Right to information helps tribes| Cathnews India

Published Date: March 15, 2010

Tags: Baiga tribes, Church in Chhattisgarh, Gond tribes, Right To Information (RTI) Act

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The Church is helping tribal people get government help

Church workers are using a government freedom of information law to help illiterate people get payments and help that are due to them.

The Right To Information (RTI) Act, passed in 2005, forces government officials to give information on pay and other entitlements within a fixed time frame.

Few tribal people know how to access it, however, so a drive to educate them on their rights is being led by the social service wing of Raipur archdiocese, called Seva Sadan, or house of service.

Father Joshy Abraham, a lawyer and social activist who trains the villagers, says “secrecy breeds corruption. Transparency is vital to the government.”

The state government has several schemes to help the socio-economic development of “primitive and backward” tribes but “due to bureaucracy, the programs do not reach them.”

The Church help is delivering some dramatic results.

Imla Marawi, a tribal of Rampur village of Chhattisgarh state, and eight co-workers waited for eight months for the state to pay them 350,000 rupees (some US$7,700) for work leveling 18 acres (7.28 hectares) of land.

Marawi was trained by a Church social worker of her rights under the law.

Reaching out to Baiga and Gond tribesShe applied for details of the payment.

“Immediately our payment was released,” says the leader of a village women forum.

The Church group is publicizing the law among the poorest Baiga and Gond tribes.

“The Baiga lack basic amenities,” says Father Joseph Raj, who directs the social service center. “The information will help them to know the government schemes. And they can benefit,” he added.

The center works through village leaders in tribal communities, who train villagers. There are 18 Baiga leaders now under training. They in turn will train people in some 60 villages.

As people started using the law, the elderly, who were not receiving old-age pension, started getting it, Father Raj said.

“It is a slow process. It may take a lot of time to achieve our goal,” Father Raj told UCA News.

The tribal “people are weak. They are not organized,” he said adding the law has come to them like “a messiah” to empower them.

Father Raj also said the Church “can effectively make use of” the law to help illiterate tribal people who are not aware of procedures to use it.

Father Abraham guides them in analyzing each problem and tells them what information they should seek to get the desired effect.

Source: Tribals access services through information law (UCAN)

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