Tip | Understanding India’s legislation known as Forest Rights Act and its relevance for tribal communities

The FRA was enacted in 2006 with the aim of protecting the claims of tribal communities over tracts of land or forests they have inhabited and cultivated for generations. It has the potential to democratise forest governance by recognising community forest resource rights over an estimated 85.6 million acres, thereby empowering over 200 million forest … Read more

Cultural invisibility – India’s 600 potentially endangered languages

According to UNESCO, any language that is spoken by less than 10,000 people is potentially endangered. In India, after the 1971 census, the government decided that any language spoken by less than 10,000 people need not be included in the official list of languages. In India, therefore, all the languages that are spoken by less … Read more

“Languages cannot be preserved by making dictionaries or grammars”: Discoveries and proposals made by the People’s Linguistic Survey of India

What Is People’s Linguistic Survey of India? The People’s Linguistic Survey of India is a right based movement for carrying out a nation wide survey to identify, document and understand the state of Indian languages, especially languages of fragile nomadic, coastal, island and forest communities. The PLSI is carried out by scholars, writers and activists … Read more

eBook | “It is possible to finance tribal health care”: Recommendations by the Expert Committee on Tribal Health – Government of India

Though it has long been suspected that tribal people have poor health and unmet needs, health care for tribal people remained subsumed in rural health care. It was assumed that tribal people have same health problems, similar needs and hence the uniform national pattern of rural health care would be applicable to them as well, … Read more