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Mahesh

28/12/22 08:59 AM IST

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

In News
  • 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.
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  • These Acts were repealed by the Independent Indian Government in l952, and these communities were "De-Notified".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.
  • It has been estimated that South Asia has the world’s largest nomadic population.
  • In India, roughly 10% of the population is Denotified and Nomadic.
  • While the number of Denotified Tribes is about 150, the population of Nomadic Tribes consists of about 500 different communities.
Problems faced by these Tribes
  • People of these communities continue to be stereotyped. A large number of them have been labeled excriminal tribes.
  • They also face alienation and economic hardships.
  • Most of their traditional occupations such as snake charming, street acrobatics and performing with animals have been notified as criminal activity making it difficult for them to earn a livelihood.
  • Many of the denotified, nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes are spread among SC/ST/OBC but are still not classified anywhere and have no access to socioeconomic benefits whether education, health, housing or otherwise.
  • Grievances of these groups include food, drinking water, sanitation, education, health, housing, poor infrastructure, etc.
  • Many also complain about not getting caste certificates, not having ration cards, voter ID cards, aadhaar cards, etc.
Source- The Hindu

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