Ramachandran K.G.
Historically and traditionally, the Katkari tribe, a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) in Maharashtra, was a nomadic community. They used to keep moving from one place to another for their livelihoods. They did not have permanent settlements. But, in the last few decades, the social situation of the Katkari have changed a lot. The Katkari community people began to settle down in some excess lands where they did not have legal rights of residence or for cultivation. In most of these settlements, they live in temporary sheds. At present, in 17 villages the people do not have proper houses. A campaign has been happening for several years to secure the rights to residence and other community rights for Katkari community people.
The community is not very informed about these rights. These rights can be broadly categorised into two rights namely:
- Gaothan rights – community rights include land for residence, village roads, drinking water, schools, anganwadi, health centres etc…
- Gharthan rights – residential rights include rights to new houses for homeless people.
In order to claim these rights, the community need to fulfil certain conditions and they also need to produce several certificates, affidavits and entitlements to prove their identity. Most of the community members have no such social entitlements now. In the month of December 2020, a meeting cum training was organized at Shirgaon village, to discuss about different the steps and requisites for claiming these rights. Community members from 35 households attended this program. At this meeting, some essential documents required at the time of submitting claims were also collected from the right holders.
