Reports
Samata undertakes research studies and prepares reports, action alerts, impact assessment case studies, situation analysis reports, campaign documents and policy documents on issues relating to tribal people in scheduled areas. Focus areas are mining and environmental issues, human rights, rural development, gender issues, and legal and policy implementation.
Annual Reports
Annual Report - April 2022 - March 2023
Annual Report - April 2021 - March 2022
Annual Report - April 2020 - March 2021
Annual Report - April 2019 - March 2020
Annual Report - April 2018 - March 2019
Annual Report - April 2017 - March 2018
Annual Report - April 2016 - March 2017
Annual Report - April 2015 - March 2016
Annual Report - April 2014 - March 2015
Annual Report - April 2010 - March 2011
Report
- Subaltern Sovereigns - Rituals of Rule and Regeneration in Highland Odisha, India
- A World Without Barriers: Translation and Interpretation in Indigenous Languages - September 30, 2022
Financial Report
Details of Grants received for the period from 1st October'15 to 31st December'15 (3rd Quarter)
Adivasi Issues
Adivasis in the Eastern Ghats Fundamental Issues at the Close of the Millenium in the Era of Globalisation:
Several Adivasi communities or indigenous people are spread over the Eastern Ghats across the southern and eastern region of the Indian sub-continent. The macro economic and political policies of the state with their active promotion of globalisation, have driven the adivasi people to the brink of survival. The effects of globalisation have had far reaching consequences in the Eastern Ghats, and some of the crucial issues with respect to this region can be analysed as ......more
Impact of Globalisation on Adivasi Women and Children in Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh is one state in India which is gaining international repute as the fast track state and the cyber state with its doors wide open to private investment, foreign capital and strives to be the up market technology hub. The Vision 2020 document of the state government is a definite projection of the direction in which policy and governance are envisioned where the implicate theory of certain 'growth engines' being the chaperons of development reflects the blinkered approach to socio-economic progress...more
Protective Legislations - Realities In The Field Case - Study Of Anantagiri Mandal - Ravi Rebbapragada
The founding fathers of the Indian Constitution had, with right insight, taken into serious consideration, the plight of certain deprived and backward sections of the Indian society and brought into the constitutional framework some special legislations in order to protect their interests. In the tribal context, the protective legislations came into force with the objective of safeguarding the tribal people by the State from the onslaught of the non-tribals as, otherwise, they would be mercilessly exploited of their resources, labor and habitat. However, even a cursory examination reveals that these protective legislations have far from succeeded in protecting the interests of the tribals not only from the exploitation of non-tribals but also from the State itself....more
Problems Related To Tribal People In Andhra Pradesh - A Report to the Scheduled Areas and the Scheduled Tribes Commission.
The Scheduled Areas and Scheduled Tribes Commission, a Constitutional body to look into the tribal people’s problems has come at a very crucial juncture, when the rights and resources of the tribal people of the country are under serious threat and at a time when the constitutional safeguards are being violated or attempted to be diluted. As an organization advocating the rights of the tribal people, Samata felt an urgent need to take advantage of this opportunity of placing before the Commission some of the critical concerns with regard to the tribal people in Andhra Pradesh...more
Tribal Women’s Struggles against Political Violence in the Eastern Ghats
Pradesh and southern Orissa, has a history of political unrest and struggle for protection of basic human and traditional rights. Realising the need for a special rule and administration for these regions, the Indian constitution devoted the Fifth and Sixth schedules to the tribal areas. The Central Indian tribal belt comes under the Fifth Schedule, where tribals are to be protected by the state under positively discriminative laws in order to prevent exploitation by external societies...more
Unrest in Tribal Areas and Impact of Exteremism on Tribal Development
The normalcy of human existence is under severe strain in the tribal regions of the state, due to increasing unrest and violence being perpetrated by extremist forces in the name of tribal liberation. In such a scenario, any effort at development by the government or other agencies are deliberately sabotage so as to keep the flames of militancy at a high. The magnitude of the problem in tribal areas calls for an urgency in reviewing the causes for the rise of militancy and the need for reorganising our policies with regard to indigenous communities....more
Gender and Environment: A Campaign for Women’s Rights
It has been accepted as an undisputed fact that women, rural and tribal, have a very intimate and symbiotic relationship with the ecology around them as they are untenably linked to the natural resources. In India, people adversely affected by development have been mainly dalits and tribals and among them women, who suffer even severe forms of discrimination. Repeated displacement, migration and drastic changes in livelihood patterns have socially and culturally denuded the status of women increasing violence and abuse against them....more
