An ‘Obsolete’ Criteria for Scheduling of Tribes in Modern times : Daily Current Affairs

Date: 13/01/2023

Relevance: GS-1: Indian Society— Salient features of Indian Society, Diversity of India.

Relevance: GS-2: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors; Welfare of vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States; mechanisms, laws.

Key Phrases: The Lokur Committee, Article 366, Article 341, Lokur committee Criteria, Procedure to determine STs, Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950, Registrar-General of India (RGI).

Context:

A query under the Right to Information Act, 2005 revealed that the Office of the Registrar-General of India (RGI) is following the set of criteria set out by the Lokur Committee nearly 60 years ago to define any new community as a Scheduled Tribe.

Background

The Office of the RGI’s approval is mandatory for the inclusion of any community in Scheduled Tribe (ST) lists, as per the procedure for scheduling tribes.
The government of India insisted in Parliament in 2017 that it was considering a proposal to change the criteria for scheduling of new communities as STs.
It proposed the new criteria based on the report of an internal task force which had called the older criteria “obsolete”, “condescending”, “dogmatic”, and “rigid”.

Constitutional Provisions regards to STs

Although the term 'Scheduled Tribes' is mentioned in the Constitution of India, the Constitution does not define the criteria for recognition of Scheduled Tribes.
Article 366(25) of the Constitution provides a process to define Scheduled Tribes— “Scheduled Tribes means such tribes or tribal communities or parts of or groups within such tribes or tribal communities as are deemed under Article 342 to be Scheduled Tribes for the purposes of this Constitution.”
Article 342(1) empowers the President of India (in consultation with Governor of the state) to notify tribes or tribal communities or part of or groups as a Scheduled Tribe in relation to that State or Union Territory.
The Fifth Schedule of the Constitution lays out provisions for Administration and Control of Scheduled Areas and Scheduled Tribes in states other than Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram.
The Sixth Schedule deals with the administration of the tribal areas in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram.
As a result, during the initial years after independence, the definition contained in 1931 Census was used to categorize Schedule Tribes.
- As per 1931 Census, Schedule tribes are termed as "backward tribes” living in the "Excluded" and "Partially Excluded" areas.
Against this backdrop, the Govt of India set up an Advisory Committee on the Revision of Lists of Scheduled Castes and Schedule Tribes, also known as Lokur Committee, in 1965

The Lokur Committee

One of the mandates of this committee was to revise the list of SCs and STs in a rational and scientific manner.
Criteria set out by Lokur Committee included following traits
- Indications of primitive traits.
- Distinctive culture.
- Geographical isolation.
- Shyness of contact with the community at large.
- Backwardness.

What is the current procedure to determine STs?

Firstly, the governments at the State or Union Territory level forward the proposal to the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs which after due deliberation sends it to the Registrar General of India (RGI).
The RGI after scrutiny sends the proposal to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes or National Commission for Scheduled Tribes, after approval.
Then the proposal is sent back to the Union government, which after inter-ministerial deliberations, introduces it to the Cabinet for final approval.
Articles 341 and 342 of the Constitution give power to the President's office for the final decision.
The President assents to a Bill that amends the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950, and the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950 after it is passed by both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

Issues with the current procedure used by the RGI

The Office of the RGI uses census publications, which go back to 1891, along with materials provided by the nodal Union ministry and State governments.
After going through various resources and scrutiny it decides whether a community can be categorized as ST based on the Lokur Committee criteria.
Experts point out that there are inconsistencies in census records dating that far back.
For instance, the 1891 census described tribes as people with a tribal religion.
- The 1901 and 1911 censuses described them as tribal animists; in 1921, they were called hill and forest tribes.
- In 1931, they were documented as “primitive tribes”; and were classified as “tribes” in 1941, before moving to the Constitutional term of “Scheduled Tribes” in 1951.
The Office of RGI is not having adequate anthropologists and sociologists to make wholesome decisions and also lacks the data for it.

Criticism of Lokur committee Criteria

Obsolete criteria
- These criteria were set out by the Lokur Committee in 1965 and hence may have become obsolete considering the process of transition and acculturation over the time.
Criteria are condescending in nature
- Terms like primitive and the requirement of primitivity to be a characteristic of Scheduled Tribe indicate a condescending (superior) attitude by outsiders.
- What we consider primitive is not considered by the tribals themselves.
Sophisticated and half-baked classification
- The classification and identification of tribes are very complex because the committee followed a “rigid and dogmatic approach while setting out the criteria.
- For instance, experts criticize that if the infrastructure development continues across the country how communities can remain geographically isolated and they question the geographical isolation criterion.

Government measures to setting up new Criteria

The government constituted a task force on Scheduling of Tribes under the leadership of then Tribal Affairs Secretary in February 2014.
- The Task Force had recommended changes to the criteria in May and based on this, the Tribal Affairs Ministry had in June 2014 prepared a draft Cabinet note to overhaul the criteria and procedure for scheduling of new communities as STs.
The new Criteria under consideration included
- Socio-economic factors: such as educational, backwardness, vis-a-vis, the rest of the population of the State.
- Historical geographical isolation which may or may not exist today.
- Distinct language/dialect.
- Presence of a core culture relating to life-cycle, marriage, songs, dance, paintings, folklore.
- Endogamy, or in case of exogamy, marital relationship primarily with other STs (This criterion is for scheduling of a community as ST and not for determining ST status of an individual).
The draft Cabinet note also proposed, Communities which have adopted a ‘Hindu’ way of life will not be ineligible merely on this ground.
It further recommended considering the population of the new community in relation to the existing ST population of the State.
It further added that all these criteria had to be looked at holistically and none should take precedence over another.

Way Forward

Bring a comprehensive Bill to include all eligible communities into the ST list that had been left out of ST lists over the years.
Need to Revisit the procedure and criteria of inclusion of the communities into the ST lists and make changes based on more rational methods and present circumstances.

Source: The Hindu

Mains Question:

Q. Give an account of the procedure of inclusion of communities into the Scheduled Tribes (ST) and issues associated with it. Also, write on any Two communities which are included in ST lists recently. (250 words).