NEW DELHI: Addressing a long-pending demand of several deprived communities, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a proposal of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs to add 12 communities to the Scheduled Tribes (ST) list. They include the nomadic Narikuravan and Kuruvikaran in Tamil Nadu and tribes from Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh.
Briefing the media, Union Minister for Tribal Affairs Arjun Munda said the decision has brought justice to the communities and a new ray of hope in their lives. Their inclusion will require separate bills to amend the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950, he added.
Other communities that will get ST status include the Gond along with their five sub-castes in Bhadohi (earlier Sant Ravidas Nagar) district of UP, Betta-Kuruba community as a synonym of Kadu Kuruba in Karnataka, and Binjhia in Chhattisgarh.In poll-bound Himachal Pradesh, the Hattee community of the Trans-Giri area in Sirmour district will be included in the state’s ST list.
As for the Narikuravans and Kuruvikarans in Tamil Nadu, their struggle to change their status from the Most Backward Community to the ST began in 1965 after the Lokur panel’s recommendation. ST status is expected to improve their living conditions. They are mostly engaged in traditional occupations of hunter-gathering and selling bead necklaces.
In 1980, former chief minister M G Ramachandran demanded the Central government to include Narikuravars in the ST list. In 2013, former chief minister J Jayalalithaa did an encore.