Nineteen year old Dharamvir was bicycling along a narrow forest road when he had to hurriedly veer off to let a truck loaded with timber pass by. Just a kilometer ahead he was crossed by some people on two motorcyles coming out of a dirt track who were blatantly carrying guns and who signaled to him not to open his mouth to anyone. And another half a kilometre along he was accosted by a forest ranger who promptly arrested him and confiscated his bicycle. His crime ? He was going to take a class on adult education for members of a forest dwelling tribal community.

The youngster was a volunteer teacher working with the Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra's (RLEK) adult literacy programme, under the aegis of the National Literacy Mission, with the tribal community of the forest dwelling nomadic Van Gujjars ('Van' - forest) who inhabit the forests of the Siwalik range of mountains which is to be converted into a National Park. Some time later the then Director of the proposed park warned the Chairperson of RLEK vide his letters numbered 1442/223 and 1443/223 dated 17 March, 1994, to desist from furthering this education programme as it was illegal to teach literacy to the nomadic Van Gujjars. And this is not withstanding the fact that the adult education programme is in keeping with the National Policy on Adult Education.

This attitude of the 'main stream' majority community is seen clearly in a recent article in the national daily THE HINDU of Sunday, May 11, 1997, in which an ex-Secretary of the Ministry of Environment and Forests, laments that "the Van Gujjars, aided by a literacy campaign, have started demanding that they be allowed to stay on and either jointly manage this park or take over its management." Literacy had led to the demand for the long denied right of franchise of this tribal nomadic community and their having secured rights to 'vote' and the fact of their having become 'articulate' also causes him deep concern.

For the forest bureaucracy resisting the teaching of literacy to forest dwellers seems to out weigh such concerns as mismanagement of the protected areas. The very obvious 'threat' that is perceived by such people, and they are in large numbers, is that education could become a tool leading to the empowerment of indigenous people, tribal community and minorities who might break the stranglehold these people have upon their lives. There has been a discernible trend to conveniently interpret forest laws and wildlife acts of India to ignore the crimes of the rich and the influential who gain substantially from forest resources and to use them only as handles to break the indigenous, tribal or minority groups who depend upon them for their very sustenance. If educated such communities, it is felt by these vested interests, would certainly resist this trend.

For centuries the dignified and earthy community of the nomadic Van Gujjars has lived in these forests and the Himalayan highland pastures where they go to during the summer months. They have evolved a highly perfected sustainable relationship with their environment and have become a part of its biodiversity. They know nothing else but to tend to their buffaloes and survive on their milk and milk products which dictates their nomadism.

Demarcation of state boundaries resulting from the emergence of new republics the world over has stressed nomads enormously. This has also happened to the Van Gujjars and their operational territory has been narrowed down to restrictive corners of respective states. The consequence of this has been a diffu-sion of the Van Gujjars and isolation of individual groups.

The misery caused by these vicissitudes of chance and history is further compounded by the forest bureaucracy which seeks to blame them for the degradation of the environment so that they are forced to relocate. There has been a growing trend amongst environment conservationists to recommend sedentarisation of pastoral nomads without taking into account the enormous contribution they make to the national economy by following their traditional practices. For instance millions of tourists and pilgrims visit the mountains of Western Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh, in India, during the summers. There is no infrastructure for providing them milk or milk products for their daily needs. It is only the nomadic Van Gujjars who are able to do so thereby supporting eco-tourism which is vital to the economy of the region. And, as they support their buffaloes mainly on green fodder that grows naturally and have a minimal dependence on concentrate and crop residual feed this milk that they provide is pesticide free.

The protected area authority insists that the Van Gujjars relocate to the very inadequate and inappropriate resettlement site at a place called Pathri. Apart from the fact that enough land is not available at this resettlement site for the actual number of Van-Gujjars, the site is also very unfavourable for their occupational activities and the overwhelming majority of Van-Gujjars have refused to go there. "If you are settled you are like a stone " quipped one elderly Van Gujjar advocating mobility. In fact the site has been falling into disuse due to the unwillingness of Van-Gujjars to move there, a glaring example of development schemes initiated without consultations with the users and hence completely alienated from them.

The Van Gujjars have a very interesting piece of history which has been recorded by H.C. Williams in the Gazetteer of Dehra Dun of 1890 during the erstwhile British regime. During the middle of the 19th century a Gujjar called Kalua had terrorised the British forces for years by his constant attacks upon them. He did not trouble the local Indians but was a constant threat to the British forces. Such was the fear the British had of him that when finally he was captured his head was severed and stuck on a pole outside the jail for a month as an abject lesson to the local population not to oppose their 'masters'. This was before the first war of independence or as the Britishers preferred to call it 'the sepoy mutiny'. As a matter of fact Kalua was one of the first freedom fighters of the country. But then this is a part of the history of a tribal community and thus finds no place in 'main stream' Indian history.

