The struggle for scheduled tribe (ST) status for Adivasis in the state has been spearheaded by the All Adivasi Student's Association of Assam and the All Assam Tea-Tribe Students Association. The state government has already submitted a proposal prepared by the Assam Institute of Research for Tribals and Scheduled Castes, to the central government for consideration. However, immediately after the Beltola incident in 2007, the then Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil told the Lok Sabha that Assam's tea-tribe communities have tended to lose their tribal characteristics over the years and that the "Registrar General of India also did not support their inclusion in the ST list for Assam." Thus, the issue still hangs in the balance. Against this backdrop, young women leaders like Laxmi Orang coming into active politics, strongly motivated by the desire to highlight Adivasi issues, is significant. As she has already stated, Laxmi will continue her struggle in the coming years whether her nomination is granted or not. - Ratna Bharali Talukdar
By Ratna Bharali Talukdar
Undeterred by the brutal attack on her during a public rally, Laxmi Orang wants to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Tezpur in Assam to ensure the voice of her Adivasi community is heard in the corridors of power
Her pictures in newspapers and video-footage on TV channels shocked everyone who saw them. Stripped naked and beaten up brutally in broad daylight by a violent mob on November 24, 2007, Laxmi Orang was merely taking part in a public rally organised by the All Adivasi Student's Association of Assam (AASAA), demanding Scheduled Tribe status for the Adivasi people living in the state. It was the first time she had travelled the 258 kilometres from her village, Japowari Orang Basti in Sonitpur district, to Beltola in Guwahati, the capital city of Assam.
After the mob attacked, a traumatised and horrified Laxmi ran down the street desperately seeking help. A middle-aged man came to her rescue by covering her body with his own shirt. Next day, her pictures got front-page coverage in print and on television. Later, an inquiry commission headed by Manisana Singh was set up to inquire into the incident. In its report published on February 25, 2008, the commission stated that the rally was "unlawful", as it was held without permission.
The horrifying experience did not cow down Laxmi who belongs to the ex-Tea Tribe community. The woman who had worked as a daily wage labourer while she was studying, twice turned down jobs offered by the state government, as well as the Rs 1 lakh compensation money, and joined the struggle for scheduled tribe status for Adivasi people in Assam. She was herself unemployed and had three educated unemployed brothers sitting at home, but the cause was more important.
In November 2008, Laxmi joined the Assam United Democratic Front (AUDF), a conglomeration of several regional parties, headed by the perfume tycoon Badaruddin Ajmal. When she sought the party's nomination as a candidate from the prestigious Tezpur constituency in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, it was readily given. Says Hafij Rasid Choudhury, general secretary of the AUDF: "After joining the AUDF last November Laxmi sought party nomination to fight the Lok Sabha polls so that she can take Adivasi issues to the highest platform of our parliamentary democracy. Our party, which has the agenda of highlighting aspirations of all the deprived communities living in Assam, immediately took up the issue and nominated her." Choudhury said that the AUDF considered Laxmi as a symbol of exploitation of not only the Adivasis but also all oppressed communities in the state.
Laxmi began spearheading a massive campaign, visiting all the tea-gardens in the constituency, usually on foot, mobilising people of her community against the anti-Adivasi policies of the government.
Then, on April 7, 2009, her nomination was rejected on the grounds that she was under-age. There was previously some debate about her actual date of birth, but Laxmi was confident that her nomination would be accepted and that she could take on her opponents who included Congress heavyweight and sitting Member of Parliament for three consecutive terms, Moni Kumar Subba, Jiten Sundi of the CPI (M), Joseph Tappa of the Asom Gana Parisad, and independent candidate Rudra Paragjuli. Laxmi insists that the rejection of her nomination is a conspiracy. Her genuine papers have been rejected while those of Moni Kumar Subba, whose Indian citizenship is a matter of debate, were accepted, she says.
Despite the rejection, Laxmi is now firmly ensconced in politics, and her indomitable spirit to fight for her community adds a new dimension to the understanding of Adivasi exploitation in the state. Since the Beltola incident in 2007, she has emerged as one of the most powerful voices highlighting the plight of Adivasis in the state.
Adivasis in Assam have been categorised into 97 Tea and Ex-Tea communities. They have, throughout history, been subjected to endless exploitation, deprivation and treachery. After the annexation of Assam from Burma (Myanmar), the British colonial administration started tea plantations in 1837 and immediately expanded the plantation area on a large scale. By 1900 the state recorded 804 tea gardens with 3.37 lakh acres of land under plantation. Most local people were engaged in independent farming, and the tea industry began facing an acute shortage of labour. The planters thus imported labourers from outside the state. The first batch of tea-garden labourers was recruited from the Chotanagpur division of Bihar by the Assam Company in 1841. The industry continued to recruit labourers, until 1960, from six labour-surplus provinces - Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Central Provinces, United Provinces and Madras.
