Introduction:
The term ‘Globalization’ has been coined from revival of economic liberalism which has been propounded by Adam Smith in his book ‘Wealth of Nations’ in 1776. In economic context it refers almost exclusively to the effects of the trade, trade liberalization. Globalisation indicates “Inter connectivity of Technologies”. These technologies have rapidly made the world a “Global Village”. In a global context, Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization (LPG policy) are no longer an option but a fact. Whether one likes it or not, it is bound to influence all spheres of life and activities. Liberalization denotes deregulation and de-licensing of industry, relaxation of industry entry barriers and removal of restrictions on capacity expansion. Privatization in a narrow sense indicates transfer of ownership of a public sector undertaking to private sector, either wholly or partially. But in a broad sense, it implies the opening up of the private sector to areas, which were hitherto reserved for the public sector. Globalization is a “process of trans-nationalization of production and capital, and standardization of consumer tastes and their legitimization with the help of international institutions like World Bank, IMF and WTO. Obviously the process is a move towards a borderless regime of free trade and transactions based on competition”.
As Robert J. Samuelson puts it “…Globalization is a double-edged sword. It’s a controversial process that assaults national sovereignty, erodes local culture and tradition and threatens economic and social stability.” It brings instability and unwelcome change…exposes workers to competition from imports…undermines governments…”
As Henry Kissinger, former US Secretary of State has said, “globalization inevitably challenges prevailing social and cultural patterns…A sense of political unease is inevitable-especially in the developing world-a feeling of being at the mercy of forces neither the individual nor the government can influence any longer.”
Globalisation in India
In the 1980s, India was an apparent anomaly. She was at the crossroads and facing a macroeconomic crisis that required immediate attention. Minor reform measures, attempted by the governments led by Prime Ministers, V.P. Singh and Chandrasekhar respectively. The reform process began in India in 1991. The, then new Government of P.V. Narashima Rao moved swiftly with his Finance Minister, Manmohan Singh announced a programme of macroeconomic stabilization and structural adjustments. These programmes have been in the form of “Garibi Hatao” (eradicate poverty), selfemployment creation (SEC), Food for Work (FFW), asset building programmes and wage employment creation (WEC) programmes. These programmes were mainly targeted towards the poor or very poor families on the basis of income threshold.
Globalisation takes society from a national to an international perspective, which is typified as being consumer driven. 21st century consumers have informed value politics and a global culture. Their choices reflect the lifestyle consumerism and materialistic trend in society, where self-esteem is centred on one’s consumption. “You are what you wear and eat”. Globalisation is not really global.
As Straiten points out, it increases the gap between different strata of people and countries. Globalisation is good for rich countries like USA, Japan and Europe. It is bad for developing countries like India. Globalisation is good for rich people with assets and skills. But it is bad for the poor people like Tribals and Dalits.
Tribal population
The forest occupiers a central position in tribal culture and economy. The tribal way of life is very much dictated by the forest right from birth to death. In spite of the protection given to the tribal population by the constitution of India, tribals still remain the most backward ethnic group in India. The policy of liberalization and the new state perceptions of utilization of resources are diametrically opposed to the adivasi world view of resource exploitation and this divide has only widened further with the intrusion of globalization’s market oriented philosophy of development.
The gains of globalization have so far accrued to those who already have education and skill advantage. For the tribals, globalization is associated with rising prices, loss of job security and lack of health care. Hence the Government should frame Special policy and programmes that are required to address the redress these differences especially on the context of globalization. When we plan for tribal development, we have to regard these differences, take a special note of their situations and capabilities and provide them facilities to develop on the line they want to take. The tribal population of India is around 8.7 percent of the total population of the country which is larger than any other country in the world.
Impact of Globalization on Tribals
- Displacement of Tribals: It is estimated that owing to construction of over 1500 major irrigation development projects since independence, over 16 million people were displaced from their villages, of which about 40 per cent belong to tribal population.
- Land Alienation of Tribals: Land is very important component for tribal development. It occupies their source of livelihood. But the globalization trend has alienated tribals from their mainstay.
- Problems of Indebtedness: The global economy has overburdened the tribals with various debts due to inadequate livelihood resources. The lack of education, purchasing power and lack of resources for engaging in gainful activity has led to indebtedness for tribal communities. The indebtedness of tribals pushes them into extreme poverty.
- Endangering of Intellectual Property Rights: In the era of globalization the existence of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) among primitive communities seems to be withering away.
- Extinction of Primitive tribal culture: The ethos of globalization has not only impacted the socio-economic conditions of tribal people but their cultural status also.
