Hummingbird News Desk
NEW DELHI, 14 SEP: The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a proposal to include about 15 tribal communities in the Scheduled Tribes list in five states namely Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh. Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda gave this information saying that demands for inclusion of the communities have been pending for decades.
With this decision, the number of Scheduled Tribes in the country has increased from 705 to 720. According to the 2011 census, the ST population in the country is 10.43 crore, which is 8.6% of the total population of the country.
During the meeting, the name of Ravidas Nagar in UP has been changed to Bhadohi. Five sub-castes of the Gond caste, Dhuria, Nayak, Ojha, Pathari, Rajgond have also been included in the Scheduled Tribes.
Union Minister Arjun Munda told the media after the approval of this decision will benefit about 1.60 lakh people of Hatti community settled in the Trans-Giri area of Sirmaur, Himachal Pradesh. Brijiya community in Chhattisgarh and Narikuravar, one of the most deprived and vulnerable communities living in the hills of Tamil Nadu will also be benefitted.
The Hatti is a community living in North India. They make their living by selling crops, vegetables, meat and wool in the small town markets i.e. Haat. The birthplace of the Hatti community is mainly spread up to the Himachal-Uttarakhand border in the basin of the Giri and Tons, both tributaries of the Yamuna. , Kodaku, Nagesia, Dhangad, Saunra, Binjhiya, Hatti caste from Himachal Pradesh Kuruvikkaran from Tamil Nadu, Betta Kuruba from Karnataka, Gond from Uttar Pradesh, Sub-castes-Dhuria, Nayak, Ojha, Pathari, Rajgond.
The government had introduced a bill related to the issue in the Lok Sabha in March. In which the proposal to give Scheduled Tribe status to Gond, Dhuria, Nayak, Ojha Pathari and Rajgond castes of Uttar Pradesh was passed by voice vote. However, then this bill could not be passed in the Rajya Sabha. In such a situation, it was decided to pass it in the Union Cabinet.
Mr. Munda said the demand for the Binjhia tribe to be added to the ST list in Chhattisgarh had been pending for around 15 years while Sports Minister Anurag Thakur, who also attended the briefing, said the Hatti tribe had been seeking their inclusion for around 50 years. Like the Binjhia community, the Hatti tribe had been in the ST list in neighbouring Uttarakhand but not in Himachal Pradesh.
“It is a historic decision. I thank PM Modi for this,” Mr. Thakur, also an MP from Himachal Pradesh, said.
Mr. Munda said that the inclusion of the Hatti community will benefit around 1.6 lakh people of this area-specific tribe in Himachal Pradesh, who will be able to avail benefits meant for members of STs after the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Third Amendment) Bill, 2022, becomes an Act.
The Tribal Affairs Minister explained that the process to include tribes in the ST list begins with the recommendation from the respective State governments, which are then sent to the Tribal Affairs Ministry, which reviews and sends them to the Registrar General of India for approval. This is followed by the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes’ approval before the list is sent to the Cabinet for a final decision.
In April this year, Minister of State for Tribal Affairs Bisheshwar Tudu had, in response to a question in Lok Sabha, said that the Ministry was unable to consider a proposal from the State to declare the Trans-Giri area as a Scheduled Area “due to want of requisite criteria” and had sent the proposal back.
Tags: #TribalCommunities #STlist #TribalAffairsMinistry #ArjunMunda
