Playing out live, a narrative of discrimination

Context: The war on the novel coronavirus is turning out to be an undeclared war against the workers of India, especially the Adivasi communities.

Present status of migration in Schedule Caste 

• According to NSSO, the proportion of migrants among ST was highest with single largest group among female migrants, 45.5 % of rural Adivasis are below poverty line.
• Works as: a cultivator, an agricultural worker, a laborer in non-agricultural work, including migrating in search of work, work in brick kilns or as manual workers in urban areas.
• Pattens of Adivasi migration: short term, often seasonal and circulatory in both State and inter-State; EODB has accreted process of displacement and dispossession. 

Problems faced

• Shortfall in health infrastructure: 26% for PHC and 23% for community health centres.
• Inadequate spending from District Mineral Fund in mineral districts: only 35% had been spent, and  arbitrarily permitted to use of this fund for COVID-19 control-related expenditures
• Vulnerabilities: “Invisibilised” by the govt. policies, irregularity of PDS in hilly regions, looming emergency of hunger and starvation, 
• Laws and Rights: The Inter State Migrant Workers Act 1979, only law for migrant workers which is inadequate since it deals only with those migrant workers in the contractor system and excludes workers who migrate on their own.

Way Forward

• MGNREGA projects should be linked to collection to minor forest produce to help relieve the acute distress.
• Effective implementation of special constitutional provisions for Adivasis under the Fifth Schedule.