Globalisation in The Fifth Schedule Areas - Alienation of Land and Resources from People
Development carnage under the New Economic Policy and its submission to the powers of globalisation have led to a process of conscious and systematic annihilation of the first people - the Adivasis- of this country....This process of globalisation has invaded India too since the introduction of the New Economic Policy of the Nineties, which is a complete reversal of the welfare and socialistic essence of the Constitution....more
The Health of the Hills is Wealth of the Plains - A Concept Note
The Eastern and Western Ghats are two mountain systems of southern India, averaging 3000 to 5000 feet. While the Western Ghats run parallel to the Arabian Sea coast, the Eastern Ghats run roughly parallel to the Bay of Bengal coast. Of the total geographical area of Andhra Pradesh, 27.07% of it is covered by the Eastern Ghats and more than 2/3rds of the forest area in Andhra Pradesh is in the Eastern Ghats range of hills....Despite
the cultural and ecological significance, the region has faced an economic and political invasion ever since the British administration...more
The Fifth Schedule of the Constitution and the Samatha Judgement
The Fifth Schedule of the Indian Constitution provides protection to the adivasi (tribal) people living in the Scheduled Areas of nine states in the country from alienation of their lands and natural resources to non tribals. This constitutional safeguard is now under imminent threat of being amended to effect transfer of tribal lands to non-tribals and to corporates. This move has serious implications to the eighty million tribal population of the country, their very survival and culture....more
Threat to the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution
As per the 73rd Amendment Act, 1992, ….”Every Gram Sabha shall be competent to safeguard…..Under clause (m) (ii) the power to prevent alienation of land in the Scheduled Areas and to take appropriate action to restore any unlawful alienation of land of a scheduled tribe”....more
Tribal Land Alienation: A Case Study of Bouruwaka
Bouruwaka s a village in Prattipadu mandal of E.Godavari district. It consists of hundred and fifty families, of which thirty are non-tribal and the total revenue area in the village is 619.17 hectares. Bouruwaka is an Estate village, wherein the ryotwari settlement took place in 1962...more
Forest Issues
Andhra Pradesh Community Forest Management Project - A preliminary independent evaluation of a World Bank forestry project by Forest Peoples Programme & Samata - May 2005
This report summarises some key findings of a preliminary NGO and community evaluation of an ongoing Community Forest Management (CFM) Project in Andhra Pradesh. The Project, which is funded by a loan of US$ 108 million from the World Bank, has been under implementation since 2002 and is described by the Bank as a “Community Driven” intervention that aims to reduce poverty and “empower” communities to take autonomous decisions regarding forest management on lands assigned to existing village forest protection committees - Vana Samrakshana Samithi (VSS). Many of the 5000 VSS involved in the CFM project were established under a previous controversial Bank-assisted JFM Project (1994-2000), which was heavily criticised for involving forced evictions of tribal people who received little or no compensation. Some of the main findings of the assessment are.....more
Forest Management Issues in East Godavari - A Case Study of Pedda Mallapurm - Ravi R Pragada
The paper is presented in three parts. The 1st part gives a description of the traditional system and how its distinct traits ensured the protection of the ecosystem. The 2nd part explains the break up of the traditional systems under pressure from the colonial state, commercialization and inflow of non-tribal/plainsman with different pattern of behaviour. The 3rd part poses issues relating to the protection of ecosystems under the changing conditions...more
Joint Forest Management - A Critique Based on People’s Perceptions
Conflict over control, management and decision-making over resources is the primary consequence of the increasing changes in politico-economic trends and policies. These conflict situations, having led to an alarming degradation of natural resources has given rise to new thoughts on the need to take people into confidence and involve them in the process of development. One such effort made by the government is the Joint Forest Management programme (JFM) initiated by the Andhra Pradesh Forest Department...A study was undertaken to analyse the relationship between empowerment and control over resources vis-à-vis the JFM program in Andhra Pradesh....more
Indigenous and tribal communities, biodiversity conservation and the Global Environment Facility in India
General overview and a case study of people’s perspectives of the India Ecodevelopment Project - The remit of the study is to undertake a summary review of the GEF portfolio in India and to examine briefly the impacts of the GEF’s Biodiversity-related projects on tribal and local communities, with a particular focus on the India Ecodevelopment Project funded by the Global Environment Facility and the World Bank. The study was undertaken by the Samata team in January - February 24 by doing an overview of the GEF projects in the seven national parks in India and visiting two parks for detailed case studies...more
