Henry Shue And The Basic Rights Of Dongria Tribe Of Niyamgiri Hills

HYDERABAD: Mining projects, internationally and more specifically in India, have been a site of contradistinction of values between a multibillion corporation and the marginalized, indigenous inhabitants of the proposed project site. Though industrial development is a legitimate aspiration in a contemporary, economy-driven nation, development at the cost of suppressing native tribal culture launches an inquiry into violation of human rights of the displaced tribal population and is unwarranted. A recent instance of this controversy is the bauxite mining proposal in the Niyamgiri Hills in Kalahandi district in Odisha.

The mining is proposed by a British multinational company, Vedanta Ltd in a joint venture with the Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC). The proposal is aimed at acquiring the tribal land, including forest reserves, to mine the land for profits which is estimated to be worth 2 billion dollars. Vedanta has already set up an alumina factory (Lanjigarh Refinery) near the Niyamgiri hill, banking on the bauxite reserves. The Niyamgiri Hill constitutes an essential part of the cultural and religious belief of the Dongria Kondh, one of the most isolated tribes in India.

The Dongria tribe depends on the Niyamgiri hills for basic sustenance while simultaneously establishing a fragile balance between the ecology of the hill and cultivation. With excellent knowledge of the hills, the Dongria have established a self-reliant culture under which they rarely require outside goods. The tribe has formulated medicinal alternatives from the herbs gathered in the hills and relies on orchards and wild fruits for sustenance. Permission to mine the Niyamgiri Hills would not only lead to environmental pollution and ecological destruction, but also the obliteration of traditional values and practices of the Dongrias.

The Lanjigarh refinery, established even before the mining permission, has already displaced over a hundred families of Majhi Kondh, who are a part of the same tribe, with the distinction that they reside on the foothills of the Niyamgiri hill, as opposed to the Dongria Kondh who reside in the forests of the hill range. Due to commencement of the refinery, issues pertaining to environmental population are already emanating. Ash from the refinery settles on crops and the ground, which then seeps beneath and pollutes the riverbeds underneath. The displaced and subsequently rehabilitated Manjhi families have been torn away from their traditional farmlands and are forced to work as labourers in the refinery.

Henry Shue in his article, Security and Subsistence, defines right as a “rational basis for justified demand.” The tribes of Dongria Kondh have a right to preserve and sustain their tribal culture without an external influence by the State or any private entity. The provisions of legislations such as the Forest Rights Act (FRA) and the Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act (PESA) were enacted with the aim of preserving tribal culture in face of “development.” He further articulates the concept of basic right as an empowering right for the defenseless against economic and political forces that would otherwise be too strong to be resisted. Basic rights are constituted by two specific rights: right to physical security and right to subsistence.

The above two rights are accorded the status of a basic right, as the absence of these rights would make it impossible for them to enjoy any other rights. While balancing a basic right with any other right, a basic right cannot be sacrificed as the non-guarantee of a basic right would hinder the enjoyment of other rights.

Security right, as a basic right, entails physical security and a guarantee against murder, torture, rape or assault. If a security right is not guaranteed, then people cannot legitimately exercise any other right when their physical security is constantly threatened. In 2010, the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) rejected the proposal to provide clearance to the Niyamgiri bauxite mining on environmental issues.

A petition was filed challenging this and the Supreme Court asked the gram sabha instated in that area to decide. All of the twelve gram sabha decided against the proposal. However, even after the conclusion of adjudicatory process, members of the Dongria tribes were regularly picked up by police officers and tortured on the pretext of being Naxals. The tribe members were threatened and intimidated physically to give in to the demands of Vedanta. The leaders of the movement against the mining proposal were tortured and have FIRs filed against them for being “Naxal leaders.” Thus, it is evident from the situation in the region, that the physical security of the people is being constantly threatened so that they accede to the proposed mining. In such a scenario of physical intimidation and threats, there is no right to physical security and hence they cannot effectively enjoy their freedom to protest and petition. Due to fear of torture and physical harm, their engagement with other rights is also limited.

Another basic right is the right to subsistence, which encompasses a right to unpolluted water, unpolluted air, adequate food, sufficient shelter and minimal preventive public health care. The rationale behind this right is to have access to sufficient subsistence that would aid in leading a healthy life. Shue believes that there can be no enjoyment of any right if there is a lack of basic essentials to a reasonable healthy life. Prevention of physical malnutrition is, in a way, more essential than physical security as a person, whose physical security is threatened, if otherwise healthy, can at least protest or flee. If a person suffers from health ailments, he has no alternative but to suffer in his helplessness.

The Dongria tribe relies heavily on the Niyamgiri hills to provide them with food, shelter and water. Exploitation of the hills to mine bauxite would destroy all ecological sustainability, in addition to the livelihood and sustenance of the people sheltered under it. Thus, the mining proposal essentially, threatens the basic right to subsistence of the community members. Continuation of the mining proposal would result in displacement of the Dongria tribe from their source of sustenance to a rehabilitated urban area, where they would be further suppressed and marginalized, like the Majhi Kondh tribe. Further, due to the pollution of air and water by the Lanjigarh Refinery, the tribe members might suffer from chronic health ailments, further limiting their livelihood options.

Thus, in the Nyamgiri Hill controversy, both the basic right of physical security and subsistence are consistently threatened which limits the exercise of other rights. To alleviate their current predicament, the Government must take steps to ensure the guarantee of these basic rights which would in turn aid them in exercising their statutory right of protecting and sustaining the plurality extant in their culture, as in consonance with Shue’s principles, the Dongria people would not be able to exercise other rights, unless the basic rights of security and subsistence are guaranteed and actively enforced.

(The writer is a student of NALSAR, Hyderabad)

(Image: Wikimedia Common)