DENOTIFIED, NOMADIC, SEMI-NOMADIC TRIBES

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The Parliamentary panel on Social Justice and Empowerment has criticised the Union government for the “very slow” process to categorise over 260 denotified, nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes under the SC/ST/OBC lists.
The slow processes delay the implementation of the Scheme for Economic Empowerment of Denotified, Nomadic, Semi-nomadic (SEED) Tribes.
- The scheme was launched by the Union Social Justice Minister to provide free competitive exam coaching, health insurance, housing assistance, and livelihood initiatives.
- More than 5,400 applications had been received, but none of them has been approved and no amount has been sanctioned.

Details

The panel report tabled highlighted the “inability of the Department to take necessary action” on the speedy and accurate categorization of these communities.
The panel stated that a “Delay in locating them would increase their suffering and they would not be able to get the benefit of the prevailing Schemes meant for the welfare of SC/STs.”
- Officials of the Development and Welfare Board for Denotified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Communities (DWBDNC) informed that they cannot start the applications for the SEED scheme unless the State and district-level reviews are completed.

Denotified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Communities (DNCs)

The term 'De-notified Tribes' stands for all those communities which were once notified under the Criminal Tribes Act 1871.
- They remained hunter-gatherers and
The policies of the colonial government affected lives and livelihoods This led ultimately resulted in forcible alienation from their traditional occupations and habitations.
These discriminatory Acts were nullified by the Indian Government in l952, and these communities were "De-Notified".
According to the latest data, currently, more than 10 crores of Indians from 1,400 communities belong to these groups.
- The Idate Commission had categorised 1,262 communities under SC/ST/OBC lists and 267 communities were left uncategorised. Even the communities categorised are not accurate with many communities appearing in SC lists in one State or district and on the ST list in others.

Scheme for Economic Empowerment of Denotified, Nomadic, Semi-nomadic (SEED) Tribes

The scheme aims to provide;
- Free coaching for competitive exams.
- Health insurance and financial assistance for housing.
The Union Minister of Social Justice has allocated Rs 200 crore to be spent from 2021-22 to 2025-26.
Under the scheme, a unique ID would be issued to each applicant to apply and track the status of the online application on the portal.
Challenges
- Not a single application has been approved, as the exercise to categorise all 1,400 communities under the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Classes are obstructing the implementation of the scheme.

Other important Steps taken by the Government

The Renke Commission (2008) was set up to look into the problems of these communities.
The National Commission (2015) was constituted under the chairmanship of Shri Bhiku Ramji Idate for the planned development of these communities.
The Government of India set up the Development and Welfare Board for DNTs, SNTs &NTs (DWBDNCs) in 2019.