Manipur tribals and issues of social inclusion and exclusion
- Part 2 -

Ceety Khongsai *

A lady relaxing at Eshing Thingbi Machi Hill, Chandel District :: Pix - Siddharth Haobijam

Social Exclusion:

Nothing tangible changes worthy of appreciation took place during this half a century post independence period. The tribals still lives in abject poverty, a social condition similar to the erstwhile colonial administration and the much hype millennium goals of the Indian government are yet to be fully realised by the tribals in their practical daily lives.

Need of the hour is a government with a humane face towards the chronic social maladies of the tribals. Today, the tribals are miles and miles behind the dominant people in matters of social advancement due to deprivation of modern scientific and technological facilities.

In other words, the fruits of modern technologies are yet to be reaped by the tribals in spite of being living in the highly sophisticated 21st century technological age. The inaccessibility of scientific and technological facilities to the tribals by denying them access into the best institutions of the country on grounds of not fulfilling the percentage cut off marks criteria and unaffordable exorbitant fees fixed by dominant community-controllied institutions has painfully retarded the scientific and technological knowledge of the tribals thereby perpetuating them to the ignominious backward classes.

Consequently, 'backward class' being their generic name, these people are surreptitiously excluded from the society through denial of top positions-civil or military by underestimating their mental calibre and physical competence albeit true citizens of the country. It is worthwhile noting that these tribals whom we considered as uncivilised people could have been the most civilised people in the world if provided with same opportunities enjoyed by the dominant people.

With this wide gap of social stratification and fewer opportunities the tribals struggle singly for a place in the society. The infamous racial profiling of north east tribal students by mainland Indians crystallises the gravity of social exclusion on the tribals...ln a land of saints and rishis, the tribal women are scornfully looked upon with lustful eyes! And, incidents of rape, molestations and beastly acts of vile on tribals are unreported daily incidents.

Surprisingly, the administration and its law enforcement agencies which are supposed to be the watchdog of human rights violations are cowed down or remotely controlled by the lawmakers called politicians because in parliamentary democracies the fate of politicians largely rests with the ability to groom as many dacoits as possible!

Racial discrimination has theoretically been made unconstitutional and the practice of untouchability is punishable under the law but neo-racism of the worst form resurfaces in our society wherein the tribal are denied basically what is due to them as human beings. In civilised countries technological advancement is being fruitfully used as a mechanism to alleviate the socio­economic conditions of weaker sections of the society, but Indian society has made it as a means to exploit the tribal by the dominant neo-capitalists class.

Paradoxically, although the constitution of India treats all its citizens equally irrespective of their differences in caste, sex, religion etc. social equilibrium is still a distant dream as the means of socio-economic levelling are directly or indirectly controlled by the moneyed dominant class and the tribal are marginalised to an insignificant position of identity crisis.

Infrastructure Exclusion:

Majority of the Indian people live in villages but not all people are as backward as the tribal. In fact, tribal settlements are identifiable by backwardness, illiteracy, poverty and underdevelopment. However, it will be wrong to assume that the tribals are averse to development and modernity; what ail the tribal society are the exclusive development programmes of the government where utmost priority and importance are given on urbanisation rather than on rural development.

Citing Manipur as an example, one will easily notice the wide gap between the hills and the valleys in all aspects of life. Almost all major infrastructures and institutions capable of developing human resources are located within the valley areas whereas the practically non-functional offices and moribund institutions adorn the hills; and it may not be an exaggeration to say that many of the government employees hardly know the location of their offices. In fact, posting in the hills is generally considered as a punitive action of higher authorities for dereliction of duties by the employees rather than a Government's policy to streamline administration in the hills.

But, will these pigheaded employees posted in the hills for negligence of duties in the valleys be truthful in the hills? Secondly, does the government really intended on transforming the hill administration by operating its offices in the valleys? It is logically apt to assume that the talk of tribal development by Ibobi-Gaikhangam-Phungzathang(lGP) led Congress's UPF government is a deceptively schemed stratagem to intoxicate the simple innocent minds of the tribals for electoral politics.

It will also be a sham to talk about good governance where the employees are on unofficial year-long holidays or, if the constitutional duty of government employees is limited to the scribbling of some illegible lines as signatures in the attendance registers. The hill administrations being run in Imphal areas the question of renovation of offices in the hills does not arise.

Moreover, the PDS schemes and other beneficiaries meant for tribal development are officially recorded as judiciously and transparently distributed to the people but the veracity of official records are highly questionable because 99 percent of the schemes got missing by way of percentage cuts starting from the ministers down to the chawkidars before it reaches to the target groups. In other words, in the name of tribal development the non-tribals expropriated all the benefits.

This lackadaisical attitude ofthe government towards the hills and lack of infrastructures capable of developing human resources directly stand as a big bolt to the pace of tribal development. In health sector, the District Hospitals are as good as treatment for common diseases like influenza, fever, malaria and, at the most serves in normal delivery cases.

Installation of modern scientific equipments with well qualified specialist doctors is still a distant dream. In the field of education, lack of infrastructures and adequate teaching staff had always been the core issue soliciting repeated protests from different hill-based students' organisations since the past many years. In fact, almost all major projects and institutions of all sectors are housed within valley areas by the successive governments and the present UPF Government headed by Ibobi Singh is not exception to this exclusive policy.

Conclusion:

The question of social exclusion and inclusion of tribals has its roots since the 1940s. In fact, there had been heated arguments amongst the constitution drafting committee members regarding the application of the term 'tribal' on these half clothed people whom the western educated Indian leaders considered as backward. Participating in the debate, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India rightly pointed out that if by the term 'tribal' which we used to designate these people mean to signify backwardness of cultures for their half clothed bodies, all of us are tribals because every culture has its own uniqueness and our culture of wearing suits is in no way superior to other cultures.

In the third world countries especially in India there is a general perception of considering the western culture as superior to one's own culture. Assumption of cultural superiority or inferiority of nations is a wrong notion of cultural understanding. The pluralistic nature of Indian cultures is its unique national character. Therefore, there is a need for a paradigm shift concerning policies on tribal development.

As envisioned in the 73rd constitutional amendments, devolution'of powers and authority to the local bodies becomes indispensable because local problems need local solutions. In a way, this will definitely pave the way for final realisation of Gandhi's 'Ram Raj' by involving active participations of tribals through their local representative bodies wherein the expertise of scholars, intellectuals, educationists and social scientists can be exploited optimally in the formulation of any development policies on tribal development.

When the local bodies or village institutions functions independently as a unit of administration, development is its inevitable outcome; and where there is development the question of social exclusion and inclusion will vanish in the air because in a society where equality exist the talk of exclusion and inclusion would be wastage of time and energy.

Besides , there is also a need to invigorate the indigenous cultures, social as well as religious, by redefining the old practices suitably to adapt to the changing times and environment. Christianity when practised in the old tribal cultures will undoubtedly bring unity, the central theme of Christian faith, which now being shattered by western model of church denominationalism.

Concluded ....