Several ministries back need to enumerate nomadic, denotified tribes in next Census -Shalini Nair

-The Indian Express

The Commission has asked for according Constitutional protection to these groups, bringing them under the umbrella of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, and assured sub-quotas.

New Delhi: In response to the January 2018 report by the National Commission for Denotified, Semi Nomadic, and Nomadic Tribes (NCDNT), several ministries have backed the need to enumerate these communities in the next Census so as to get an accurate estimate of the most deprived populations in the country.

The responses are part of the exercise launched by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment to implement the NCDNT report prepared under the chairpersonship of Bhiku Ramji Idate. Comments were invited from 22 ministries, commissions, and government think tanks on several recommendations of the commission, including starting with the need for “a proper systematic caste-based census in respect of DNT/NT communities” in the 2021 Census.

The Commission has asked for according Constitutional protection to these groups, bringing them under the umbrella of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, and assured sub-quotas. However, all of these can only follow once there is a definite headcount on their numbers. In its response, the Ministry of Finance has said, “Unless Census is carried out and used for preparation of state-wise and community-wise lists, any further action will not focus on the intended beneficiaries.” The Finance Ministry has added that issues of constitutional safeguards, sub- quotas, skill development and jobs can be addressed only once the Census data is available. The Ministry of Culture too has held that Census 2021 should collect information about these communities and has supported the idea of sub-quotas.

The Renake Commission report of 2008, the precursor to the Idate Commission report, had presented a rough estimate of their numbers as 10 crore. The last time their population was enumerated was in Census 1931 with the practice being discontinued since Independence. Since then, many denotified and nomadic tribes have been arbitrarily classified as Scheduled Castes/ Scheduled Tribes for the sake of reservation. However, being the “poorest of the poor, most marginalized and most downtrodden communities”, as noted by the Idate Commission report, most do not get the benefit of reservation. Moreover, 94 denotified, 171 nomadic, and 2 semi-nomadic tribes are completely left out of the quota system as they are not classified as either SC or ST.

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