RSS affiliate seeks complete adherence to Lokur Committee criteria for inclusion of tribes to Scheduled Tribes list

The gorup claims that many communities have managed to bypass due process to make it to the list

All India Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram (AIVKA), an RSS affiliate that works for tribal population, in its central executive meeting held earlier this week, passed a proposal that the criteria and procedure prescribed by the law and the Lokur Committee (1965) should be strictly followed while adding new castes to the list of Scheduled Tribes.

AIVKA maintained that despite having “well explained” parameters on who can be included in an ST list, it was noticed after 1970 that many developed and affluent castes were included too, bypassing the prescribed norms in the face of political gains and pressure from the domineering society.

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“We question how the tribes, which were rejected many times from inclusion in ST list by highest constitutional institutions as well as by the States, are instantly being included in the list 75 years after the Independence. How [are] government institutions like Registrar General of India (RGI) and the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) changing their reports?” Girish Kuber, Akhil Bharatiya Hitraksha (protection of rights) Pramukh of AIVKA, asked.

He further questioned how political announcements are made about the inclusion of new communities to the Scheduled Tribes list without them fulfilling the desired criteria or going through due process.

“The same happened in [the] case of the Hatti community in Himachal Pradesh,” Mr. Kuber said, adding that several communities in Maharashtra are also on the verge of being included to the ST list without adherence to due procedure.

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