WEDNESDAY, JUNE 14, 2006

By Gyan Pathak

De-notified, nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes, who constitute nearly 10 per cent of the country's population, are living in the worst of conditions, moving from pillar to post for sheer survival. The tribes number around 500; however, they are not enumerated separately in the Census.

They have also been badly affected by the development process, which has deprived them of traditional jobs like snake charming, acrobatics, puppetry, singing and dancing, hunting, handicrafts, fortune telling and healing. Even modern laws of the country prevent them from pursuing most of their traditional jobs. These people are landless, homeless and underfed with a negligible literacy rate. They have no voting rights, caste certificates, ration cards and below poverty line certificates. They do not have access to land, potable water, education and health facilities either.

Most of them have not even been classified in Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes or Socially and educationally backward classes, resulting in almost no reservation in jobs, educational institutions or in politics.

The pitiable condition of these tribes came into focus when The National Commission for De-notified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes recently sought appropriate monetary provisions in the next Five Year Plan to better their lot.

Rehabilitation of these tribes has always posed a big challenge to our planners, mainly because they are wandering communities. Secondly, they carry the stigma of being 'Criminals.' In British India, the government had enacted the Criminal Tribes Act, 1871 and notified them as 'Criminals.' After independence, the Government of India repealed the act in 1952, but the stigma continues to haunt them.

In September 2003, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment decided to set up a National Commission in pursuance of the announcement made by the then Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, on the Independence Day, to speed up the goal of achieving an equitable and inclusive society.

The Commission was set up in March 2005 to study the problems of De-notified communities and Nomadic and Semi-nomadic communities in order to bring them into the mainstream of national life.

The National Commission to review the working of the Constitution in its report has observed : 'The De-notified tribes/ communities have been wrongly stigmatized as crime-prone and subjected to highhanded treatment as well as exploitation by the representatives of law and order as well as by the general society. Some of them are included in the list of Scheduled Tribes and others are in the list of Scheduled Castes and list of backward classes. The special approach to their development has been delineated and emphasized in the Reports of the Working Groups for the Development of Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes in successive Plans and also in the Annual Reports of the Commissioners for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and the National Commission for Backward Classes. There are also special reports available on De-notified tribes. The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and the Ministry of Tribal Affairs should collate all these materials and recommendations contained in the report of the working groups and the reports of the National Commissions and other reports referred to and strengthen the programmes for the socio-economic development, educational development, generation of employment opportunities, social liberation and full rehabilitation of de-notified tribes'.

The Commission was given a brief to identify these communities, study their problems and recommend to the Central Government specific interventions required for their overall developmental aspects and make any other recommendations, which it may consider necessary.

As regards Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic communities, nomadism is taken as a way of life. Illustrations of shepherds in the higher elevations of Himalayas, moving in search of fresh pastures and to escape the rigours of climate, khanabadoshes (wandering tribes), Koravans, the most numerous of Khanabadoshes, Gadia Lohar, Gujjars, Kalbelia Jogis, Kanjars, Sansis, etc. have been cited. The Advisory Committee on the Revision of the Lists of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes- 1965 (Lokur Committee) observed, 'We are inclined to feel that it would be in the best interest of these communities if they are taken out from the list of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and treated exclusively as a distinctive group, with development schemes specially designed to suit their dominant characteristics'.

According to the earlier government version, which contradicts the findings of the present National Commission, a few of the De-notified, Nomadic and Semi-nomadic 'Tribes' have been specified as Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes and almost all the remaining communities have been specified by respective State Governments/ Union Territory Administrations as Other Backward Classes. There may be a few De-notified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic 'Tribes' who have not been placed in any of these categories. Some of them would also be in the central list of Other Backward Classes.

A major problem is that the Commission has not been allowed to work properly. The decision to constitute the Commission was taken in September 2003, but it was first set up in March 2005. It has again been reconstituted this month. Mr Balakrishna Sidram Renka has been appointed as Chairman, with two other members who had assumed office in February 2006.

It is hoped that the Centre and state governments would take concrete steps to improve the lot of these miserable segments of the society without further loss of time.