Injot Trust Concludes Jameen- Training Initiative on Land Matters for Adivasi Community Leaders in Guwahati

GUWAHATI: "We hope that the community leaders understand the value of collaboration. This is not a lone battle. It is important to reach out to the people in our Adivasi community who do not have the requisite education and access, and bring about changes at the grassroots level. And it cannot be done by a single organisation or group - all stakeholders have to come together with the mindset of problem solving. Jameen has not concluded today, it has only begun," said Ms. Anjali Tirkey, Founder Director of Guwahati based not for profit organisation Injot, which concluded its two-day training conference on Land Matters for Adivasi community leaders, on Saturday. The conference was organised at Don Bosco Youth Mission and Educational Services (DBI), Guwahati.

Jameen by Injot Trust is a rare non-profit training initiative which focuses on building capacity of Adivasi community leaders about the entire spectrum of Land Matters - laws, rationale, procedures and rights. Land alienation has been a burning issue impacting the Adivasi community across India, and all indigenous groups of the world. In Assam, the issue is peculiar as the Adivasi community had to suffer forced migration from various states in central and east India, and integrated as labour in the tea gardens in the erstwhile British colonial rule. Having been dependent on tea gardens for their housing, for centuries the people working in the tea gardens did not have land ownership in Assam. Owing to the historical circumstances many laws and land rights were introduced for people employed in the tea gardens in Assam, but due to abysmal literacy rates, lack of accurate information and exposure, and general mistrust of the system, the community has hardly been able to avail the benefits.

Ms. Anjali Tirkey, with her sixteen years of experience working with the Adivasi community of Assam felt that there was a need to inform and educate community leaders, as it is impossible to reach out to each and every community member just by a single person or organisation. Hence an initiative like Jameen was the call of the hour. The impact of this program will be widespread as these leaders go back and educate the less privileged members of the community, and support them in making intelligent and informed decisions in regards to land.

The key facilitator of the program was Mr. Nazrul Islam, IAS (Retd.) - an expert of land matters of Assam. During his tenure, Mr. Islam was posted in various districts, and held significant positions in various departments throughout his career including Deputy Commissioner of Dhubri District, Commissioner P&RD and CEO Zilla Parishad. His work with Panchayat and Rural Development, Social Welfare Department, and his role as Chief Executive Officer of Zilla Parishad makes him an authority on rural panorama of Assam. He has served as Revenue Official in various capacities and is well versed in land related laws and rules of Assam. A consultant with the Govt on land matters, Mr. Islam has been giving trainings to IAS, ACS and ALRS and other officers for years.

During the two-day program Mr. Islam informed the participants about the rationale of land records, vocabulary of land matters, understanding of various types of land, land entitlements and rights, and then gave a deep understanding of usage of Basundhara Portal and Dharitree App to procure land documents. Mission Basundhara is an initiative of the Government of Assam under which land related services like land mutation, updating land records etc. can be done through its online portal without the need to visit government offices in person. Most participants managed to get hands-on practice and procure their documents and understand the procedures.

Injot used this opportunity of the gathering of over 100 Adivasi community leaders to share knowledge about other crucial areas that are relevant for the Adivasi community of Assam. Mr. Islam took a special session on the Right to Public Services Act explaining the relevance, importance and scope of the Act. Three additional sessions were conducted by eminent guest facilitators. Mr. Anupchand Minj, a lawyer and an RTI activist with an experience of filing hundreds of RTIs in Assam and Jharkhand, explained to the participants about the importance of RTI and how it can become a powerful tool of accountability and inquiry. He further trained them in the procedures and shared how it can be useful for Land Matters.

Regional Labour Commissioner, Government of India Mr. Shammi J Tigga, CLS was invited by Injot to inform the participants about Labour Laws and E-shram for the unorganised sector. Labour is another issue that is closely related to the Adivasi community of Assam. Despite its significance, even the educated members of the community are largely unaware about the 44 Labour Laws which are amalgamated into The Code of Wages 2019, Labour Code on Industrial Relations 2019, The Code of Social Security 2019 and The Code on Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions 2019. He expressed that ignorance of the Laws and Rights by the workers and inactive and weak labour unions in Assam are few of the reasons for the violation of labour laws in Assam especially in the tea gardens. He also gave a detailed understanding of E-shram, a National Database of Unorganised Workers. The unorganised workers and migrant workers of various categories can self-enrol in the portal or through the CSC/SSK across the country. He encouraged the participants to support community members employed in the unorganised sector to register and avail the benefits.

