Naresh Kumar Vaid, Director , Vaids ICS

The Supreme Court, in its judgement on March 8, has ordered that to protect tribals from exploitation, Jarwas should be left on their own. The Jarwa reserve area has already been extended to 1,028 sq. kms . for them to have proper facilities for hunting and food-gathering. Under the central policy, waters upto five kms from the High Tide Line have been declared as tribal reserves. Incidentally, the next day March 9, Dr. B. D. Sharma , an authority on tribal affairs, in an interview to ToI said, 'for tribals ,development means exploitation". This policy of 'isolation' of tribals was practised by the then British Indian government. Verrier Elvin after independence, as an advisor to Assam government also advised 'isolation' of tribals in extreme situation. However, Elvin's this approach was severely criticised by most of the experts as 'ethnographic park theory. That is why Pt. Nehru, in his 'tribal panchsheel ' advocated integration of t...

The whole country, particularly the media is ga ga with the passage of Women's Reservation bill in Rajya Sabha. But it has left several questions unanswered. 1. The bill, when turns into act, is bound to promote women in politics. But which women? Realising the escalating cost of election expenses, which woman will dare to fight elections at the cost of her husband and family? The answer is very clear - only those women born and brought up in political families. If Lalu Yadav's or for that matter any politician's seat is declared gender-specific, the obvious choice of candidature for that particular time period will be his closest woman kin. Ordinary women will keep fighting at panchayat elections upto district level unless a woman sarpanch is so corrupt that she enmasses enough wealth to fight the Lok Sabha or even assembly elections. Will such women be more competent than corrupt men politicians? 2.The Law will be unconstitutional as it will arbiterarily restrict men'...