Forest Right Act 2006, Right to Property, Land related issues and Discussion on Violence against Women
The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest
Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, is a key piece of forest
legislation passed in India on December 18, 2006. It has also been called the
Forest Rights Act, the Tribal Rights Act, the Tribal Bill and the Tribal Land
Act. The law concerns the rights of forest-dwelling communities to land and
other resources which are denied to them over decades as a result of the
continuance of colonial forest laws in India. An Act to recognize and vest the
forest rights and occupation in forest land in forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes
and other traditional forest dwellers who have been residing in such forests
for generations but whose rights could not be recorded; to provide for a
framework for recording the forest rights so vested and the nature of evidence
required for such recognition and vesting in respect of forest land.
The Women’s Justice Initiative (WJI) is its national network of lawyers and social activists, that uses the law to oppose all forms of gender-based discrimination and violence against women and to increase women’s access to the justice system as a vital means to their empowerment.The WJI also runs a number of helplines throughout the nation that provides legal counselling as well as psycho-social support to women.