Denotified Tribes Across Country Demand Constitutional Recognition, Separate Column in 2027 Census

New Delhi: As India prepares to conduct a caste enumeration in 2027 – the first such exercise since 1931 – denotified tribes, nomadic tribes and semi nomadic tribes across the country are demanding a separate column for themselves in the 2027 census. The demand is mainly focussed on getting constitutional recognition of the denotified tribes in a Schedule, much like existing classifications including Scheduled Caste (SCs), Scheduled Tribe (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs), reported The Hindu.

Back in 1871, a colonial law had classified many communities, particularly nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes as “criminals”. Ever since the law was repealed in 1952, these groups came to be known as denotified tribes.

After the Social Justice Ministry has recommended to the Office of the Registrar General of India (RGI) that these denotified, nomadic, and semi-nomadic tribes be included in the upcoming Census,  the latter agreed to include them in in next year’s caste enumeration exercise, reported The Hindu.

“If we are not counted in a separate column, a separate code, in the Census forms, we will be lost once again,” 63-year-old Balak Ram Sansi, a Karnal-based organiser with the All India Denotified Nomadic Tribes Development Council, told the newspaper.

Some leaders from these communities have also started to stress the importance of recognising “graded backwardness” within this grouping in the lines of the Supreme Court judgment on sub classification of SCs.

While the last national commission for denotified tribes had identified 1,200 such tribes, most of them have been assimilated in the SC, ST, or OBC classifications over the last seven decades. But the commission had also listed around 267 denotified communities in its 2017 report which are yet to be been classified as such, reported The Hindu.

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