Report of the Scheduled Areas and Scheduled Tribes Commission: Volume I, 2002-2004

On July 18, 2002, President K.R. Narayanan appointed the Scheduled Areas and Scheduled Tribes Commission, with Dileep Singh Bhuria as the chairman. (Bhuria, who was from an Adivasi community, was a Lok Sabha member; he was initially with the Congress and later, with the Bharatiya Janata Party). The Commission, also known as the Bhuria Commission, was tasked with investigating and reporting on the problems of the Scheduled Tribes (STs) in India, formulating a comprehensive tribal policy and outlining a vision for the future of STs. It submitted its report (in three volumes) in 2004. The first such Commission, the Dhebar Commission, had submitted its report in 1961.Volume I of the Bhuria Commission report examines issues related to the Scheduled Tribes (STs) at the national level. These include the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution, the Tribal Sub-Plan (for the welfare of Adivasis, launched during the Fifth Five-Year Plan, 1974-78), land, the tribal economy, forests, panchayats, tribal health and medical services, tribal women, policies related to tribal communities, and reservation in jobs, services, and politics. Volume II looks at the situation in the states, and volume III contains relevant documents, papers and so on. In the foreword to volume I, Bhuria says that it is important for us, as a nation, to introspect on how changing legislations and policies have “disrupted” the lives of STs...