Dear Friends,
As most of you would be aware the 2nd seminar to draft a policy for the
Jarawa tribals as ordered by the Calcutta High Court was held in Port Blair
on May 27 and 28. I have been travelling after the seminar and that is one
of the reasons why we have not been able to post any updates and what has
been happening. Over the next few days now, as when information becomes
available, we will keep you updated.
To begin with given below is the 'Alternative Framework for Jarawa Policy'
that was drafted by a set of independant observors and experts and submitted
at the seminar.
The suggestions have been accepted fully and we have to wait and see how
they finally appear in the documents prepared by the organisers.
Pankaj Sekhsaria

May 27, 2004
Submitted at the Jarawa Seminar, May 27, 2004, Port Blair

AN ALTERNATIVE FRAMEWORK
FOR JARAWA POLICY

Submitted by a Group of Independent Experts & Observors

The crisis of existence facing the Jarawa, combined with the Honourable High
Court's directive to produce a thoughtful and well-considered policy for
dealing with this exigency, provides an extraordinary opportunity. For the
first time in India, and likely in the world, many heads-administrators,
experts and concerned individuals-are coming together to think about how
best to deal with a hitherto isolated tribal group, and, most important, to
put a just and humane policy in place.
We hold that the premise in this discussion must always be that the best
interests of the Jarawa have to be served. Lively debate exists on the means
by which this might be accomplished-isolation or integration-and the present
proposal does not claim to have all the answers. We take as a given,
however, that the territorial rights of the Jarawa must be secured, in law
and in practice, so that they have as much forest and coastline as they need
to live well. Territorial and cultural integrity appears to be essential to
the physical and mental health of a hunter-gatherer group. Let us not forget
that thousands of years before we came, the aboriginals lived on the
Andamans; their moral rights to the archipelago's resources outweigh ours.
Any final policy on the Jarawa should allow them a large measure of
independence in choosing their own future. However, until a long-term vision
for the Jarawa is finalized, we hold that the Jarawa need to be shielded
from harmful outside influences. All dealings with the Jarawa, and indeed
the other Andaman aboriginal groups, must therefore meet three criteria:

a) Sensitivity: All individuals dealing with the Jarawa and other Andaman
and Nicobar aboriginals (including the Onge, Great Andamanese and the
Shompen) must be trained and made aware of their cultural practices. These
personnel must have respect for the validity of aboriginal practices as a
means of survival in the island and forest environment. Outsiders must not
denigrate aboriginal practices or seek to impose foreign practices except
for such cases as are essential for their survival.
b) Minimality: To minimize the chances of abuse, the least possible number
of outsiders may deal with the Jarawa and all other aboriginal groups of the
Andamans. Only the least possible number of outsiders should be allowed to
enter the Jarawa reserve. Adequate care must be taken to ensure that
outsiders do not transmit disease. Programs and other activity involving the
aboriginals, including medical intervention, must be kept down to the
absolute essentials and accomplished with minimal exposure to outside
influences.
The Sentinel Islanders must be left completely alone and no attempts can be
made to establish contact with them. Vigilance from a distance may be in
order, however.
c) Accountability: Mechanisms must be put in place to swiftly and firmly
deal with abuse of aboriginals by outsiders, especially if these outsiders
are personnel who are entrusted with responsibilities regarding aboriginals.
Individuals who have negative dealings with aboriginals must be suitably
punished and never allowed near them again. Justice must not only be done
but also seen to be done.

With these principles in mind, we submit the following policy guidelines for
dealing with the Jarawa. We further take this opportunity to suggest reform
in other Andaman and Nicobar tribal regions. If this proposal passes muster,
we would like to recommend in addition that a Policy Panel be formed to work
out its detailed implementation. This Panel will preferably contain only
three members: a senior member of the Andaman administration, a
knowledgeable anthropologist and a senior, independent and concerned
administrator as chairperson.

POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS:

1. The Honourable Supreme Court's recommendation on Inner Line regulations
must be implemented on a war footing. The Andaman Islands are facing immense
problems, most immediately water shortage and unemployment, because of
unchecked immigration. Overpopulation impedes tribal security by increasing
pressure on resources in the tribal reserves.
2. The Honourable Supreme Court's Order to close sections of the Andaman
Trunk Road must be immediately implemented. In addition, the section of
Jarawa forest east of the Andaman Trunk Road that was denotified in the
1970s may be restored to the Jarawa reserve. A suitable process for
identifying this land should be initiated immediately. Increasing the
territory of the Jarawa will better ensure their survival, help regenerate
the forest and likely also improve the water situation on South Andaman.
3. An Integrated Security Force headed by the Lieutenant Governor needs to
be formed to defend the Jarawa Reserve and other tribal reserves from
poaching by land and sea. This Force needs to incorporate the principles of
Sensitivity, Minimality and Accountability. It should include
representatives from relevant departments such as Forest, Coast Guard,
Defence, Police, Fisheries and others. Further, the boundaries of the Jarawa
and other reserves need to be clearly demarcated. No authority can have
bases within the Jarawa reserve. Strict guidelines need to be worked out on
the extent to which personnel from any authority can enter the reserve in
pursuit of poachers. Possibly the Jarawa themselves can assume to an extent
their old task of defending their forest.

