Follow law before inclusion of new castes in STs, said Akhil Bharatiya Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram in its resolution

“Criteria and Procedure laid down by law Should be strictly followed in the inclusion of New castes in the List of Scheduled Tribes (STs),” said Akhil Bharatiya Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram (ABVKA) in its resolution passed in the Kendriya Karyakari Mandal (KKM) meeting held at Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh on February 23, 2023.

“Article 366 (25) of the Constitution defines Scheduled Tribes. “Scheduled Tribes” means certain Tribes or groups within such tribes or tribal communities shall be deemed to be “Scheduled Tribes” under article 342 of the Constitution for the purposes of this Constitution.

Article 342(1) lays down the procedure for this work: The President may, in respect to any State or Union territory, and where it is a State, after consultation with the Governor of that State, by a public notification specify tribes or tribal communities or groups thereof as Scheduled Tribes in relation to that State or UT, reads ABVKA resolution.

ABVKA in its resolution further said, “President recognised the list of Scheduled Tribes in different states of the country, first time by Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950, Procedure for inclusion in ST list after 1950: This procedure commences with the recommendation of the concerning State Government for inclusion of any community in the Schedule (List) of the Tribe for the State to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, after due examination, the Ministry forwards it to the Registrar General of India (RGI) and the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) for their consent.

Only after the consent of these two Authorities, these proposals are sent to the Cabinet, which put these proposals in both the Houses of Parliament. According to Article 342 (2) of the constitution, the Parliament takes the final decision on all such proposals after 1950.

For inclusion of any new community as a Scheduled Tribe, the RGI and the NCST must follow the criteria laid down by the Lokur Committee, 1965. These prescribed criteria are: – signs of primitive traits, distinct culture, geographical isolation, reluctance to contact with wider-other communities and socio-economical backwardness.”

“Despite having all such provisions, it is noticed that after 1970, due to immediate political gains and under the pressure of dominant communities, many developed, prosperous and like castes were included in the list of Scheduled Tribes ignoring the prescribed criteria and procedures.

The castes which were rejected many times by the Registrar General and Tribal Commission of India for inclusion in the list of Scheduled Tribes or gave negative opinion, Tribal Research Institutes (TRIs) of the states also refused to add them in the Scheduled of STs based on the criteria of Lokur Committee, how suddenly after 75 years it is added to the list of tribes considering it as socio-economically backward? How government, constitutional and other bodies like RGI, NCST and TRI, change their reports – this is beyond understanding.

And Without fulfilling all such criteria and even before the process is completed as per the rules, a political announcement is made to include them in the Scheduled Tribes !” ABVKA said.

No caste or group should be included in the list of Scheduled Tribes only because of having specific customs or different dialect, but it is necessary to fulfill all the above five criteria of Lokur Committee. Otherwise, the purpose for which Scheduled Tribes have been made separate from Scheduled Castes, Nomadic Tribes, and Other Backward Castes, in the Constitution of India, will have no meaning, said ABVKA.

“Many other castes are competing to include themselves in the list of Scheduled Tribes today. In such a situation, the reservation of jobs and admission for higher education for the real-true Scheduled Tribes, living in geographical isolation and who are economically backward and are backwardness is not only affected, but also their lands are being grabbed by influential dummy tribes.

Dominant castes are buying by coming in the list of Scheduled Tribes. As a result, an atmosphere of discontent, unrest and anger is being created in many tribal areas of the country. We can observe such examples in many States. Another related issue arises; when new castes were includedin the list of Schedule Tribes after 1950; the population of STs increased due to such inclusion, accordingly the reservation provided to STs at center and different states should also be increased proportionately, but this never happened”, ABVKA added.

Notably Kendriya Karyakari Mandal of Akhil Bhartiya Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram in its resolution has demanded the Union Government to take care of all the aspects in inclusion of new castes in the list of Scheduled Tribes.