Denotified Tribes are the tribes in India that were listed originally under the

Criminal Tribes Act Since the 1870s, various pieces of colonial legislation in India during British rule were collectively called the Criminal Tribes Act (CTA), which criminalized entire communities by designating them as habitual criminals. Under these acts, ethn ...

of 1871, 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 Indian Penal Code (IPC) is the official criminal code of India. It is a comprehensive code intended to cover all substantive aspects of criminal law. The code was drafted on the recommendations of first law commission of India established ...

. The Criminal Tribes Act was repealed in 1949 and thus 'de-notified' the tribal communities. This Act, however, was replaced by a series of

Habitual Offenders Acts A habitual offender, repeat offender, or career criminal is a person convicted of a crime who was previously convicted of crimes. Various state and jurisdictions may have laws targeting habitual offenders, and specifically providing for enhanced ...

, that asked police to investigate a "suspect's" "criminal tendencies" and whether their occupation is "conducive to settled way of life." The denotified tribes were reclassified as "habitual offenders" in 1959. The name "Criminal Tribes" is itself a misnomer as no definition of tribe denotes occupation, but they were identified as tribes "performing" their primary occupation. The first census was in 1871 and at that time there was no consensus nor any definition of what constitutes a "tribe". The terms "

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to confl ...

" and "

caste Caste is a form of social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultur ...

" were used interchangeably for these tribes.

Call for repeal

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 9 March 2007.

Reservations

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 The Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) are officially designated groups of people and among the most disadvantaged socio-economic groups in India. The terms are recognized in the Constitution of India and the groups are designa ...

and

Scheduled Tribes The Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) are officially designated groups of people and among the most disadvantaged socio-economic groups in India. The terms are recognized in the Constitution of India and the groups are designa ...

, for around 110 million people belonging to the denotified tribes,

nomadic A nomad is a member of a community without fixed habitation who regularly moves to and from the same areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the popu ...

or semi-nomadic tribes in India. Along with the tribes designated as, "Nomadic" or "Semi-Nomadic", the denotified tribes are eligible for reservation.

List of Denotified tribes

Here are a list of

s and castes which were listed under

by British government in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

. *

Koli Koli may refer to: Places * Koli, Finland, a hill in Finland * Koli National Park, a national park in Finland * Koli, Iran (disambiguation), several places in Iran * Koli Airfield, a former airfield in the South Pacific Other uses * Koli peopl ...

* Ramoshi *

Bawaria Babaria (alternate spellings of which include Bauria, Babariya, Bawaria and Baraiya) are a nomadic tribe found mainly in the Indian states of Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Traditions The Babaria are traditionally a nomadic t ...

Bauria ''Bauria'' is an extinct genus of the suborder Therocephalia that existed during the Early and MiddleTriassic period, around 246-251 million years ago. It belonged to the family Bauriidae. ''Bauria'' was probably a carnivore or insectivore ...

* Banjara *

Nat Nat or NAT may refer to: Computing * Network address translation (NAT), in computer networking Organizations * National Actors Theatre, New York City, U.S. * National AIDS trust, a British charity * National Archives of Thailand * National A ...

* Harni * Bhampta

References

External links

National Commission for denotified, Nomadic & Semi-nomadic Tribes (Govt. of India)
'' Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment''
List of Denotified Communities
on Government of Tamil Nadu website {{DEFAULTSORT:Denotified Tribes Discrimination in India Ethnic groups in India Law of India

Call for repeal

Reservations

List of Denotified tribes

See also

References

Further reading

External links