HEALTH IN JHARKHANDDespite the tremendous strides made in reducing the deaths of women and children through policies and programs, health is still an area of concern in the state. Multiple studies suggest that Women and Children in state show poor health and nutrition status that continues to deteriorate. The widespread poverty, malnutrition, coverage of health-care services, are far below the IPHS norms, and absence of safe drinking water, food insecurity and sanitary conditions are some other factors of dismal health in Jharkhand. As per NHFS4, the state records lower utilization of antenatal and postnatal services which can be attributed to rampant poverty, lack of awareness and accessibility, illiteracy and deep rooted cultural beliefs. A large number of women and children have anemia and underweight and malnutrition is prevalent among children. There is a huge gap in availability and proposed numbers of health facilities.
EMPLOYMENT AND WORKER’S CONDITION IN JHARKHAND
The unemployment, which was already very high in Jharkhand before the outbreak of pandemic peaked after the outbreak and during the ensuing lockdown. It, though has eased to some extent with relaxation in lockdown, is still very high. Unemployment in Jharkhand was 8.2 per cent in March, 2020, which jumped to 47.1 per cent in April, 2020 and 59.2 per cent in May, 2020 started declining thereafter, but even then it was as high as 20.9 per cent in June, 2020, 7.6 per cent in July 2020 and 9.8 per cent in August, 2020. Approximately 43 per cent of workers in Jharkhand are self-employed, 23 per cent are regular wage/ salaried (RWS) employees and 21 per cent are casual workers. Most of these workers are engaged in such activities where work from home is not possible and even maintaining social distance at workplace is difficult. A large number of self-employed and casual workers, therefore, have experienced job loss or wage/income cut because of the pandemic and lockdown. Even many of the RWS workers have experienced problems. All those RWS workers who did not have written job contract or a job contract of less than three years old faced the same level of vulnerability as the one faced by the casual workers or self-employed. They too faced job insecurity and income and wage loss. A large number of workers of the state had migrated for earning their livelihoods. They had to come back in a very precarious condition. They lost their job, income and savings and experienced tremendous hardship while coming back to their home. The worst hit of this pandemic, in terms of loss of job, income and social security benefits or in experiencing hardship of return migration, are the poor, the rural population, the minorities and other socially disadvantaged groups, including women.
SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE IN JHARKHAND
Agriculture is the primary livelihood of 70% of the population of Jharkhand and the average land holding is 1.58 ha and 80% of the are small and marginal farmers. The state has 32 Schedule Tribes comprising of 28% of the population. Rainfed agriculture is predominant farming in the area with Rice-Fallow as the predominant pattern; 88% of the area is under monocropping with 73% under cereals predominantly Rice. A topo sequential land use is prevalence with high and medium slopes with light textured red soil cultivated with pulses, millets, upland rice; medium lands with light textured soils cultivated with shorter duration rice in kharif and vegetables or pulses in rabi and lower slope lowlands that are cultivated with longer duration transplanted rice. The homestead is used for cultivation of vegetables and cash crops to generate immediate income.
The region is one of the 21 Agricultural Biodiversity Heritage Sites of India and is also recognized as Distinct Geographic Region by Royal Botanical Gardens (Kew, England). The state has a unique diversity of climate resilient and nutritionally rich crops developed and nurtured by farmers since millennia namely, Upland Red Rices, Millets (Finger Millet, Sorghum & Kodo), Pulses (Urad, Kurthi, Arhar, Barbati), Oilseeds (Mustard, Niger). The region in around Ranchi is known as the Vegetable Bowl addressing supplying vegetables across the state as well as Bihar, Odisha and West Bengal. Hazaribagh plateau produces the earliest Potato in the region, and is also famous for Coriander and Tomato; Chhotanagpur plateau also has rich diversity of Brinjals and Cucurbits as well as spices (Turmeric & Ginger).
