NEW DELHI: People from the denotified tribes of Nat, Bacchara and Bediya are being pushed in to debt owing to the ongoing coronavirus lockdown, showed a rapid assessment survey by the National Alliance Group for denotified, semi-nomadic and nomadic tribes.
Branded as criminals under the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871, these communities were ‘denotified’ in 1952.
The three communities rely on livelihood from performing at weddings, local festivals, and sex work. With the lockdown, their incomes have come to a halt, the interviewees said. The situation is likely to worsen with the lockdown being extended and gatherings potentially to be banned for a longer period amid the COVID-19 outbreak, the interviewees feared.
The group telephonically interviewed 106 people from Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Delhi. Of the interviewees, 58 respondents were women and 48 men.
Not one respondent had access to any form of wage during the lockdown period.
Of the 106 interviewees, 79 people took loans to cover the basic expenses of food and medicines, the report showed. While 58 people were forced to take loans to buy food items, 14 people were in debt to meet both food and medical expenses.
The communities said they did not find any time to financially prepare themselves for the crisis.
Access to food remained the major challenge with the communities facing ostracisation in society. In the first few days of lockdown, at least three workers were left starving for a day, 38 workers had one meal a day for a few days and 61 others had access to a maximum of two meals a day for some days.
Only nine of the 106 interviewees could access the public distribution system (PDS). Community members also feared revealing their identities because their profession typically draws stigma. They also remained unaware on how to access the relief measures.
“Further impoverishment of the communities means they would be pushed in to the exploitative dimension of sex work for those who are engaged in the profession,” said Pradeep Narayanan, director, research, Praxis Institute of Participatory Practices.
Interviewees felt the stereotypes of ‘prostitution’, ‘criminals’ and ‘immoral’ were major impediments from the communities seeking help or authorities from actively reaching out to them.
“States and a section of civil society organisations often view these communities through the framework of social morality. These communities continue to be marginalised,” said Mayank Sinha, convener, National Alliance Group for denotified, semi-nomadic and nomadic tribes.
The government should ensure rations and medicines are made available for the communities, said the report. Families with elderly members, children, and pregnant and lactating women should be prioritised, it added.
In 2019, the Centre had constituted a social welfare board for the nomadic, semi-nomadic, and denotified tribes. The mandate of the welfare board headed by senior RSS leader Dada Idate is to formulate and implement welfare and development programmes for the communities.
According to the Renke Commission report submitted in 2008, 89 per cent of the denotified communities reported landlessness. At least 23 per cent of the denotified communities surveyed had reported their families were in debt and 23 per cent denotified tribes reported availability of BPL cards, according to the report. It had also reiterated that denotified tribes constitute the most socially and economically backward sections of the population.