Government of India has constituted a National Commission for Denotified, Nomadic & Semi-Nomadic Tribes with a mandate to identify and prepare a state-wise list of DNT/NT, apart from assessing the status of their inclusion in SC/ST/OBC, identification of areas where they are densely populated, reviewing the progress of development and suggesting appropriate measures for their upliftment.

Who are Denotified tribes?

• The people, who were notified as Criminal Tribes during British rule and were denotified after independence in 1952, have been known as denotified tribes, based on the report of Ananthasayanam Ayyangar in 1949-50. There are also many nomadic tribes who were part of these DNT communities.
• “These communities were the most oppressed” although they did not undergo the social untouchability as in the case of caste.

Problems faced by these tribes

• People of these communities continue to be stereotyped. A large number of them have been labeled excriminal tribes.
• They also face alienation and economic hardships. Most of their traditional occupations such as snake charming, street acrobatics and performing with animals have been notified as criminal activity making it difficult for them to earn a livelihood.
• Many of the denotified, nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes are spread among SC/ST/OBC but are still not classified anywhere and have no access to socioeconomic benefits whether education, health, housing or otherwise.
• Grievances of these groups include food, drinking water, sanitation, education, health, housing, poor infrastructure, etc. Many also complain about not getting caste certificates, not having ration cards, voter ID cards, aadhaar cards, etc.
• There are many anomalies in terms of identification of these communities, from state to state. There is a lack of awareness about these tribes and about authority looking after their grievances.
• As a result of all these problems many communities are facing decline in population.

Recommendations of the report

• Since basic census data is not available on these tribes/communities there is a need to undertake a socioeconomic survey through some reputed social science institutes.
• The Centre should carve out sub-categories DNT-SC, DNT-ST and DNT-OBC, with dedicated sub-quota for them. While sub-categorisation of SCs and STs may prove complicated, it can be done immediately among the OBCs since the Centre has already formed a commission headed by Justice Rohini Kumar to subdivide the central list of OBCs according to the developmental status of member communities.
• A permanent commission may be constituted for the purpose which may take care of these communities/tribes independently on regular basis.
• Seeking "destigmatisation" of denotified tribes, the panel has recommended that the Centre repeal the Habitual Offenders Act of 1952.