2025 · GS Paper 1 · Q20 · 15 marks
Does tribal development in India centre around two axes, those of displacement and of rehabilitation ? Give your opinion.
In short
Displacement and rehabilitation are the most visible axis of tribal development, but not its whole: land rights, self-rule, capability and identity matter as much. About 40% of the 60 million people displaced between 1947 and 2004 were Adivasis, per Walter Fernandes.
Model answer
Ghissu Editorial · Verified 4 Oct 2026 · 301 words
Resource geography
Coal, iron ore and bauxite lie under tribal forests, so Sardar Sarovar, Polavaram and Hasdeo Arand have uprooted Bhil, Koya and Gond communities.
Failed rehabilitation
Michael Cernea's Impoverishment Risks and Reconstruction model shows resettlement breeding landlessness, joblessness and social disarticulation, which cash compensation cannot repair.
Conflict link
The Bandyopadhyay expert group (2008) tied land alienation and displacement to Left-wing extremism in the tribal belt.
Rights over land
The Samatha judgment (1997) voided mining leases of Scheduled Area land, and under the Forest Rights Act, 2006 the Niyamgiri gram sabhas rejected bauxite mining after the 2013 Supreme Court ruling.
Self-governance
PESA, 1996 made the gram sabha custodian of resources, but weak state rules keep self-rule thin.
Capability and identity
The Xaxa Committee (2014) placed education and health deficits beside displacement, PM-JANMAN (2023) targets the 75 PVTGs, and Nehru's Panchsheel made cultural autonomy a goal in itself.
Consent and convergence
Strict use of the RFCTLARR Act, 2013 with prior gram sabha consent, land-for-land rehabilitation and convergence of FRA, PESA and the Dharti Aaba Abhiyan (2024) can make displacement the last resort.
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