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16/09/22 05:09 AM IST

Union Cabinet gives nod to inclusion of 4 tribes in ST list, skips Gorkhas

In News 
  • The Union Cabinet under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the addition of four tribes to the list of Scheduled Tribes.
New Tribes 
  • The Hatti tribe in the Trans-Giri area of Sirmour district in Himachal Pradesh, the Narikoravan and Kurivikkaran hill tribes of Tamil Nadu and the Binjhia in Chhattisgarh, who were listed as ST in Jharkhand and Odisha but not in Chhattisgarh, were the communities newly added to the list.
Hattis community 
  • The Hattis are a close-knit community that got their name from their tradition of selling homegrown vegetables, crops, meat, and wool, etc. at small markets called ‘haat’ in towns.
  • Hatti men traditionally don a distinctive white headgear on ceremonial occasions.
  • The Hatti homeland straddles the Himachal-Uttarakhand border in the basin of the Giri and Tons rivers, both tributaries of the Yamuna.
  • The Tons marks the border between the two states.
  • The Hattis who lives in the trans-Giri area in Himachal Pradesh and Jaunsar Bawar in Uttarakhand were once part of the royal estate of Sirmaur until Jaunsar Bawar’s separation in 1814.
  • There are two Hatti clans, in Trans-Giri and Jaunsar Bawar, have similar traditions, and inter-marriages are common.
  • However, a fairly rigid caste system operates in the community — the Bhat and Khash are upper castes, and the Badhois are below them, and inter-caste marriages have traditionally been discouraged.
  • The Hattis are governed by a traditional council called ‘khumbli’ which, like the ‘khaps’ of Haryana, decides community matters.
ST in India 
  • As per Census-1931, Schedule tribes are termed as "backward tribes” living in the "Excluded" and "Partially Excluded" areas. The Government of India Act of 1935 called for the first time for representatives of "backward tribes" in provincial assemblies.
  • The Constitution does not define the criteria for recognition of Scheduled Tribes and hence the definition contained in 1931 Census was used in the initial years after independence.
  • However, Article 366(25) of the Constitution only provides process to define Scheduled Tribes: “Scheduled Tribes means such tribes or tribal communities or parts of or groups within such tribes or tribal communities as are deemed under Article 342 to be Scheduled Tribes for the purposes of this Constitution.”
  • 342(1): The President may with respect to any State or Union Territory, and where it is a State, after consultation with the Governor, by a public notification, specify the tribes or tribal communities or part of or groups within tribes or tribal communities as Scheduled Tribe in relation to that State or Union Territory.
  • There are over 705 tribes which have been notified. The largest number of tribal communities are found in Odisha.
Source- PIB 

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