- Privatisation of PSUs: One of the ways of globalisation in India is disinvestment or privatization. The profit making enterprises like BALCO, which are in the tribal belt, have been privatized. PSEs in the tribal belt were beneficial to tribal people giving them employment and livelihood. Privatization of these enterprises has adversely affected the tribal people and disturbed the regional balance in terms of industrialization. Tribal population largely dominates in the state of Chattisgarh. The land on which Balco stands is the tribal land that was bought or leased to the company, which was a public sector undertaking and for public purposes. The land was acquired at low prices as low as Rs.20 per acre
The rapid technological advancement and unrivalled economic and political strength of world capitalism, and the rising power of neo-colonialism through the G-8 directly and the IMF, WB, IBRD etc as agencies, have created favourable conditions for the evasion and extraction of natural resources from the ecologically fragile territories of tribal people. All the massive steel plants, BALCO, NALCO, heavy engineering concerns ,most river basin development schemes and hydropower projects, a chain of forest-based and ancillary industries and an increasing number of highly polluting industries are located in this region. Despite intense industrial activity in the central Indian tribal belt, the tribal employment in modern enterprises is negligible. The tribals are forced to live in juxtaposition with alien capitalist relations and cultures, with traumatic results. They are forced onto the ever-expanding low paid, insecure, transient and destitute labour market. About 40 per cent of the tribals of central India supplement their income by participating in this distorted and over exploitative capitalist sector. Many more are slowly crushed into oblivion in their homeland or in urban slums. Their economic and cultural survival is at stake. Nearly 60 per cent of these large dams are located in central and western India where about 80 per cent of the tribals live.
Approximately one in every ten tribals has been displaced by different developments projects.
Some case studies were done to bring out the impact of globalization on the tribal communities in India.
Narmada people’s struggle
Living in the mountains and plains of the Narmada river valley, stretching for 1,300 km through Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, and Maharashtra, the natural resource based communities struggle against displacement, state repression, and the destruction of natural resources resulting from the Narmada Valley development projects. The Narmada Bachao Andolan (Movement to Save the Narmada), was formed to fight not only for rights over economy, environment, and livelihood, but also for personhood, for humanity itself. The policy of ‘Amra gaon ma amra raj’ (our rule in our village) the villagers resisted state collusion with globalisation. ‘Indigenous peoples’ unity has thrown them ‘Ham Sab ek Hai’. The people’s movements raised slogans like ‘vikas chahiye, vinas nahin’ (we want development and not destruction). The fight against centralization of knowledge and natural resources is a fight against globalisation.
Bhopal Gas Tragedy
Hundreds of thousands of survivors of Union Carbide corporate crime in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh State, still waiting for compensation for illnesses resulting from the gas leakage 15 years ago.
Orissa State
Several Adivasi communities or indigenous people are spread over the Eastern Ghats across the southern and eastern region of the Indian sub-continent. The effects of globalisation have had far reaching consequences in the Eastern Ghats. They have missed their old home lost their gods, fields, trees.
Andhra Pradesh
It is the first state in Asia to directly invite the World Bank to implement its Structural Adjustment Programme. Under the new economic policies of the state, revenues are to be earned from lucrative sectors like sale of liquor. When tribal women opposed to allow the liquor mafia to set up its outlets in the tribal villages, they were brutally ‘punished’.
The state government is going ahead with its liberalization policies in these remote tribal areas by inviting multinationals and Non Resident Indians for taking up tourism, mining, film, agro-based and other industries in the name of tribal development.
The new economic policies on tribals have serious impact on the adivasi lives whose right over access to natural resources, livelihood opportunities, right to primary education and health, protection from atrocities and human rights abuses and the right to uphold their traditional and customary practices, are under series threat due to the changes in laws and policies. The most serious threat to the adivasi people on the country today is the pressure on the Fifth Schedule. Both Central and Several state governments are seriously making efforts to amend the laws prescribed under Fifth Schedule and their corresponding state laws in order to allow private and corporate players to take over tribal and forest lands. In a globalised situation, it is the market and not community which is the focal player. The influence of Powerful transnational lobbies made pressure on the governments.
These leads to transfer control over resources from Adivasis to private and global industry stakeholders , legitimate governments like India allowing themselves to undergo Constitutional changes to the detriment of their constituent communities. All laws and polices relating to Scheduled Areas – the land transfer regulations, the Forest Act, the Environment protection Act, the Land Acquisition Act are all under immediate threat of repeal, dilution or amendment,. While these laws clearly portray the need for protection of people and resources the new polices call for exploitation of resources at the cost of tribal people.
Violation of the Fifth Schedule has occurred in many states like in Andhra Pradesh where the Land Transfer Regulation Act was ignored while giving mining leases in scheduled areas to private companies. Private mining has been taking place in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Odhisa, Maharashtra and other Fifth Schedule states. One of the ways of globalization in India is disinvestment or privatization. Many Public sector Enterprises are being sold off to private sectors with the objective of raising revenues to meet the fiscal deficits and to improve efficiency.
