In March 2018, Maharashtra State witnessed a massive long march of tribal farmers and forest dwellers from Nashik to Mumbai (Vidhan Bhavan, State Assembly). One of the key demands of agitating forest dwellers was implementing the Forest Rights Act effectively. Being a social impact organization, MKCL approached the Government of Maharashtra with a solution for the effective implementation of the Forest Rights Act to deliver promises given to forest dwellers.

With the help of information technology, it is possible to ensure efficient and effective implementation of the Forest Rights Act. This portal has been created keeping in mind the important objective that the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers shall be able to file their forest rights claims without any difficulty, the claimant shall be able to track the current status of their registered claim and Decision Authority shall be enabled with a decision support system in the view to make the right decision so that rights holder shall get the certificate/title of land in record time.

MKCL constituted a research team to understand the Act, who visited tribal areas, interacted with tribal people, consulted by law experts, held discussions with government officers, arranged meetings of several stakeholders, and submitted its prototype. The prototype was verified by experts and officers from all districts of Maharashtra.

VanMitra system has undergone several pilots in 8 districts of Maharashtra. Its demonstration was given to Hon’ble Secretary, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India, Hon’ble Chief Secretary, Government of Maharashtra, Hon’ble Principal Secretary, Tribal Development Department, Government of Maharashtra, Hon’ble Commissioner, Tribal Research and Training Institute, Hon’ble Settlement Commissioner, and Director of Land Records, Government of Maharashtra, Hon’ble Collectors, Divisional Forest Officers, Sub Divisional Officers, Range Forest Officer and Forest Rights Act Coordinators appointed in Maharashtra State. Also, the system is validated by members of the Technical Support Group of Forest Rights Act, many experts, activists, NGOs working in tribal belts. Thousands of claims were registered during pilot and training to ensure the correctness of the system.