The tribal regions of India are facing increasing unrest and violence due to extremist forces and governmental efforts at development are deliberately sabotaged by them. This adversely impacts the tribal population and hinders development.

Impact of extremism on tribal development:

• Economic impact: Left-wing extremism impedes economic growth by restricting the entry of the state, private and public sector companies and limiting economic development in the mineral-rich tribal regions.
• Social impact: Owing to lack of development due to extremism, the tribal people have remained backward in aspects of human development, such as education, health, nutrition, etc.
• Militarisation of tribals: The tribal societies are often dragged by extremists to join the militant groups to fight for development. For instance, tribal land alienation has been exploited by the Naxals to build their movement.
• Hampers infrastructural development: Extremism in these regions can obstruct state access and hinder infrastructure development thereby causing difficulties in governance delivery, such as impeding road construction that would facilitate mobility of security forces and address tribal concerns. This perpetuates angst and unrest amongst the tribals.
• Loss of human life and displacement: Armed attacks, violent clashes, and military operations lead to loss of lives in these areas and force the tribals to flee their homes and abandon their traditional ways of life.
• Loss to forest and forest produce: Massive stretches of forest land of the tribal groups are destroyed by extremists in order to set up their temporary camps and for other purposes.

Steps taken to address the issues:

• Legislations:
  • The Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act (PESA), 1996, recognizes the competence of tribal communities to govern themselves.
  • Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), 2005, has been implemented, which guarantees jobs around the year in tribal regions.
  • The Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006, recognizes the rights of the forest-dwelling tribal communities and other traditional forest dwellers to forest resources, on which these communities were dependent for a variety of needs, including livelihood, habitation, and other socio-cultural needs.
• ‘Andhra Model’ for tackling insurgency:
  • The ‘Andhra Model’, involves a mix of security, development, and political approaches.
  • Some of the core elements of the security response include surrender and rehabilitation, intelligence-based operations, modernization of the police force, mass mobilization, and creating of civilian “vigilante” groups, etc.
  • On the political front, major political formations in the state arrived at a consensus on the approach to dealing with the Naxalites, which has manifested in a tough security response, development response, and conducting limited periods of peace process.
  • The third component involves rapid socio-economic development in Naxalite-affected areas through effective service delivery mechanisms.
• Operation SAMADHAN:
• • Operation SAMADHAN of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has helped to reduce the impact of Naxalism through its multi-pronged approach including smart leadership, aggressive strategy, motivation and training, actionable intelligence, harnessing technology, etc.

Besides the above measures, a shift in mindset from treating extremism merely as a law and order problem to considering it a developmental issue would go a long way in achieving peace, harmony and social progress in the long term.