According to the 'Proposal for inclusion of Tai-Ahom, Koch-Rajbongshi, Moran Matak, Chutia and 97 Tea- and Ex-Tea Garden tribes in the list of Scheduled Tribes (Plain) of Assam', prepared by the Assam Institute of Research for Tribals and Scheduled Castes, Guwahati, in 2005: "The labourers thus brought into Assam had a trying time. The agents known as free contractors enticed them with secured employment, good wages and healthy habitation, but in practice, the labourers got a rough deal." The proposal has also stated that the mortality of labour in transit from the recruiting districts to the tea districts was appalling. Quoting reports from Sir Percival Griffiths, it stated that "some 84,915 labourers landed in Assam between 1863 and 1866, of which over 30,000 died by January 1866."
In practice, the imported labour was forced to work as bonded labourers in the tea-gardens in sub-human conditions, totally isolated from the mainstream. Over the years, a section of them started moving out of the employment of the tea-gardens and settled in government Khas land, or unused tea-garden land in the vicinity of the tea-gardens. They would, at times, be employed as casual labourers in the tea-gardens and at the same time could live an independent life of their own. This section of people is known as Ex-Tea tribe.
Another section of Adivasis migrated mostly to lower parts of Assam and established themselves as agricultural labourers. A section of them was also rehabilitated in forest villages and provided a certain amount of land in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Their population today counts over three million.
Ironically, although "bondage" has been virtually ended, the socio-economic condition of Adivasis in Assam continues to be the same even today in all settlements--inside the tea-gardens, or outside. Their problems include increasing joblessness inside the gardens, loss of welfare benefits such as education, sanitation, healthcare facilities, rise in malnutrition and starvation. The overall literacy rate among the Adivasis is only 27.12%. The Assam Human Development Report prepared in 2003 stated that over 21. 35% of children belonging to Tea-garden communities are never enrolled in schools. In HSLC examinations, Tea and Ex Tea-garden students get the lowest percentage. In 2007, the pass percentage of regular HSLC candidates was 37.94 among boys and 27.96 among girls, while among the Adivasi students it was 24.56 and 11.52 respectively.
One-third of those living in the gardens are denied housing. Those living outside the gardens are mostly landless. In 2007, the industry and commerce minister of the state, Pradyut Bordoloi, replying to questions on the actual population of the Tea tribes in Assam and how many of them have their own houses, said that the government had no accurate information about this.
According to statistics tabled in the Assam Legislative Assembly, 162 tea-garden workers in 37 gardens died of diseases like cholera and diarrhoea in 2007. It also revealed that only 15 of these 37 tea-garden hospitals had a doctor, while 10 lacked any health infrastructure. The state has, altogether, 855 tea-gardens, which have 127 doctors, 204 pharmacists, 323 nurses and 14 health-workers. Only 372 tea-gardens have a welfare officer, despite the provision that every tea-garden must appoint one welfare officer for the labourers.
The budget provision for Tea and Ex-Tea communities in the state is extremely low as compared to the huge size of the population. The state government allotted a meagre Rs 10 crore in fiscal 2006-07 and Rs 23 crore in 2007-08. However, this increased to Rs 37 crore in 2008-09.
In lower Assam, Adivasis suffered the most in a series of ethnic clashes between Bodos and Adivasis and between Bodos and Muslims in 1993, 1996 and 1998. These clashes displaced 3.14 lakh people from 48,556 families. The displaced people had to take shelter in makeshift relief camps for long periods of time, facing acute hunger and risk to their livelihood. A large number still lives in relief camps, unable to earn a decent living. According to statistics tabled in the Assam Legislative Assembly in January 2009, 11,092 families are yet to be rehabilitated. Of these, 7,279 families are Adivasis and 3,813 Muslims.
The struggle for scheduled tribe (ST) status for Adivasis in the state has been spearheaded by the All Adivasi Student's Association of Assam and the All Assam Tea-Tribe Students Association. The state government has already submitted a proposal prepared by the Assam Institute of Research for Tribals and Scheduled Castes, to the central government for consideration. However, immediately after the Beltola incident in 2007, the then Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil told the Lok Sabha that Assam's tea-tribe communities have tended to lose their tribal characteristics over the years and that the "Registrar General of India also did not support their inclusion in the ST list for Assam." Thus, the issue still hangs in the balance.
Against this backdrop, young women leaders like Laxmi Orang coming into active politics, strongly motivated by the desire to highlight Adivasi issues, is significant. As she has already stated, Laxmi will continue her struggle in the coming years whether her nomination is granted or not.
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Ratna Bharali Talukdar is a freelance journalist specialising in development issues and based in Guwahati