The story so far: Over the last few days, thousands of tribal farmers from the Palghar and Nashik districts embarked on two separate long marches in Maharashtra. The marches were organised by the All India Kisan Sabha and the Communist Party of India (M) (CPI-M) over pending land rights of the tribals. The Palghar long march started on January 19, and was partially suspended on January 22 after local demands related to administrative intervention were accepted by the district administration. But protests continued for the policy-level demands of the tribals, and on January 25, a long march started from Nashik. It was declared successful and withdrawn on January 29. Both the Nashik and Palghar districts have a dominant tribal population.
What are their demands?
The primary demands of the tribals are about their land rights, employment, irrigation and education. They demand that as per the provisions of the Forest Rights Act, 2006, the forest land which they have been tilling for generations, should be made in their name. They have raised concerns over the current format in which land ownership titles have been issued. They claim that the current format in which the government has listed their names on the titles, excluded them from benefiting from any government schemes or institutional loans.
