ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

ASSIGNMENT

Name : Chinmoy Das Submitted To

Roll no : PHB19003 Dr. Nazrin Ullah
Sub: EVS
Course : Intgd. BSc.Bed in Physics
Q. What are tribal populations, constitutional articles related
to their rights and their rights in terms of environmental
resources?

Ans : Tribal Population form an integral part of our society. They were absolutely
different from those which existed in big cities. They did not follow the social
rules and rituals, prescribed by the Brahmans because they divided societies into
numerous unequal classes. These societies were known as tribes. Their main
source of livelihood was agriculture. However, hunter-gatherers or herders were
also there. Some tribes were nomadic and kept on moving from one place to
another. Many large tribes lived in forest, hills, deserts, and places difficult to
reach.
Some special features of tribal societies are:

• They had very rich oral traditions.

• They were not divided into many unequal classes.
• Members of the society were united by kinship bonds.
• Religion wise 89percent tribes are Hindu, 5.5 percent Christians, 0.3
percent Buddhists, 0.2 percent Muslims and 5 percent others.

The most tribal population occupied states are –

1. Mizoram (95%)
2. Nagaland (89%)
3. Meghalaya (80%)
4. Arunachal Pradesh (80%)
Constitutional Articles Related to their Rights are :

Educational and cultural Rights

Art.15 (4): States that says that, Article 15 shall not prevent the State from
making any special provision for the advancement of any socially and
educationally backward classes of citizens or for the Scheduled Castes and the
Scheduled Tribes.
Art.29: protects the interests of the minorities by making a provision that any
citizen / section of citizens having a distinct language, script or culture have the
right to conserve the same.
Art.46: The State shall promote with special care, the educational and economic
interests of the weaker sections of the people, and in particular, of the scheduled
Castes, and shall protect them from social injustice and forms of exploitation.
Art.350: Right to conserve distinct language, Script of Culture;
Art.350: Instruction in Mother Tongue.

Social Rights
Art 23: Prohibition of traffic in human beings and beggar and other similar form of
forced labour;
Art 24: Forbidding Child Labour.

Economic Rights
Art.244: Clause(1)Provisions of Fifth Schedule shall apply to the administration &
control of the Scheduled Areas and Scheduled Tribes in any state other than state
of Assam, Meghalaya ,Mizoram and Tripura which are covered under Sixth
Schedule , under Clause (2) of this Article.
Art275: Grants in Aid to specified States covered under Fifth and sixth schedule of
the constitution
Political Rights
Art.164 (1): States that in three States there shall be a Minister in charge of tribal
welfare who may, in addition, be in charge of the welfare of the Scheduled Castes
and Backward Classes
Art.330: Reservation of seats for STs in LokShabha;
Art.337: Reservation of seats for STs in State Legislatures;
Art.334: Proposed to continue the reservation for the Scheduled Castes and the
Scheduled Tribes and the representation of Anglo-Indians in the lok sabha and
Legislative Assemblies of the States by nomination for a further period of ten
years.
Art.243: Reservation seats of Panchayats.
Art.371: Special provisions in respect of NE States and Sikkim.

Service Rights
Art. 16(4) : States that Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from making
any provision for the reservation of appointments or posts in favour of any
backward class of citizens
Art.335 : States that the members of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled
Tribes shall be taken into consideration, consistently with the maintenance of
efficiency of administration, in the making of appointments to services and posts
in connection with the affairs of the Union

Other Rights of Schedule Tribes in Indian constitution

Art.15 (4). Promotion of social economic and educational interests
Art.19 (5): Safeguard of Tribal Interests
Art.23: Prohibition of Human Trafficking
Art.29: Cultural And Educational Rights

Their rights in terms of environmental resources :-

The constitution of India has given due recognition to forest and wildlife and the
tribal community’s dependent of forests. Part IV of the Constitution of India
comes with the following Directive Principles -

• No subsistence cultivators and occupants of un-surveyed, disputed forest

lands or ‘deemed ‘forests, should be treated as ‘encroachers’ and evicted,
till their rights have been inquired into through an open and transparent
process and final notifications under sections 20 or 29 of the IFA have been
issued.

• No forest dwellers who have filed their claims for consideration by the
authorities under the Guidelines of MoEF dated 18th September 1990 or the
MoEF’s order dated 5th February 2004 should be evicted unless their claims
have been inquired into and all relevant evidence has been examined
through an open, unbiased and transparent process in the gram sabha
within a fixed but realistic timeframe.

• Post 1980 tribal and other poor forest land occupiers be rehabilitated in
site by granting them heritable but inalienable conditional pattas through a
Community Managed Forest Conservation Program by gram sabhas and
permitting them to practice agro-silvi operations pursuant to their
protecting mutually demarcated forest areas”17.
• Parliament of India passed a law under schedule IX of the Constitution, to
give a firm legal frame to the rights and entitlements covered in MoEF
(Ministry of environment and Forest) Guidelines of 18th September 1990,
namely The Regularization of leases and pattas conferred by state
government and Conversion of forest villages and other habitations into
revenue villages. The law also includes in its ambit the rights and
entitlements of persons and communities in all forest areas including
protected areas, sanctuaries, parks and reserves under the IFA (Interface
Forestry Act) and the WLPA (Wild Life Preservation Act)”.