4. The administration must close legal loopholes that impede prosecution of
poachers. Strict, effective penalties, including prison terms, must be
introduced for poachers, for others who extract resources such as sand from
the tribal reserves, and also for those having harmful dealings with the
aboriginals such as offering intoxicants.
5. Strenuous efforts must be made to sensitize local populations to the
rights of the Jarawas and other aboriginals, and to the dangers posed by
harmful contact. Support for the Jarawa among the local population will be
invaluable.
6.. The AAJVS must be replaced by a new, streamlined organization that is
passionately dedicated to serving the Jarawa and other aboriginal groups.
For the moment let us call this organization the Andaman Adivasi Service
Agency or AASA, which may be registered as a trust.
We postulate the following structure for the AASA to incorporate the
principles of sensitivity, minimality and accountability. The AASA will be
run by an Executive Council of five members. The Council will have no
Chairman but a Convener. Two of its members will be government officials,
including the Lieutenant Governor, while three will be non-governmental.
Council members will be required to make at least two unannounced spot
checks a year of each and every tribal reserve served by AASA. In early
stages, Council members will meet once in three months to resolve problems,
and in later stages once in six months.
The Executive Council will hire an Executive Officer who will be responsible
for running the AASA. This Executive Officer will need to be not only
sensitive but dynamic: this will not be a desk job. He or she will be in
charge of hiring, training, deploying, overseeing and if necessary firing
all employees. To enforce accountability it is necessary to stop not only
the proliferation of personnel in the tribal reserves but also the
proliferation of departments. To this end, the Executive Officer should be
responsible for hiring and overseeing not only anthropologists and welfare
personnel but also doctors and all other staff posted at tribal reserves.
To ensure minimality, we recommend that the Jarawa be served by three teams,
one posted at Kadamtala, one at Baratang and one at Thiroor. Each team will
contain a highly qualified and competent anthropologist, chosen by a
nation-wide competition, who will serve as an interface between the Jarawa
and the outside world. The team will also contain a highly trained and
sensitized doctor. For the present moment we see no need for welfare staff
serving the Jarawa. Only members of the Executive Council and Policy Panel,
the Executive Officer, the resident anthropologist and the resident doctor
may enter the Jarawa reserve. The staff requirements at other tribal
reserves may be worked out by the Policy Panel.
7. An Advisory Body must be constituted with adequate expertise, including
knowledgeable anthropologists, to advise the Executive Council on long-term
policy regarding the Jarawa. The Advisory Body will be charged with
developing a visionary and humane long-term policy regarding the Jarawa and
other aboriginal groups. It will determine what the principles of
Sensitivity, Minimality and Accountability mean in practice. The policy
formulated by the Advisory Body will provide a framework allowing the Policy
Panel, the Executive Council and the Integrated Security Force to solve
day-to-day problems in a rational, consistent and guided manner. At present
many questions remain unanswered, most importantly that of isolation versus
integration. The Advisory Body is also entrusted with responsibility for
developing a long term plan for research that can generate sufficient data
to enable the Executive Council to formulate and revise policy periodically.
The Advisory Body must within a year develop a long-term vision plan that
incorporates not only questions of human rights but also the ecology and
development of the Andamans as a whole.
The proposal outlined above bears the consensus of a number of concerned
individuals, experienced administrators and anthropologists who have looked
far and wide for information and guidance relevant to the task at hand. We
believe that, barring minor modifications, it will hold up to scrutiny and
earnestly hope that it will be adopted as the policy toward the Jarawa and
other threatened aboriginals on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Signed/-

Dr. Madhusree Mukerjee
Author, The Land of Naked People, New York

Samir Acharya
Society for Andaman & Nicobar Ecology (SANE),
C/o Tarang Trades, Middle Point, Port Blair - 744101.
Tel: 03192 - 232929 / 236014. Email: sane@...


Dr. Vishvajit Pandya
Professor, Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information & Communication
Technology, Ahmedabad


Dr. Sita Venkateswar
Anthropologist, Massey University, New Zealand


Pankaj Sekhsaria
Kalpavriksh Environmental Action Group, Pune




Rasheed Yusoof
Vice President, Nicobar Youth Association, Nancowry




C/o Kalpavriksh
Apt. 5, Sri Dutta Krupa
908 Deccan Gymkhana,
Pune 411004
Tel: 020 - 25654239 / 25675450
Fax: 25654239