Cabinet clears proposal to grant ST status to several communities in 5 states

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a proposal to add several tribes to the list of notified Scheduled Tribes from five states, including the Hatti community living in Himachal’s Sirmour area, the Narikuravars from Tamil Nadu and the Betta-Kuruba community from Karnataka.

Making the announcement, union tribal affairs minister Arjun Munda said: “The decisions have been taken on various tribal-related issues in 5 states that have been lying pending for years.” Apart from the three aforementioned states, communities from Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh were also included in the list.

Apart from these communities, the Cabinet approved the inclusion of the Brijjia community and 11 other tribes from Chhattisgarh in the list, in addition to the Kurivikkaran community in Tamil Nadu. The Cabinet also approved the inclusion of the Gond community with five sub-castes of Uttar Pradesh spread across Kushinagar, Chandauli and Sant Kabir Nagar and Bhadohi district which was earlier known as Sant Ravidas Nagar.

The inclusion of the Hatti community, living across four blocks of the Trans-Giri region in Himachal Pradesh, is the most significant, with the demands from the community growing louder in recent times in the election-going states, especially since the community across the border in Uttarakhand’s Jaunsar are part of the state’s ST list already. Munda said that adding the Haati in the list would benefit 1.6 lakh people; and I&B minister Anurag Thakur thanked the prime minister for the inclusion.

The government will now bring separate state-specific bills to amend the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950.