Expedite classification of nomadic tribes in quota lists, panel tells Centre

• The Parliamentary panel on Social Justice and Empowerment has asked the centre to speed up the process to categorize 260 denotified, nomadic, and semi-nomadic tribes under either the SC/ST/OBC lists.

Details:

• The Parliamentary panel has categorically said that:
  • The delay is increasing the suffering of potential beneficiaries.
  • It is also depriving them of welfare schemes.
  • Potential beneficiaries are unable to benefit from schemes for the welfare of SC/STs.

Departments Response:

• Anthropological Survey of India submitted reports on the categorization of 48 DNT communities.
• More than 10 crore Indians from over 1,400 communities are either denotified, nomadic, or semi-nomadic.
• Of this, the Idate Commission had categorized 1,262 communities under SC/ST/OBC lists and 267 communities were left uncategorized.
• Even the communities categorized by the Idate Commission are not accurate with many communities appearing in SC lists in one State or district and on the ST list in others.

What are Notified, Nomadic, and Semi-Nomadic Tribes?

• These are communities that are the most vulnerable and deprived.
• DNTs are communities that were ‘notified’ as being ‘born criminals’ during the British regime under a series of laws starting with the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871.
  • These Acts were repealed by the Independent Indian Government in l952, and these communities were "De-Notified".
• A few of these communities which were listed as de-notified were also nomadic.
  • Nomadic and semi-nomadic communities are defined as those who move from one place to another rather than living in one place all the time.
• Historically, Nomadic Tribes and De-notified Tribes never had access to private land or home ownership.
• While most DNTs are spread across the Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), and Other Backward Classes (OBC) categories, some DNTs are not covered in any of the SC, ST, or OBC categories.
• Many commissions and committees constituted since Independence have referred to the problems of these communities.
  • Criminal Tribes Inquiry Committee, 1947
  • Ananthasayanam Ayyangar Committee in 1949
  • Kaka Kalelkar Commission
  • B P Mandal Commission constituted in 1980
  • National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution (NCRWC), 2002

Policy measures for DNTs

• A National Commission for De-notified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes (NCDNT) was constituted in 2006 by the then government.
• It was headed by Balkrishna Sidram Renke and submitted its report in June 2008.
• It said that it is an irony that these tribes somehow escaped the attention of our Constitution makers and thus got deprived of the Constitutional support unlike SCs and STs.
• The Renke commission estimated their population at around 10.74 crore based on Census 2001.
• Much recently, the Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment launched the Scheme for Economic Empowerment of De-notified, Nomadic, and Semi Nomadic Communities (SEED).
• It is important to know that, the processing the applications for the SEED scheme cannot be completed unless the State and district-level reviews are completed.