The State has enormous potential for horticulture and a number of varieties of Mango along with Litchi, Jackfruits, Amla, Ber, Custard Apple, Guava, Jamun, Tamarind, Bael, Karonda, Papaya, Citrus, Banana etc have been grown in the villages and some are also found in the wild. Urbanization, mining & other development activities, Commercialization of agriculture, has brought in
The program can be initiated in phase-wise manner in different potential areas and crops based on their uniqueness and ground realities as described in the Table below-
| Niche Areas | Strategy |
|---|---|
| Areas already practicing Sustainable Agriculture Practices | Identify and Protect areas that are largely free from chemical-based agriculture. Stop any programs that are promoting the use of agrochemicals in such areas. Encourage and Promote traditional systems with inputs from Agro-ecological principles towards sustainability as well as conservation of indigenous landraces and cultivars. Declaration as Organic Zones and improving local consumption as well as marketing of surplus organic produce through PGS. |
| Areas with low usage of Synthetic Agrochemicals | Awareness generation; Phase wise conversion to Sustainable Farming; building Soil Biome and eliminating pesticides. |
| Areas with high potential of certified export products | Third Party Certification and enabling access and benefits to farmers from the premium prices. Ensuring Internal Control Systems (ICS) and entrepreneurship. |
| Areas with high use of agrochemicals Awareness on the adverse effects of agrochemicals; | shift to NPM/ IPM methods to complete elimination of pesticides reducing the use of synthetic fertilizers following agro-ecological approaches. |
In context to the historical injustice under the government policies in both colonial and independent India during 1850s. In December 2006, successfully both the houses of India Parliament passed the historic Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (referred as the Forest Rights Act (FRA)) which had potential to transform the lives and livelihoods of more than 200 million forest-dependent individuals across the country who were totally dependent on forest land. Rules under the Act was notified in December 2007, and from 1st January 2008, the Act became effective for implementation in all the states of India excepting Jammu and Kashmir. The Act stated in its Preamble that rights of the Scheduled Tribes (STs) and the Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (OTFDs) on their ancestral lands and habitats will be recognized for the integral survival and sustainability of the forest ecosystem. Recognizing and vesting of these rights is, thus, the primary objective of this Act. The law vests a number of rights over forest lands including Individual Forest Rights (IFR) over forest lands, Community Forest Rights (CFR and rights to protect and manage the forest resources within traditional or customary boundaries of the village. Among which is the most critical right, which has a bearing on forest governance and the welfare of tribals and forest dwellers, is that of Community Forest Resource Rights (CFRR). The law is significant seeks to democratize the process of rights recognition by making Gram Sabha the key authority in the rights recognition process. FRA has also created space for Informed Consent of the Gram Sabha for diversion of forest land.
But in last 12 years of its implementation, the performance of FRA in Central by the respective Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) and respective State Administrations has not been into priority. It is estimated that rights of over 200 million STs and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (OTFDs) in over 170,000 villages across the country should be recognized under the FRA, 2006, with priority to the Community Forest Resource Rights (CFR). But till now it’s only 3 per cent of the minimum potential of Community Forest Rights (CFR) rights achieved in the country among which states like Maharashtra, Odisha, Kerala and Gujarat are doing better for recognition of CFR & CFRR rights whereas Jharkhand’s performance is still very low. The minimum area that can potentially be claimed under the CFR in Jharkhand is estimated to be 5.26 million acres (CFR-LA, 2016).
Jharkhand with presence of 8.30% of total country’s schedule tribe population residing and dependent on forest and with rich in its resources with 40% of country’s total minerals has faced multiple situations of people’s deprivation such as 17,10,787 people being displaced while acquiring 24,15,698 acres of people’s lands for setting up the Power Plants, Irrigation Projects, Mining Companies, Steel Industries’ and other development projects in State1. The figure of displacement varies from 1.5 million to 3 million people2. The state also witnessed high number of migrants especially with close to 5 million of its working age population between 2001 and 2011 who migrated to other states for better opportunities. In absence of agrarian crisis in the state and lack of rural employment opportunities about more than 1 lakh of working stranded migrants every year migrate to other states for better employment alternatives. Thus, leaving less hold of their families over existing resources and absences of power on forest resource rights being gradually encroached, alienated and diverted for other economic state development priorities’ without settlement of these dependent forest dwelling communities’ rights on forest land in the states.
State Performances on FRA:
As per MoTA Report 31st March, 2019, extent of potential forest land under FRA (IFR &CFR) in Jharkhand is 52,36,400 acres out of which 2,57,154 acres extent of forest land under FRA has been recognized which counts only 4.91% percentage of recognized forest land against the total extent of potential forest land under FRA. Further if we see the IFR and CFR title recognition figures of 2019 report, Jharkhand shows only 55.95% of titles recognized (61,970 –IFR & CFR out of 1,10, 756), 25.30% of the claims were rejected and 18.67% of the claims are pending at different levels of review process.
Even yearly comparison also states that the recognition of rights has been very slow, in year 2019 only 1813 IFR and 14 CFR claims were recognized cross 24 districts in Jharkhand whereas in year 2018 it was only 1669 IFR & 57 CFR claims recognized with complete ignorance to recognition of CFRR titles in State in majority of cases of CFR rights its only rights for accessing forest resources. Thus, it’s important to emphasis on effective implementation of the FRA, 2006 in State keeping into consideration to the Supreme Court order (Feb,2020) and order of MoTA (March,2020) to ensure state wise review and ensure the complete settlement of the rights of forest dependent communities before its being diverted or acquire for any development projects