"Land and labour are so closely related that one cannot address one issue without knowing about the other. At the same time a large percentage of the Adivasi community in Assam is unorganised labour and knowing about the provisions under E-shram will be highly beneficial for the community." said Ms. Anjali Tirkey. She also mentioned that there is a lack of a centralised platform to understand various universal schemes and most of the times it has been noticed that the tea community and Adivasis hardly benefit from these schemes. It was important that they know about them, be it about schemes like Orunodoi, MGNREGA job cards, housing, health, or various skill development programs, and reduce their dependence on tea gardens. This observation paved the way to the final guest session during Jameen that was facilitated by Dr. J B Ekka IAS, Principal Secretary, Panchayat & Rural Development Dept., Labour Welfare Dept. and Tea Tribes Welfare Dept., Govt. of Assam on Universal Schemes and Entitlements. It is rare for citizens to get such comprehensive information carefully tailored in a way that it is easily understandable and their linkages easily comprehensible. The session was focused on understanding schemes and entitlements that are available and how to access those.

Wilson Hasda, EM of BTR who was present as a delegate in the conference appreciated the initiative of Injot Trust to gather facilitators who are best in their respective field in one place and felt that the knowledge shared will be helpful in finding solutions for the many burning topics like lack of employment and skills, unchecked migration of Adivasi youths, issues like land alienation etc. He felt that now was the right time to work for land issues when the government in Assam are working on some of the land and revenue matters in a mission mode.

Rajesh Kerketta, from Lakhimpur and district President of AASAA found the conference eye opening and felt he has learnt many things about land records and documents. He also said that he learnt about the procedures to make Pattas, transfer lands and other land matters and committed to help the poor and ignorant people of his region. According to another delegate, Benhur Soreng from Udalguri district, the biggest issues of Adivasi society in Assam were lack of awareness, Illiteracy and poverty, which led to repeated exploitation of Adivasis. They don't have their proper land documents, they are unaware of their constitutional rights, they don't have access to the government schemes, he reiterated and felt that initiatives like Jameen and the government's initiative of online portals like Mission Basundhara and E-shram and others about which he learnt in the conference will be very beneficial to him to empower the people around him.

Injot is a fairly new organisation that was founded in 2020 and is a women led organisation with Anjali Tirkey and Arindita Gogoi, an experiential educator and trainer, leading the helms and is focused on the empowerment of the Adivasi community in Assam. Land is a sensitive, complex and emotional issue for many. And land and everything that it encompasses - the forests, the waters and the wildlife, has been a part of Adivasi identity since time immemorial. As Ms. Tirkey puts it, "We Adivasis have always perceived ourselves as caretakers of land, with our customs and heritage closely intertwined with nature and the preservation of the forest. At the same time, it is essential to understand the contemporary legal reality. While policy makers and legislators have to be mindful of the ancestry of the people of the forest while designing public policies and passing new laws, we who have assimilated have to make ourselves aware of these laws and procedures. Land is a limited resource forever depleting and its value and worth increasing every moment. It is easy to blame the government, but when there are laws and schemes that one can benefit from, why not empower ourselves to make the best use of solutions that are available?"

Injot has been engaging in the training of the Adivasi community in Land Matters for several months now. They started training Adivasi youth in land matters during their youth mentorship program Sanghe Urab that had concluded recently in the month of October. Jameen was an extension of that training now accessible to other community leaders. Jameen started with two online sessions with Mr. Nazrul Islam followed by the two-day training conference on November 5th and 6th. According to Injot, more specialised sessions will be conducted in the coming months after careful survey of the needs of specific groups.

Jameen concluded with a thoughtful individual gift to all participants - special seeds of various vegetables donated by Injot ally Ms. Runa Rafique - livestock entrepreneur and a passionate farmer.

"We hope that these seeds are planted by the participants in their backyard 'jameen' (land) and when they bear the fruits, they think of Injot and the learnings from Jameen," hopes Ms. Tirkey.

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