A lack of awareness and institutional support has precluded the tribal Katkari community from the benefits of the progressive Forest Rights Act, resulting in continuing migration
Hrishikesh Patil
Tribal women working at brick kilns in Thane, Maharashtra. Pic courtesy: Kunal Nakshane
Pen Block, Maharashtra: “My son borrowed 100,000 rupees from the money lender for a wedding ceremony. To repay it, he had to go to charcoal-making sites in the forests of Karnataka,” said 50-year-old Sitaram, when asked why his family members had migrated. The worried-looking villager is seated on a chair under the dilapidated roof of the community hall in a poverty-ridden village called Khadakwadi—a place that can’t be found on a Google map but is only 80 km away from the financial capital of the world’s largest democracy.
Sitaram’s story is not an isolated one. Four other families in his neighbourhood have also migrated, although their destination was closer—a nearby brick kiln. Their reasons mirror Sitaram’s: debt. To repay loans taken for festivals such as Dasara and Diwali, all labour without fixed working hours—obligations that force them to migrate seasonally, living in shacks made of paddy grass and tree trunks from December to June.
Again, this is not just the story of Khadakwadi; it reflects the systemic neglect and structural vulnerabilities faced by the Katkari community, a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) in India. Despite living near vast forests, which once served as a source of sustenance, the community today remains trapped in a cycle of poverty, debt and precarious livelihood.
Women from the Katkari community walk to nearby villages to sell fuel wood in Khadakwadi village of Raigad district in Maharashtra. Pic courtesy: Hrishikesh Patil
The 2011 census data pegged the intra-district, inter-district, inter-state and international migration in the country at around 22%, 10.0%, 4.7% and 0.44% respectively.
Nine years later, the ‘Migration in India 2020-21’ report by the ministry of statistics and programme implementation indicates a total migration rate of 28.9%, with the rural migration rate being 26.5%. Among the total number of migrants, approximately 10.8% migrated due to employment-related reasons.
The Katkari tribe, to which Shankar belongs, has a rich history deeply rooted in its forest-based traditions. “The name derives from kattha (catechu), a substance the Katkaris historically extracted from trees for trade,” said activist Surekha Dalvi from the Shramik Kranti Sanghatana, an NGO that has been working in the region for over 40 years. “Their livelihood depended on these forest resources, but colonial forest laws and subsequent restrictions on forest access significantly disrupted their way of life. Forced to adapt, many Katkari families transitioned to wage labour, often migrating to agricultural and industrial centres to survive.”
In villages like Jambhulwadi, migration has emptied out homes. “Only five families remain here; the rest have moved to brick kilns or become tenant farmers,” said Narayan, a resident.
Shankar, another resident who toils at a brick kiln near Jambhulwadi for 13 hours a day, shaping mud into bricks under the open sky, is one of these. His story is another stark reminder of the precarious conditions faced by Katkaris.
Shankar lives with his family in a small hut made of paddy grass, with no fixed working hours or protection under labour laws.
“I work here because I took a loan from the kiln owner,” he said. “But repaying it feels impossible. By the end of the season, the debt often exceeds the promised wages.”
The Vicious Cycle of Debt
Sharad bhau from Kamathvadi pointed out that earlier, the village women would collect and sell fuelwood for sustenance. Pointing to a middle-aged woman sitting nearby, he said, “She has survived on that till today. But fuelwood consumption has now reduced.” Sharad also rued the fact that all kinds of work opportunities had dwindled. “Only educated people can get a job now,” he said. On being asked how many people had graduate degrees in the village, he replied, “None.” Surekha Dalvi said that it was these conditions that compelled villagers to work in unskilled jobs in informal labour markets.
Existing studies on the Katkaris point out that migration to brick kilns or charcoal-making sites often begins as a desperate attempt to repay debts taken for weddings, festivals or emergencies. While no interest is charged on the loans, which are to be repaid through labour, it is during the final settlements that the tribals are most likely to get scammed.
Locked homes of families that have migrated for work in Jambhulwadi village, Maharashtra.
Pic courtesy Hrishikesh Patil
Uneducated as they are, most tribals fail to keep a proper record of loans taken; the contractors also undervalue their labour, forcing them to come back the next season to repay the amount. This creates a trap where villagers have to take fresh loans from their employers, a practice that frequently results in conditions akin to bonded labour.
While recalling her field observations since the 1980s, Dalvi said that adivasis had been facing unjust treatment from employers and the State from pre-independence times. “They have also been displaced due to development projects, which has given them an inferiority complex,” she said. “There is a constant struggle for livelihood, as access to forest resources upon which generations of Adivasis survived was restricted for the longest time. These restrictions evolved through various legislations right from the colonial era, and have contributed to the alienation of adivasis—in this context, Katkaris—from the forest.
In 2006, a progressive central Act called the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, commonly known as the Forest Rights Act (FRA), once more restored forest rights to tribals. In recognition of the unfairness meted out to adivasis, the preamble to the Act stated: ‘Forest rights on ancestral lands and their habitat were not adequately recognised in the consolidation of State forests during the colonial period as well as in independent India, resulting in historical injustice to the forest-dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers who are integral to the very survival and sustainability of the forest ecosystem.’