For more information on Forest related issues, please check the following two links
Mining
IPSASB Proposed Strategy and Work Plan 2019-2023 - Comments
A Study on Process of Acquisition of Land for Development of Mining Industry in Schedule-V Areas with a Focus on Violation of Pesa in Light of the Mining and the Industrialisation Process in the Schedule-V Areas
The Scheduled Areas of India are home to a bulk of the mineral resources and forests and as also tribals....The present report is an outcome of the study conducted by Samata over an eightmonth period from September 2002 to April 2003. The study objectives include: study the strengths and weaknesses of PESA empowering PRIs with regard to the acquisition of land for mining in scheduled areas, procedures followed for land acquisition and mining leases, nature and extent of violations and PRIs response to violations. In addition the study required Samata to delve into the aspect of public purpose vs land rights of tribals....more
Status of Women Affected by Mining in India
The gender divide and exploitation of women in India has a history of female infanticide, dowry deaths, unequal wages, high levels of illiteracy and mortality, caste-based discrimination and other social evils, especially in mainstream Hindu societies. A look at the literacy figures should drive home this point – while the literacy rate for total Indian population is about 52.75% for male and 32.17% for female, the literacy levels among Scheduled Caste women is a mere 19% and for Scheduled Tribe women is 14.50%. Particularly in the mineral rich states female literacy is abysmally poor – 3.46%, 6.88%, 8.29% and 11.75% for Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Jharkhand respectively...more
Report on the sample survey in Yeleru Reservoir Project
A sample survey of some of the residents who were displaced due to the Yeleru Project was conducted during the month of March 2001. For this purpose a survey schedule was designed after some field visits and having preliminary discussions with the affected people. There were three different schedules designed namely, the detailed survey format, the rapid-fire survey and the elder's survey. The detailed survey findings are summarised in this section and some of the salient results presented....more
An Overview of the impacts of the mica mining industry in Sydapuram Mandal (Andhra Pradesh)
India produces about 62% of the world's mica. Mica commonly occurs as flakes, scales or shreds. Sheet muscovite (white) mica is used in electronic insulators; ground mica in paints, as joint cement, as a dusting agent, in well-drilling muds; and in plastics, roofing, rubber and welding rods. It is siliceous in nature. In India the it is mainly found in Andhra Pradesh at Atmakur, Ravuru, Gudur of Nellore district, Tiruvuru (Krishna district), Madhira (Khammam dist), Ankannagudem (West Godavari).... more
The People's Struggle against Utkal Alumina Plant in Kasipur, Orissa
In the year 1993 the local people first came to know that the UAIL, a multi national company has decided to establish an alumina plant in Kasipur Block. The Alumina refinery complex was proposed to be set up at Debaguda, a village near Kucheipadar. It has also proposed to construct a railway line from Debaguda to Tikri which will connect the Koraput-Raigada railway line...The people of Kasipur have, right from the beginning, opposed the alumina project tooth and nail and have refused to give their lands to the company....more
Campaign Against Mining in Anantagiri by Samata and Tribals 1993-97
The founding fathers of the Indian Constitution had, with right insight, taken into serious consideration, the plight of certain deprived and backward sections of the Indian society and brought into the constitutional framework some special legislations in order to protect their interests....In the tribal context, the protective legislations came into force in the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution with the objective of safeguarding the tribal people by the State from the onslaught of the non tribals as, othrwise, they would be mercilessly exploited of their resources, labour and habitat....more
Balco Judgement - Balco Employees Union Vs Union of India and ors It was contended on behalf of the State of Chattisgarh that the land on which industry has been set up was originally tribal land. The said land could have been acquired and used by public sector undertaking but the tribal land could not be transferred to a non-tribal. Once majority shares in Balco were transferred to a non-tribal company, the prohibition contained against the transfer of tribal land came into operation. Relevant Portion of the Judgement Pertaining to the Samata Case....more
National Prosperity more
Other
Case Study on Thrift and Credit Societies: Samata's Experiment From Polavaram the movement of thrift caught on to almost all the three mandals in East Godavari District where Samata has been working. In the eight years from 1990 to 1998 the strength and progress of these societies is a clear reflection of the success of the thrift concept. In 1990 when there were 5 societies with a membership of 139 and a thrift of Rs.3110, these figures have multiplied by 1997 to 125 societies with a membership of 3530 and of thrift of Rs. 13,62,442... more