How Are Tribes Included Or Excluded From The Scheduled Tribe List?

Now, a proposal to add a myriad of tribes to the Scheduled Tribes List in States like Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh has been approved by the Union Cabinet.

What All Communities Have Been Added To The Scheduled Tribes List?

1. Chhattisgarh’s Binjhia tribe. The tribe was earlier listed as a Scheduled Tribe in Odisha and Jharkhand but not in the state of Chhattisgarh.

  2.  Himachal Pradesh’s Hatti tribe

3.  Tamil Nadu’s Narikoravan and Kurivikkaran hill tribes

How Many Scheduled Tribes Are Presently There Officially?

As per the Census 2011, there are a total of 705 ethnic groups listed as Scheduled Tribes in India as per article 342.

Around 10 crore Indians are acknowledged as Scheduled Tribes. Out of these, 1.04 crore people reside in urban areas of the country. The Scheduled Tribes comprise 8.6% of the total population and around 11.3% of the rural population of India.

Addition Or Removal Of A Community From The Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe Lists

The process starts at the State or Union Territory levels. At this point, the concerned government or administration seeks the addition or removal of a particular community from the SC/ST lists.

The President's office holds the power to give the final decision stating a notification mentioning the alterations under the powers vested in it through Articles 341 and 342.

The addition or removal of any community in the list of Scheduled Tribes or Scheduled Castes is possible only after the President’s assent to the Bill that amends the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950 and (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950 after it is passed by both the houses, Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.

The Criteria To Consider

To call a community a Scheduled Tribe, the government of India considers several criteria. These include the community’s traditional characteristics, ethnological traits, geographical isolation, backwardness, and ethnological traits.

The Supreme Court, however, has lately stated that it wanted to set fool-proof parameters to determine if a citizen belongs to the ST category and is entitled to the merits and benefits given to the community in which he belongs.

The apex court has now referred the task of setting the parameters to a larger Bench. The SC calls the issue a “matter of importance”.