2015, the Tripura Government holds the highest percentage of titles distribution against the number of claims received at 65.97 %, other states in this category includes Kerala at 65.54 %, Odisha at 57.24 %, Rajasthan at 49.09 % and Jharkhand at 44.73%.
Challenges in implementation-
1. Deficiency within Gram Sabha – the Gram Sabha do not have the desired infrastructure and technical know-how to keep these records.
2. Lack of regular elections in panchayats – in some states the panchayat elections are not held regularly. In such areas, the Gram panchayats are not operational up to the desired level necessary for the implementation of the Act.
3. Ambiguity in the formation of Forest Rights Committee – Each village is to elect a committee of 10 15 people from its residents as a Forest Rights Committee , which will do the initial verification of claims and place its recommendations before the Gram Sabha.
4. A deliberate focus on individual rather than community rights – the administrative machinery is found to be concentrating more on claims for individual user rights rather than community rights.
5. Lack of awareness and Illiteracy – leads to their exploitation despite rights available to them. Some are not even aware of their rights.
6. Lack of land record proofs.
7. Lack of inter-departmental coordination
8. Harassment by forest officials.
9. Attempts to dilute the provisions of the act.
10. Diverting forest lands for non-forest purposes.
Way forward:
• Spreading awareness among the tribals of their rights.
• Empowering them through various means like education so that they can stand up for their rights and are not exploited due to ignorance.
• Partnering with NGOs.
• Keeping proper records at panchayats.
• Inter-departmental coordination and,
• To conclude, let us not debate about whether the Central government has the right to make such Act or not since ‘land’ is a state subject, rather let us spread the awareness that forests are essential for our survival as a whole.
The Hindu Editorials (03rd Aug 2019) Notes Mains Sure Shot (with 360-degree additional inputs of Arora IAS)
Gs-3 mains
Question – Explain the recent IMF projections and the Asian rate cut wave.(200 words)
Context – the latest World Economic Outlook projection.
• World Economic Outlook report is released by the IMF. It states the projections (predictions) made by the IMF about the growth rate of different countries of the world and an estimated global growth overview.
• The most recent IMF projection has downgraded global growth from 3.6 to 3.2 per cent.
• I.e. in 2018 it had projected global economic growth rate to be 3.6 per cent but now in the first quarter of 2019 it projects it to be only 3.2 per cent.
• This deceleration in economic activity will be for both advanced and developing economies.
Reasons:
• The deceleration of economic activity in China due to U.S. – China trade war. This has had a negative impact on its export and investment.
• The failure of India to use this situation to its advantage. When the multinational companies are trying to divert themselves from China due to this trade war, India could have projected itself as an alternate option. But it missed this opportunity and the companies shifted to countries like Vietnam.
• The slowdown in Japan which faces acute demographic challenges.
• There has been a global decline in demand for goods, affecting exports. This has also led to a slowdown in the manufacturing sector because too much production in case of declining demand will lead to loss.
• So, the worst hit are the economies that depend mainly on trade.
Response:
• This has led to a rate cut wave (i.e. the banks reducing their interest rates so that the loans become cheaper and people take money from the banks.). This is also called easing of monetary policy.
• This rate cut trend has started from the example of U.S. Federal Bank (the central bank of America just like our RBI). The U.S. Federal bank recently started rate cut in its monetary policy and this was followed by many Asian central banks (India, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea).
Where does India stand?
• Since India is not well integrated with Asian and global supply chains, it is not much affected by the U.S.-China trade war.
• But as stated above it has missed the opportunity to use it to its advantage due to acute domestic bottlenecks, policy missteps and structural challenges.
• The IMF has downgraded India’s growth projections to 7 per cent. This is good when compared to the projections for other countries but much less than the potential growth of 7.5 per cent.
Way forward:
• Keeping in mind the present global scenario, if India is to succeed in its ambition of becoming a $5-trillion economy by 2024-25, there can be no substitute for undertaking the necessary ‘structural reforms’ needed to jump-start private investments which are necessary for longer-term growth because monetary policy rate cuts will help to manage the downward growth trends only for short-term.
• This is also because when RBI issues guidelines for rate cuts, banks are generally slow in implementing it because they themselves are faced with debts.
• The government is also trying to deal with the situation by issuing sovereign bonds instead of streamlining (managing/ reducing) subsidies and revenue expenditure. This will lead to an increase in the foreign debt of the government. At present our forex reserves are capable to handle this foreign debt risk, but too much dependence on sovereign bonds is also not advisable.
• On the whole before forming any monetary policy the long-term vision has to be kept in mind.
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