Profit making enterprises like BALCO, which are in the tribal belt, have been privatized. Public Sector Enterprises in the tribal belt were beneficial to tribal people giving them employment and livelihood. Privatization of these enterprises will adversely affect the tribal people and disturb the regional balance in terms of industrialization. The new Industrial policy paved the way for Tribal Land alienation. This result in the alienation of tribal lands for various purposes like construction dams, mining projects, setting up of wildlife sanctuaries, construction of government infrastructure.
While the adivasis have been displaced and pushed into the fringes of globalization, the natural resources were victim to large scale destruction directly for industry purposes and indirectly by the non tribals. As a result the tribals ended up as debris in the globalised policies unable to access the resources which were their life sustaining forces or to compete with the mainstream society to be absorbed into alternate economies. Those absorbed in the new industries and projects were minimal compared to the extent of displacement and the destruction of traditional livelihood.
Transformation of Tribal Life and Economy:
Thanks to globalisation a perceptible change is clearly visible in the tribal life and Economy of some states. The new generation of the tribals – many of them – have given up their traditional occupation and look to sell their labour to the new producers. The economy is created and the old economy is destroyed. Along with the old economy, the society and culture are also transformed. They are changed not because of the availability of new products but because the new economy requires the institutionalisation of a different set of motives, skills, activities, social relations which are closely linked with the larger socio-economic patterns of national/international kind.
Globalisation is hastening the process of destruction of local production and local markets. Gone were the days of Shikai, Rita, Pulse powders (Sunni Pindi), neem twigs and Kumkum. Today they are replaced by shampoos, tiklis, toothbrush and toothpaste of hundred and one brands which have swept into remote villages of Andhra Pradesh.
Globalisation also brought into the picture the transnational corporations. Carrying mineral water bottles has become not merely a necessity but also a status symbol. Now villagers use mouth phrases of modernisation i.e. pollution, environment, ecology, water contamination though in an incoherent way.
Thus, the impact of globalisation is very significant on the tribal life and their economy. After the impact of globalization the tribal culture has been changed significantly in both the ways positive as well as off-putting.
Positively with the impact of globalization the culture became very popular in local level also internationally. Globalization is not mere for the development of technology and the economy. At the same time it stands for an exchange of culture, language, arty facts in the global plane. Therefore the Orissa tribal culture became very popular, because of dance, handicrafts such as, wooden product, stone product and some other hand made product sale in the global market.
Other benefits includes
- More medicines and drugs for life threatening diseases.
- Better education and development, better lifestyle etc. and this education leading to better utilization of local resources for the betterment of all
- Giving them exposure to media and other sources of mass communication so that they can raise their voice against injustice this leading to a separate department under government of India for them
Thus, Urban and educated tribals may benefit from the increased opportunities for work that come with the influx of foreign companies and investments. These employment avenues are complemented by greater opportunities to receive education and skills training of a higher quality. The new technologies that define this era, in particular the computer and Internet may be accessible to this group of tribals.
Losses of Globalization
However, poor, uneducated, credit-constrained, informal and agricultural sector tribals will benefit in a much less direct manner. Tribals in general benefit from long-term economic growth brought about by correcting price distortions in factor and product markets.
The proponents of globalisation argue that the process may entail some short-term difficulties in terms of reduced income and consumption; unemployment might also increase. But eventually the reform process would lead to greater gains all around. But we cannot close our eyes to serious undercut in domestic production of goods and services and risks to the health status particularly of the poor, tribals, women and children. The gains of globalisation have so far accrued to those who already have education and skill advantage, easier market access and possession of assets for use as collateral to access credit. For the tribals, globalisation is associated with rising prices, loss of job security, lack of health care and tribal development programmes. Globalisation may also weaken the Constitutional protections, in terms of education and job reservations, given to tribals.
Conclusion:
Tribals are part of the Indian society, at the same time they are different. Age old exploitation and repression of the tribals, have cut them off from the main stream of socio-economic development of the country as a whole. The tribal population is identified as the aboriginal inhabitants of our country. They are most vulnerable section of our society living in natural and unpolluted surrounding far away from civilization with their traditional values, customs and beliefs. The gains of globalization have so far accrued to those who already have education and skill advantage, easier market access and possession of assets for use as collateral to access credit. For the tribals, globalization is associated with rising prices, loss of job security, lack of health care and tribal development programmes. Globalisation may also weaken the constitutional protections, in terms of education and job reservations given to tribals. Hence the Government should frame Special policy and programmes that are required to address these differences especially on the context of globalization. When we plan for tribal development, we have to regard these differences, take a special note of their situations and capabilities and provide them facilities to develop on the line they want to take. If globalisation were superimposed on a poorly educated and poorly-trained tribal people, particularly in states like Bihar and Jharkhand with poor systems of governance and
infrastructure, it would not lead to growth nor reduce poverty. Globalisation may no longer be an option, but a fact. However, it must be implemented with a human face. It is expected that the Museum of Tribal Arts and Artefacts will have a positive and constructive contribution towards this goal.