Category Archives: Scheduled Tribe (ST)

“Who are Scheduled Tribes? The framers of the Constitution took note of the fact that certain communities in the country were suffering from extreme social, educational and economic backwardness on account of the primitive agricultural practices, lack of infrastructure facilities and geographical isolation. The Constitution of India in Article 366 (25) prescribe that the Scheduled Tribes means such tribes or tribal communities as are deemed under Article 342 of the Constitution to be Scheduled Tribes.” – National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (Frequently Asked Questions)
http://www.ncst.gov.in/content/frequently-asked-questions
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?page_id=22496

“Scheduled Tribes are notified in 30 States/UTs [Union Territories]. Number of individual ethnic groups, etc. notified as Scheduled Tribes is 705. There has been some changes in the List of Scheduled Tribes in States/ UTs during the last decade”. – C. Chandramouli (Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India, Ministry of Home Affairs) in “Scheduled Tribes in India as revealed in Census 2011” (3 May 2013)
https://ruralindiaonline.org/library/resource/scheduled-tribes-in-india-as-revealed-in-census-2011/
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=1690

“What are the Rights of Scheduled Tribes? The Constitution of India seeks to secure for all its citizens, among other things, social and economic justice, equality of status and opportunity and assures the dignity of the individual. All Rights available to the Citizens of India, enshrined in the Constitution or any law of the land or any order of the Government are equally available to the Scheduled Tribes also.” – National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (Frequently Asked Questions)
http://www.ncst.gov.in/content/frequently-asked-questions
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?page_id=22496

“After Independence, the erstwhile aborigines were classified as scheduled tribes, the untouchables were classified as scheduled castes and others included in the backward classes. Although, many of the denotified, nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes are spread among SC/ST/OBC, many are still not classified anywhere and have no access to socio-economic benefits, whether education, health, housing or otherwise.” – Bibek Debroy quoting a 2016 Report of the National Commission for Denotified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes NCDNT (Indian Express, 5 January 2017)
https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/crime-criminal-act-racial-discrimination-non-bailable-offence-criminal-tribes-act-an-unfortunate-legacy-4459258/
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=12284

“[G]iven the historical experiences of land encroachment, acquisition of forest land by the Government and tribal displacement, the STs [Scheduled Tribes] remain vulnerable, the proportion of households with more than one hectare declining over time.” – Human Development Report 2005 Kerala (Government of Kerala (2006), pp. 57-61
https://niti.gov.in/planningcommission.gov.in/docs/plans/stateplan/sdr_pdf/shdr_kerala05.pdf
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=5169

“Out of forty eight tribal communities found in Kerala, thirty seven of them were categorised as scheduled tribes. Kerala has the population in its all districts. Wayanad, Idukki, and Palakkad districts constitute major tribal population in Kerala. Paniyas, Maratis, Malayarayans, Kuruvans, Kurichens and Erulas are the major tribal communities in Kerala. In Kerala Koraga, Cholanaikkans, Kurumba, Kadar and Kattunaikkans are the five indigenous tribal groups catagarised as PVTGs.” – M.K Sujeesh in “Role of gender and social capital in sustainable livelihood promotion of Kadar tribe in Kerala” (PhD thesis, The Gandhigram Rural Institute, 2014), p. 4
http://hdl.handle.net/10603/186310
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=1882

“While the Constitution is silent about the criteria for specification of a community as a Scheduled Tribe [ST]. The words and the phrase ‘tribes or tribal communities or part of or groups within tribes or tribal communities” in Article 342 have to be understood in terms of their historical background of backwardness. Primitiveness, geographical isolation, shyness and social, educational & economic backwardness due to these reasons are the traits that distinguish Scheduled Tribe communities of our country from other communities. It takes into account the definitions of tribal Communities adopted in the 1931 Census. These facts are the basis for the provision in Article 342(1) which mandates to specify the tribes or tribal communities or part of or groups within tribes or tribal communities as Scheduled Tribe in relation to that State or Union Territory as the case may be. Thus the list of Scheduled Tribes is State/UT specific and a community declared as a Scheduled Tribe in a State need not be so in another State.” – National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (Frequently Asked Questions)
https://www.ncst.gov.in/content/frequently-asked-questions
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=21438