The Office of the Registrar General of India will enumerate Denotified, Nomadic, and Semi-Nomadic Tribes (DNTs) in the upcoming Census due in 2027.
Who are DNTs?
- DNTs are communities earlier notified as “criminal tribes” by the colonial British government through various legislations, beginning with the Criminal Tribes Act, 1871.
- Criminal Tribes Act was repealed in 1952, and these communities were “denotified”.
- These communities were enumerated in 1911 and 1931 Census with 1931 Census being the last census with information on such communities.
- Idate Commission in 2017 identified close to 1,200 DNT communities that have been assimilated into existing SCs, STs and OBCs classification and 268 other DNTs that had not been classified at all.
- Anthropological Survey of India (AnSI) comprehensively categorised these 268 DNTs and recommended their inclusion in SCs, STs and OBCs lists.
- These communities remained largely socially, economically, educationally, and politically backward.
- Government Interventions: Some schemes of Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment include:
- Scheme for Economic Empowerment of DNTs (SEED): Educational support, Health Insurance Coverage, livelihood promotion, and Housing support.
- Dr. Ambedkar Pre-Matric & Post-Matric Scholarship for DNTs (2014–15).
- Nanaji Deshmukh Scheme of Construction of Hostels for DNT Boys and Girls (2014-15).
Institutional Mechanisms
|