The primary purpose of the FRA was to undo this historical injustice, and thus, several government resolutions (GRs) by various state governments were implemented to empower and uplift adivasis. However, the overall implementation of the law was uneven, and it has been effectively implemented in only five states—Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Tripura and Maharashtra.
FRA offers same rights to migrants
The FRA has provisions for addressing various forest-related issues by recognising forest-dependent communities’ legal rights over forest land and resources. Through provisions for Community Forest Resource (CFR) rights, the law aims to empower communities to sustainably manage and utilise forest resources for livelihood enhancement.
Under Section 3 (1)(i) of the Act, communities have the right to protect, regenerate, conserve and manage community forest resources (CFR). This provision is pivotal, as it goes beyond access to forest resources; it entrusts Gram Sabhas (village assemblies) with the authority to lead conservation and restoration efforts.
Section 5 of the Act further empowers the Gram Sabha to preserve wildlife, biodiversity and forest health. It includes the duty to prevent encroachments, unsustainable practices and any destruction of forest areas, thereby supporting active engagement in conservation efforts.
Communities vested with CFR rights are fully entitled to undertake plantation drives, agroforestry projects and any regenerative practices to improve the forest ecosystem. Through the FRA, they can choose indigenous species for planting, supporting biodiversity and ecosystem stability; plan and execute sustainable forest management practices that align with local ecological needs; and develop nurseries for native plant species, aiding both ecosystem restoration and livelihood opportunities.
Katkaris’ Untapped Community Forests
The Katkaris in villages like Khadakwadi and Jambhulwadi have a significant amount of community forest land (details below).
Sadly, they have been left out of the equation for several reasons, among them awareness and institutional support. When asked about community forest rights, Shankar from Jambhulwadi simply nodded, seemingly unaware of the opportunities that the FRA could provide. Such conditions underscore the urgent need for awareness programmes.
While different scholars and NGO leaders have recognised that the FRA holds the transformative potential to address the root causes of debt-driven migration among the Katkaris, the law provides only the legal foundation; its success depends on the strength of institutional frameworks.
Prof Geetanjoy Sahu, chairperson at the Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Studies at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, is working on the subject of forest commons and has highlighted through his research the importance of institutional support after the claims of forest-dependent communities are recognised. ‘Post-claim recognition institutional support’ empowers communities to tap into the full potential of FRA more effectively.
Prof Sahu said that in addition to institutional support, the implementation of other rights-based schemes like the Public Distribution System and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act was equally important to reduce forced migration and develop mechanisms that would help people utilise their existing resources through traditional and sustainable practices. To further empower the community, training and capacity-building for Gram Sabhas, better coordination between government departments, and financial support for community-led projects are essential. Without these, the FRA’s potential remains unfulfilled, and communities like the Katkaris will continue to rely on migration for survival.
The Migration Story report on how forest ownership rights reshaped the fortunes of a tribal village and other success stories like Pyvihir in Amravati district, Mendha-Lekha in Gadchiroli district and many other villages from the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra show how Implementation of Community Forest Rights has reduced forced/debt-driven migration.
Debt-driven migration among the Katkaris is a product of systemic neglect and economic insecurity. However, the FRA offers a transformative framework to address these challenges. Through institutional support, securing community forest rights and fostering sustainable forest-based livelihoods, the FRA can break the cycle of debt and migration, restoring dignity and stability to the Katkari way of life.
Additional Resources
1. Dalvi, S, & Bokil, M (2000): In Search of Justice—Tribal communities and Land Rights in Coastal Maharashtra, Economic and Political Weekly, 35 (32), 2843–2850
2. Sathe, M D (1998): Katkari Labour in Charcoal Making, Economic and Political Weekly: 1565–68, (July, 1998)
3. Paul Sylvester Fernandes, R Rekha Mammen, Geetanjoy Sahu (2021): Forest Rights Struggles after FRA 2006: The Case of Dalhi Land in Raigad District, Maharashtra, Research Association for Interdisciplinary Studies, 2021.
4. U K Sahoo, G Sahu (2019): Twelve Years Later: Implementation of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2006, The Indian Journal of Social Work, 2019
5. Buckles, D J, Khedkar, R, Patil, D, & Ghevde, B (2006): Factors influencing the fear of eviction among the Katkari of Sarang Katkarwadi, Maharashtra, India,
6. Sinha, B (2017): Life, Livelihood and Education among the Katkari tribes of Maharashtra, Indian Journal of Educational Research, VI (March), 57-64
7. Kulkarni (2011): Folk Therapies of Katkaris from Maharashtra, Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge (Vol 10, Issue 3)
8. Marcela Villarreal, Food and Agriculture Organization FAO, Security of Land Tenure and Migration, Paper for the World Bank Land and Poverty Conference, 2018.
9. The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, Government of India.
Edited by Radha Rajadyaksha
Hrishikesh Patil is a policy advocacy and media officer at the Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Studies at the Tata Insittute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.
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