Thick Forests Fail to Stop Rays of Literacy

RLEK perceived the illiteracy of the Van Gujjars to be the root cause of their exploitation by forest officials and the milk mafia. To remedy the situation it started a unique, innovative and experimental adult literacy programme for them in the winter of 1992.

The major tools of the programme were very innovative primers and highly motivated literacy volunteer teachers. The primers, 'Naya Safar' (A New Journey) Parts I, II and III, incorporated the vocabulary and the physical environment of the community in its contents. This ensured that the familiar meaning content of the primers did not create any mental discomfort among the pupils giving transparency to the language. These pupils, women and men, were selected in the age group of 15 to 35 (in keeping with the norms of the National Literacy Mission) and the meaning content of the primers was targeted at their adult minds. Copious illustrations were used in the primers and these also related to their physical background thus constantly maintaining the transparency of the visual medium. For numeracy the Roman numerals were used. This was so that they could note the registration numbers, written in Roman numerals, of the trucks that are a great hazard during the community's transhumance.

With the routine of lopping fodder leaves, tending the buffalo, milking, bringing the milk out of the forests to the road heads for collection by milk marketing agents etc. it is not possible for the community to gather daily at a place distant from their 'deras' (hutments). And, as Van Gujjar Mastooq put it, "Our children should remain behind the veil of the forest otherwise they will acquire the evils of a degenerate urban society." Therefore, to make the programme effective, it had to be veritably carried to the doorsteps of the pupils. The forests, in the winters, and the highland pastures, in the summers, where the Van Gujjar community dwells are not amenable to daily going and coming. The community itself resolved this tricky situation by offering to host the volunteer teachers by offering them board and lodging. This facilitated the taking of classes at hours most convenient to various groups living in the vicinity of the 'dera' where the teacher was staying. Such was the commitment of the volunteer teachers that at times they did not visit their own homes for months. A veritable forest academy of sorts had been created for launching this programme.

These young and committed volunteer teachers braved the adverse conditions of forests and wildlife as also the physical harassment in terms of arrests by the forest department officials who claimed that educating this community in the forests was illegal. These detriments, however, could not dissuade them from continuing with their work. In a number of cases members of the community stood up against the officials in defence of their teachers.

To prevent recidivism these teachers trekked up and down with their pupils during their annual transhumance. They also stayed with them in the highland pastures. These two factors, the development of the primers and the involvement of the volunteer teachers, were the principal agents that led to the success of the adult literacy programme. This success was appraised through holding of 'saksharta melas' (literacy fairs) where the neo-literates came out from the forests in their thousands to exhibit their newly developed skills to journalists, educationists, social activists and any such who wanted to see this phenomenon for themselves. "I was reluctant to join because I was afraid of the written word" told a young Van Gujjar mother in her local tongue to a journalist, "now no more".

However, the number of the community is very large and seeing the changes taking place in their fellow community members the non-literates have expressed keen desire for also becoming literate.

One of the major outcomes of the literacy programme was that the community vocalised its conviction that the present system of management that alienates forest dwellers cannot prevent the forests from degradation and exploitation. Their aspirations to become the managers themselves was formalised with the help of RLEK into an alternative system called the "Community Forest Management in Protected Areas Plan - a Van Gujjar proposal." The foreword of the plan is written by Mr. P. N. Bhagwati, former Chief Justice of India and presently the Vice Chairman of the United Nations Human Rights Committee. In this he notes, "there is a common belief that tribals and other vulnerable sections of the community living in the forest regions are uncultured and uncivilised, since the benefits of modern civilisation have not reached them. But this is a myth and an illusion; there is so much traditional wisdom amongst these people, accumulated over the years, that they are able to live in harmony with nature. Nature and environment are as much a part of their daily existence as food, shelter and clothing and they are continuously in communion with nature. Our plan for forest management must, therefore, take into account the human beings who live in the forests and nothing should be done which would affect their daily existence or their means of subsistence."

Nomads need understanding

Nomadic pastoral groups have been frequently the victims of prejudice and misunderstanding as they represent a small occupa-tional and cultural minority. Their nomadism is perceived as a non sustainable way of life and, therefore, their sedentarisation is recommended. What seems to be forgotten here is that nomadism, and particularly that of the pastoral nomads, is dictated by conditions of rainfall and vegetation in order not to stress these vital resources. On these long journeys marginal environments are utilised as resources which are not even considered as such by others. This not only puts these resources to the most productive use but also allows for more arable land to be used for cultivation of crops for human consumption. Their indigenous knowledge of ecosystems should be accepted as invaluable by states. Twenty per cent of people living in the high altitude mountainous regions come to much lower altitudes during the winter months. Similarly, other groups, like the nomadic pastoralists, move up to higher altitudes during the summer months. This has been going on for centuries and is a way of life for these people.

