On 16 December 2016 a delegation comprising of Caritas India and Adhunik India met with Union Minister for Tribal Affairs Shri Jual Oram and briefed him about the far reaching Tribal Development work of Caritas through its partners in the states of Eastern India- namely Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and West Bengal where Tribal Population is commendable. PESA (Panchayat Extension of Scheduled areas) is one of the major acts of the government that has provision for ensuring the rights and entitlements of the tribals habiting forest lands and those dwelling in the peripheries of forest areas.

Caritas India is an organization which has more than five decades of intervention support in India, addressing mainly disaster related humanitarian services. However tribal development also continue to be a priority area of the organization for addressing the issues of poverty among the less privileged tribal population in the rural hinterland.

In speaking about the contemporary Tribal development concerns in the region- which is multifaceted, the Union Minister for Tribal affairs acknowledged that these issues need attention and he is committed to support organizations working to complement and enhance government’s interventions and reach in the tribal areas.

The minister suggested to the delegation meeting him at his residence in New Delhi that tribals issues have to be thematically addressed and for this the organization should organize regional, national and international conferences where research findings, and impacts and outcomes of the project interventions could be shared to the larger audience and other stakeholders. The Minister in his capacity would provide authentic reports (facts and figures) on government’s action taken, policy interventions and provides suggestion for improving the conditions of Tribal people.

Caritas having worked on PESA implementation to ensure the rights and entitlements of the Tribal people in the states of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand through project Hamara Haq, Gaon Nirman and Swadhikaar has incredible success case stories where governance and interface between the people’s representative and administration has been strengthened immensely. Forest rights have been ensured and timely allocation of land rights have empowered the tribal communities to use forest resources thereby augmenting their economic earnings vis-à-vis ensuring community participation in establishing strong community mechanism for forest resource management and sustainable natural resource orientation.

Taking lead from the Ministers encouraging advisory note during this meeting, Caritas India is planning to hold series of state, regional, national or international level conferences to share the project learning outcome with local, national and international community, advocating for larger tribal developmental strategies in addressing the rights and entitlements.

Creating awareness and understanding about the issues of tribal people is a must for government as well as civil society organization and in doing so Caritas India would seek alliances and partnerships with organizations, funding agencies, corporate and the government.