Centre introduces Bills to modify ST list in four States

Source: The post is based on the article “Centre introduces Bills to modify ST list in four States” published in The Hindu on 10th December 2022

What is the News?

The Government of India has introduced four separate bills in the Lok Sabha to revise the list of Scheduled Tribes in Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Himachal Pradesh via amendments proposed in the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950.

What are the changes in the ST list the government is planning to bring through these four bills?

Tamil Nadu: The Bill seeks to add the Narikoravan and Kuruvikkaran hill tribes to the ST list of Tamil Nadu. The demand for their inclusion dates to before 1965 and even the Lokur Committee had in its report of that year recommended its inclusion.

Himachal Pradesh: It has proposed granting tribal status to the Hatti community living in the Trans-Giri region of Himachal Pradesh. 

Karnataka: Include Betta-Kuruba as a synonym for the already categorised Kadu kuruba in the ST list of Karnataka.

Chhattisgarh: The bill seeks to add a number of synonyms in Devnagri script for the already categorized Bhariya Bhumia tribe in the ST list of Chhattisgarh. 

— As per the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, they are all part of the same tribe but had been kept out of the list just because they are pronounced and spelt their names differently.