Nomadic groups in the third world have therefore most often been completely eradicated by the so called development process. Millions of nomads are the objects (and victims) of reforms and programmes based on unfounded theories rather than first hand knowledge.

Foreign aid has played a major role in disrupting the lives of tribals, indigenous people, minorities and nomads in the third world. "In some cases, dispossession has been violent, pastoralists have been beaten and their homes torched by government workers clearing the land." This thoughtless violation of their life has made these communities suffer greatly.

Development programmes in the third world con-sider the issue from the point of view of the developers, be they international aid agencies or governmen-tal or regional administrational units. Those for whom the development is intended are never taken into confidence at any stage of planning or implementation but are only asked, and in most cases forced, to tow the line. At no stage is it taken into consideration that these people, mostly tribal, indigenous or minority communities including nomads, are active participants in their own history. When they are confronted with these alien development schemes they interpret and react to them according to their traditions and their knowledge. Sadly, they are invariably the losers in this battle against power and money.

There is need to study the strategies which nomads and other such people apply in order to survive. Not passive survival as victims of circumstances but rather as active survival where, subject to change and processes in the society around them over which they have power, they are able to build up strategies to react to these changes.

Innovative education methods could be made available. Custom-ary practices that are present should be recognised, respected and accepted as alternative forms and activities which people have readily available to them and which can be activated with a minimum of confusion or conflict should be incorporated in such programmes. Tools for adult education programmes are more often than not generalised to reflect national policies. This tends to ignore the local specific issues of the minority communities, nomads specially, and so creates an impenetrable barrier between the literacy volunteer and the learner. Change is often not reversible and sedentarisation, therefore, should not be made an influencing factor in any such programme.

Despite many adverse conditions, including the disruption of their traditional migration routes, which the nomadic pastorals have faced down the years, they and other traditional breeders have continued to play a very important role in breeding cattle. In fact in India it is found that even after fifty year of independence no government programme has been able to substantially improve indigenous breeds. Whatever improvement is seen is only with the traditional pastoral communities and nomads.

Role of Donor Agencies

Western driven conservation efforts for endangered species have created wide spread problems for tribals, indigenous people, minority and nomadic groups, in the developing world. Huge amounts of money are taken from agencies like the GEF in the name of protection of forests and endangered species of wildlife only to be used against minority communities. Of the more than 7000 protected areas across the world a large portion are in the developing countries with large populations. In India alone there are 522 protected areas and another 225 are planned for the near future. Approximately six million people live in these areas and many more in the neighbourhood who have been traditionally depending on them for their sustenance since centuries. A large number of them are nomads. These people are being forced to relocate and large sums of aid money is shown to be utilised for this purpose, all in the name of conservation.

Developing countries do need foreign funds for their development work. However, the foreign donors should also be aware of the fact that funds allocated for better management of forests are more often than not used to create models that deny basic human rights to these minority communities and not only alienate them from their own traditions but also decimate their populations.

A large amount of these funds are donated by tax payers of those countries. As a matter of right these tax payers should first seek information on how their money will be spent and what would be the social and environmental ramifications of the projects which their money supports. They should ensure that their money does not in any way deprive the minority communities of their rights. Projects financed by this money should include space for adjusting details of the project to the changing local conditions of these communities.

Any development programme that concerns the minority communities must be based on a study of their history, their environmental perception, future aspirations, social organisation and use of natural resources.

Recommendations

The government has a major role to play if indigenous, tribal and minority, including nomadic, communities have to continue their useful function, of livestock production for instance, in an uncertain future. It must address certain specific needs.

A need to more clearly define its objectives and role in the adult education of indigenous, tribal and minority communities. If education is to be used as a tool for empowerment of these communities then a more adequate definition is needed than hitherto of what these communities are, what the process of empowerment is, and exactly how the communities are to be empowered with and without govern-ment support.

A need to open up a dialogue with government and larger bilateral and multilateral donors on the adult education needs of tribal, indigenous, minority and nomadic communities.

A need to persuade donor countries and agencies to earmark funds for the specific adult and children's education requirements of the tribal, indigenous, minority and nomadic communities.

A need to direct attention to a more explicit advocacy and experimental role. In working with the tribal, indigenous, minority and nomadic communities it is essential to identify oneself as a catalyst, experimenting with a particular approach, which can then be adopted globally.

A need to open national/regional chapters (resource centres) to address tribal, indigenous, minority and nomadic people's rights.

A need to decentralizes the process of developing literacy material to enable it to address the specific needs of each tribal, indigenous, minority and nomadic community.

Contact info:

Avdhash Kaushal
RURAL LITIGATION AND ENTITLEMENT KENDRA (RLEK)
21-EC ROAD,
DEHRA DUN - 248001
UP, INDIA
TEL. 0135 745539, 746071, 657630
FAX. 0135 656881
Email: rlekddn@giasdl01.vsnl.net.in