Denotified tribes (DNTs), also known as vimukta jati[1], are the tribes that were originally listed under the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871 [2], as Criminal Tribes and "addicted to the systematic commission of non-bailable offences." Once a tribe became "notified" as criminal, all its members were required to register with the local magistrate, failing which they would be charged with a crime under the Indian Penal Code. The Criminal Tribes Act of 1952 repealed the notification, i.e. ‘de-notified’ the tribal communities. This act, however, was replaced by a series of Habitual Offenders Acts, that asked police to investigate a suspect’s criminal tendencies and whether his occupation is "conducive to settled way of life." The denotified tribes were reclassified as habitual offenders in 1959.
The creation of these categories should be seen in the context of colonialism. The British authorities listed them separately by creating a category of castes or tribes labelled as criminal.
The name "Criminal Tribes" is itself a misnomer as no definition of tribe denotes occupation, but they were identified as tribes being their primary occupation. The first Census was in 1871 and at that time there was no consensus nor any definition of "tribe". The terms "Tribe" and "Caste" were used interchangeably for these communities. In this colonial context, the term "Tribe" connoted the notions of primitiveness and backwardness and hence the assumption that these tribes needed to be civilized or transformed.
Contents |
The UN’s anti-discrimination body Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) asked India to repeal the Habitual Offenders Act (1952) and effectively rehabilitate the denotified and nomadic tribes on March 9, 2007 [3].
In 2008, the National Commission for Denotified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes (NCDNSNT) of Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment recommended equal reservations, as available to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, for around 11 crore people belonging to the denotified, nomadic or semi-nomadic tribes in India [4]. Along with the tribes designated as , "Nomadic" or "Semi-Nomadic", the denotified tribes are eligible for reservation.[5][6]