Allocate Funds in Union Budget for Denotified Tribes on Population Basis; Community Leaders Ask NCDNT

A delegation of community leaders representing 800 Communities of Denotified Tribes has submitted a memorandum to B.K. Prasad, Member Secretary of National Commission for Denotified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes (NCDNT) in New Delhi on Monday.

The National Commission was constituted in 2015 mainly to identify the castes belonging to Denotified and Nomadic Tribes and to suggest recommendations and appropriate measures to be taken by central and state governments in respect of these communities within three years.

After the meeting, Vaibhav Sakhare, Coordinator of Bhartiya Sadhan Sampatti Panchayat, Mumbai said that while the government has constituted various committees to look into the problems faced by the people of these communities, the actual solution will only be to allocate a separate budget for the welfare of the communities whose combined population is not less than 30 crores across the country.

Although, the actual number of individuals from these communities was left uncompiled.

“Similar to the commissions for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Castes already functioning in the country, a separate institutional body for Denotified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes must be formed and budget must be allocated,” he said

Sudhir Kumar Gihara, State President, Gihara Samaj Navyuvak Jaagrithi Parishad, Bihar said that the abuse meted to people from these communities has remained a common phenomenon and there is an immediate need to act against such atrocities. He told that in the meeting, B.K. Prasad said them that they have found the police personnel deal the cases of these community people with certain false prejudices and promised to include measures of sensitising police in their forthcoming report of recommendations.

Earlier in June this year, NCDNT has submitted an interim report to the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. The report mainly focused on areas such as Education, health, identity issues, forest rights and discrimination. Appointment of teachers from within the community for mobile schools and repeal of Habitual Offenders Act were also part of the report. Based on the available data from previous Commission’s reports and literature, NCDNT has also prepared a draft list of Denotified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes.

It is a reality in our country that the oppression faced by these communities was left unaddressed by state and central governments. Under the colonial period, people from these communities were ‘criminalised’ under ‘draconian’ Criminal Tribes Act in 1871 which was repealed only after Independence in the year 1949.