Jharkhand’s ‘Abua Bir Dishom’ Campaign to Provide Land Under Forest Rights Act

On November 6, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren launched a campaign named Abua Bir Dishom to grant land rights to the tribal residents who inhabit the state’s forests.

The forest dwelling communities will be provided with formal ownership of the lands under the provisions of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2006, which provides for the recognition of the rights of communities dependent on forests for their livelihood.

While talking to the press, the Chief Minister acknowledged the delay in the allotment of the land rights to the tribal population

“The distribution of land pattas under the Forest Right Act of 2006 should have been done much earlier. The Act was implemented 17-18 years ago, but the rights under the Act were neglected in the state. We are launching this campaign mode after overcoming several obstacles. Our goal is to distribute land pattas to all rightful tribals and forest dwellers under this campaign,” CM Soren was quoted.

Also Read: The Long Wait: 16 years on, only 50% claims settled under the Forest Rights Act

Reportedly, 12,514 forest dwellers and tribal residents residing in 36,620 villages across the forested areas of Jharkhand are expected to benefit from this campaign.

This year, the Jharkhand government submitted its data to the Supreme Court regarding the resolution of the claims filed for land rights. The government mentioned that it received 98,308 individual forest rights (IFR) and 2,695 community forest rights (CFR) applications since the formation of the state in November, 2000.

Out of them, 60,021 IFR titles and 2,013 CFR titles have been granted, which translates into 2.17 lakh acres of forest land. As many as 30,906 claims were rejected and 8,333 are still pending.

These allotments of land titles is way below Chhattisgarh, a state formed at the same time as Jharkhand (November 1, 2000) which has managed 9.28 lakh title claims and 5.28 lakh title distributions till June 30, 2023.

Also Read: Forest Rights Act: Odisha leads the way with a separate FRA budget, and updation of land records

It is reported that Rajiv Arun Ekka, Secretary of the Department of Scheduled Tribe, Scheduled Caste, Minority and Backward Class Welfare, has sent a letter to 24 Deputy Commissioners for the smooth implementation of the campaign.

The letter entails instructions to form/reconstitute Forest Rights Committee (FRC) at the village level and a monitoring committee at the sub-divisional and district level.