Baiga tribal group gets habitat rights in Chhattisgarh (GS Paper 2, Social Justice)
Why in news?
- The Baiga Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) recently became the second to get habitat rights in the state, after the Kamar PVTG.
Population of Baiga PVTGs:
- A total of 19 Baiga villages with a population of 6,483 people (2,085 families) have been given the habitat rights. These villages/para/tola of Gaurela block received the rights in a special event organised by the district administration of Gaurela-Pendra-Marwahi (GPM).
- The Baiga community primarily resides in Rajnandgaon, Kawardha, Mungeli, Gaurela-Pendra-Marwahi (GPM), Manendra-Bharatpur-Chirmiri, and Bilaspur districts of the state. The community also lives in the adjacent districts of Madhya Pradesh.
What are habitat rights?
- Habitat rights recognition provides the community concerned rights over their customary territory of habitation, socio-cultural practices, economic and livelihood means, intellectual knowledge of biodiversity and ecology, traditional knowledge of use of natural resources, as well as protection and conservation of their natural and cultural heritage.
- Habitat rights safeguard and promote traditional livelihood and ecological knowledge passed down through generations.
- They also help converge different government schemes and initiatives from various departments to empower PVTG communities to develop their habitats.
What does ‘habitat’ mean, under what law are such rights granted?
- Habitat rights are given to PVTGs under section 3(1) (e) [rights including community tenures of habitat and habitation for primitive tribal groups and pre-agricultural communities] of The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 also known as the Forest Rights Act (FRA).
- According to Section 2(h) of FRA, “Habitat includes the area comprising the customary habitat and such other habitats in reserved forests and protected forests of primitive tribal groups and pre-agricultural communities and other forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes.”
Can habitat rights be used to stop activities like mining?
- The habitat rights will help the PVTG protect their habitat from developmental activities harmful to them. The title may not be an ownership title in the nature of a private property owner, but consent and consultation of the Gram Sabha will be needed for any developmental activity.
- Forest Rights have legal protection under the Forest Conservation Act, the Land Acquisition law of 2013, and even the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities. Act. Grant of habitat rights under the Forest Rights Act provide an additional layer of legal protection.
- If any kind of development activity is hampering their habitat rights, the tribal group concerned can take up the matter with the administration under the Forest Rights Act, and if not resolved, the matter can be taken to court.
Which tribes are termed PVTG?
- The tribal communities who are technologically backward, who have stagnant or declining population growth, extremely low level of literacy, and a subsistence level of economy are declared as PVTG.
- PVTGs have low health indices and largely reside in isolated, remote, and difficult areas in small and scattered hamlets/habitats.
- The Ministry has identified 75 PVGTs in 18 states and one Union Territory. In 2019, the MoTA started a scheme for their protection and improvement in terms of social indicators like livelihood, health, nutrition and education to decrease their vulnerability.
How many states have recognised habitat rights?
- Out of 75 PVTG in India, only three have habitat rights. The Bharia PVTG in Madhya Pradesh was the first, followed by the Kamar tribe and now the Baiga tribe in Chhattisgarh.
How many PVTGs does Chhattisgarh have?
- There are seven PVTGs in Chhattisgarh, who live in 17 of the state’s 33 districts. These are Kamar, Baiga, Pahadi Korba, Abujhmadiya, Birhor, Pando and Bhujia.
- The total population of PVTG tribes in Chhattisgarh as per the 2015-2016 survey is 2.50 lakh while the population of tribals in Chhattisgarh as per the 2011 census is 78.22 lakh.
- While the first five tribes have been declared PVTG by the central government, the remaining two, Pando and Bhujia, have been given the tag by the state government.
- The seven tribes by population are Kamar tribe with 26,622 people, Abujhmadiya tribe with 23,330 people, Baigas with 88,317 people, Pahadi Korba with 44,026, Birhor with 3490 people, Pando with 32,000 people and Bhujia with 8,000 people.
IMF raises India FY24 GDP growth forecast to 6.3 Percentage
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Why in news?
- Recently, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) raised India’s economic growth forecast for the current fiscal year to 6.3%, from 6.1% earlier.
- The IMF expects retail inflation in the South Asian nation to quicken to 5.5% in 2023/24 before easing to 4.6% in 2024/25.
Details:
- The RBI has projected CPI-based inflation for the current fiscal year at 5.4% while GDP growth is seen at 6.5%. Monetary policy projections are consistent with achieving the Indian central bank’s inflation target over the medium term.
- India’s current account deficit is expected to remain at 1.8% of GDP in FY24 and FY25.
Key Highlights:
- While the IMF’s upward revision of India’s 2023-24 GDP growth comes in the wake of a strong 7.8% growth in the quarter ending June 2023, the annual growth number is still lower than the 6.5% projection by RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee.
- IMF now expects global GDP growth to be 3% in 2023, which is the same as its July forecast. Global GDP growth for 2024, however, has seen a reduction of 10 basis points from the July forecast to 2.9%.
Downturn from 2022:
- While not much has changed between the July and October editions of the WEO as far as growth in major economies is concerned, 2023 and 2024 projections signify a major downturn from 2022 performance.
- Global GDP growth is expected to fall by 50 basis points between 2022 and 2023 while advanced economies will grow at just 1.5% in 2023 compared to 2.6% in 2022.
- The Chinese economy is expected to grow at 5% in 2023, which is higher than the 3% it grew at in 2022. To be sure, this number needs to be read with the economic headwinds from China’s zero-Covid policy until last year.
- IMF’s October forecast for China’s 2023 and 2024 growth is 20 and 30 basis points lower than its July projections, which suggests that world’s second largest economy might be losing momentum. In fact, WEO flags China’s property sector crisis a potential downside risk for growth of emerging market and commodity exporting economies.
Factors hindering growth:
- Growth has lagged on account of tight monetary policies as central banks have kept money supply tight to fight inflation which rose to 8.7% in 2022.
- And it has logged on account of an uneven recovery from the pandemic and supply chain disruptions caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
- Hamas’ surprise assault on Israel threatens to destablise West Asia, a region that accounts for a third of the world’s oil production.
Way Forward:
- The global growth projections remains below the historical (2000-19) range of 3.8% and “forecasts for global growth over the medium term, at 3.1%, are at their lowest in decades, and prospects for countries to catch up to higher living standards are weak.
