Revision summary
FRA titles need proof that oral jhum lives rarely keep on paper. Forest departments delay or reject many gram sabha claims. Community rights lag behind tiny individual pattas. Mines in Fifth Schedule belts outrun the Act. Women and groves are poorly fitted to the form.
Model answer
Copper italics in this answer — like this — are the key facts. Each one is unpacked in the Facts & figures rail.
Introduction
The Forest Rights Act, 2006, promises individual and community titles to forest dwellers. Scheduled Tribes meet a wall of proof, officials, and overlapping claims when they try to use it.
Body
Proof and process
- Occupancy evidence is demanded for lives that were oral, jhum, and unsurveyed.
- Gram sabha claims are delayed, remanded, or rejected by forest departments that still treat the jungle as their estate.
- Community forest rights, the stronger collective tool, are rarer than small individual patches.
Political and economic blocks
- Mining and plantation ‘public purpose’ in Fifth Schedule Jharkhand, Odisha, and Chhattisgarh race ahead of titles.
- PESA consent is skipped, so FRA becomes a paper after the lease.
- Nehru’s Panchsheel named land first; implementation still names the plantation first.
Social difficulties
- Women and shifting cultivators are under-recorded on pattas.
- NGO help is labelled interference. Without it many hamlets cannot file.
- Vidyarthi’s spirit grove is not a category on the form.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD FRA[FRA 2006] --> CL[Claim gram sabha] CL --> R[Rejection delay] M[Mining leases] --> R
Conclusion
ST difficulties with FRA are evidential, departmental, and political. The Act is a rights text; the forest file remains a fortress.
Quick related
Students also ask
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Examine the factors responsible for the exploitation of scheduled castes in India
Next question on this syllabus topic (2016 · Q7(a)). View answer →
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Does FRA apply only to Scheduled Tribes?
STs are central. Other traditional forest dwellers can also claim under the Act.
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Is rejection always illegal?
Some claims fail the occupancy test. Mass rejection without hearing is the difficulty anthropology flags.
Same topic · past papers
UPSC has asked this before
These previous-year questions sit on the same topic. Open one to practise the earlier ask.
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2026 · Q7(c) · Anthropology GS 2 · 15 marks
Write an account on Development Action Plan for Scheduled Tribes (DAPST) -
2021 · Q4(c) · Anthropology GS 2 · 15 marks
Elucidate the problems and challenges in educational attainment of the Scheduled Tribes -
2016 · Q8(a) · Anthropology GS 2 · 20 marks
Write in detail various provisions provided by the Constitution of India for the scheduled tribes under Fifth and Sixth Schedules -
2016 · Q8(b) · Anthropology GS 2 · 15 marks
Critically examine the role of NGOs and missionaries in transformation of scheduled tribes in Central India -
2015 · Q4(c) · Anthropology GS 2 · 15 marks
Critically compare 'Affirmative Action' of USA and 'Protective Discrimination' for Scheduled Tribes in India
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