Context:
The Ministry of Tribal Affairs has adopted an innovative, technology-driven governance approach by leveraging the Smart India Hackathon to strengthen the implementation and monitoring of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) through a dedicated web portal.
Key Highlights:
- Government Initiative and Digital Governance
- The Ministry is using hackathons as problem-solving platforms to address long-standing governance and service delivery gaps.
- Under the Smart India Hackathon, a web-based portal is being developed specifically for Forest Rights Act implementation.
- Objectives of the FRA Web Portal
- Enable real-time tracking of forest rights claims, approvals, and rejections.
- Improve monitoring and accountability in FRA implementation across states.
- Strengthen transparency and reduce administrative delays.
- Ground-Level Engagement
- Hackathon participants visited villages in Nashik to interact with Gram Sabha members.
- On-ground exposure helped developers understand data collection processes, community participation, and local challenges in FRA execution.
- Expected Governance Outcomes
- Better coordination between Gram Sabhas, district administrations, and state authorities.
- Improved grievance redressal mechanisms through digitised workflows.
- Data-driven policy corrections using aggregated claim and approval trends.
Relevant Prelims Points:
- Forest Rights Act (2006): Recognises individual and community forest rights of traditional forest-dwelling communities.
- Gram Sabha: Statutory authority under FRA to initiate and verify forest rights claims.
- Hackathon: Time-bound collaborative innovation event focused on practical digital solutions.
Relevant Mains Points:
- Technology-enabled governance can bridge the implementation gap in welfare legislations.
- Digital platforms enhance transparency, citizen participation, and monitoring, but must be sensitive to digital literacy and access issues in tribal areas.
- FRA implementation is closely linked to social justice, livelihood security, and tribal autonomy.
- Way Forward:
- Ensure offline–online integration for areas with limited internet access.
- Capacity-building of local officials and Gram Sabha members for portal usage.
- Periodic public dashboards to enhance social accountability.
UPSC Relevance
- GS 2: Governance, e-governance, social justice
- GS 3: Science & technology in public administration