Union Home Minister presided over the signing of historic agreement between Government of India, Government of Assam and representatives of eight Adivasi Groups

Source: The post is based on the article “Union Home Minister presided over the signing of historic agreement between Government of India, Government of Assam and representatives of eight Adivasi Groups” published in PIB on 15th September 2022.

What is the News?

The government of India and the Assam Government has signed a tripartite agreement with eight armed tribal groups in Assam to bring them into the mainstream and give them political and economic rights.

What is the purpose of the agreement?

The agreement was signed to end the decades-old crisis of Adivasis and tea garden workers in Assam.

What are the key terms of the agreement?

As per the terms of the settlement, the armed Adivasi cadres will give up violence follow the rule of law and join the peaceful democratic process. 

The government of India and the Assam government in return will fulfil the adivasi groups’ political, economic and educational aspirations which include: 1) protect, preserve and promote their social, cultural, linguistic and ethnic identity, 2) ensure focused and rapid development of tea gardens and adivasi villages of Assam, 3) establish an adivasi welfare and development council, 4) rehabilitate armed cadres and ensure welfare of tea garden workers and 5) provide a Rs 1,000-crore special development package for infrastructure upgrade in adivasi villages.

What is the significance of the agreement?

The tripartite agreement with the Adivasi groups is the latest in the series of peace accords signed by the Centre and relevant state governments since 2014 with different insurgent groups in the northeast region starting with the settlement with NLFT(SD) in 2019, the Bru-Reang agreement and Bodo accord in 2020, Karbi Anglong pact in 2021 and the Assam-Meghalaya inter-state boundary agreement in March this year.

What have been the recent figures regarding insurgency in India?

Since 2014, around 8,000 insurgents have joined the mainstream of society by laying down their arms. The year 2020 recorded the lowest number of insurgency incidents in the last two decades.

In comparison to 2014, there has been a 74% reduction in the incidents of insurgency in 2021. In the same period, there has been a 60% reduction in the casualties of security forces and 89% in the number of civilian casualties.