RECOGNIZING THE HISTORIC INJUSTICE Campaign for the Forest Rights Act 2006 MANSHI ASHER NIDHI AGARWAL national centre for advocacy studies pune RECOGNIZING THE HISTORIC INJUSTICE Campaign for the Forest Rights Act 2006 CONTRIBUTED BY : manshi asher, nidhi agarwal SERIES EDITOR : amitabh behar EDITORIAL TEAM : anil tharayath varghese, vijaya patnekar COPY EDITOR : sherna gandhy COVER DESIGN : nivedan mangalesh DTP AND PRINTED BY : Creators, 759/97 C, Prabhat Road, Pune 4 PUBLISHED BY : national centre for advocacy studies, Serenity Complex, Ramnagar Colony, Pashan, Pune 411 021, Maharashtra, INDIA Tel/Fax: +91+20 - 22951857 / 22952003 / 22952004 E-mail :
[email protected] Website: www.ncasindia.org First Published in December 2007 The views expressed are that of the authors and do not necessarily represent the organizational position of NCAS. The contents of this book may be reproduced by voluntary organizations, social action groups, people’s organizations, public interest professionals and citizens for non commercial purposes with due acknowledgement of the source. supported by poorest area civil society programme (PACS) © NCAS PUNE 2007 for private circulation only 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS FOREWORD 1. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND SUMMARY 7 2. FOREST RIGHTS IN INDIA 11 3. THE CAMPAIGN FOR SURVIVAL AND DIGNITY 16 4. KEY CAMPAIGN PROCESS 28 5. CASE STUDIES 31 ANNEXURES 35 REFERENCES 44 3 AUTHORS NOTE This compilation is based on analysis of secondary documentation as well as interviews with members of the Campaign for Survival and Dignity on the process behind the passing of the Forest Rights Act 2006. This document is not meant to be a comprehensive analytical paper on the issue of 'forests'; 'adivasis' or 'forest rights'.