Existing tribes oppose having more castes in ST list

KAKINADA: Resistance is building up against the state government proposal to include Boya, Valmiki and Bentho-Oriya communities in the Schedule Tribes list.

These three castes have been seeking ST status for a long time. They argue that they meet all the five criteria for inclusion in the list and cite their poor living conditions. The 35 tribes in ST list are opposing the inclusion of more castes. “We are already facing difficulty in getting education and employment opportunities,” they say.

The state government has appointed a single- man commission led by the Retired IAS officer Samuel Anandakumar to study the matter to include more tribes in the list. The commission would submit its report within a month and a decision would follow.

President of the AP chapter of the Indian Confederation of Indigenous and Tribal People (Bharathiya Adivasula Samakhya), Gidathuri Ramgopal, said the present ST list covered a population of 27 lakh. The newly proposed castes have a strength of 40 lakh.

“If these castes are included in the ST list, it would majorly hurt the reservation benefits for  the existing STs,” he said.

He said Valmikis in the East Godavari, Visakhapatnam and North Andhra districts are enjoying ST status. But, the proposed Valmiki and Boya communities in the Rayalaseema region are a vast population and the Bentho-Oriyas are spread over the North Andhra districts.

Previously, the BN Lokur commission has recommended that if governments include new castes in the ST list, the criteria for this could be set on the lines of language, dialect, traditions and customs and they should be those that live in the mountains and hillock areas.

Ramgopal said that the proposed castes did not meet these criteria. The previous Telugu Desam government passed a bill in the state assembly to include these castes in the ST list, but the association raised objections before the central government, which then rejected the bill.

President of the Chinturu division of the Adivasi Samkshema Parishad, Kunja Anil, said if these three castes are included in the ST list, it will be harmful to the existing STs. The Parishad would raise its concern at open forums. Political parties made such proposals for their political benefits only, he said.

Meanwhile, the Boya and Valmiki people said before 1956, they had been in the list of scheduled tribes in united Andhra Pradesh. But later, they have been referred to as de-notified tribes.

Boya community leader B. Venkateswarlu pointed out that the UN’s anti-discrimination body committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination asked India to repeal the Habitual Offenders Act (1952) and effectively rehabilitate the de-notified and nomadic tribes in 2007.
In 2008, the National Commission for De-notified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes of Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment recommended equal reservations, as available to Scheduled Castes and Schedule Tribes for around 110 million people belonging to de-notified tribes, nomadic, or semi-nomadic tribes in India.

Venkateswarlu maintained that along with the tribes designated as nomadic or semi-nomadic, de-notified tribes are also eligible for reservations.