Scheduled Tribes
Article 366 (25) defined scheduled tribes as “such tribes or tribal communities or parts of or groups within such tribes or tribal communities as are deemed under Article 342 to be Scheduled Tribes for the purposes of this constitution”.
Lakshdweep, Mizoram, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, are predominantly tribal States /Union territories where Scheduled Tribes population constitutes more than 60% of their total population.
Article 366 (25) of the Constitution of India refers to Scheduled Tribes[STs] as those communities, numbering over 700, who are scheduled in accordance with Article 342 of the Constitution and declared as such by the President through public notifications . These communities live in different topographical, ecological and climatic conditions. Also called Adivasis, most of them used to inhabit remote mountains, hills, slopes and forests till recently. Communications having eased of late, some of them have continued to live in the same habitat while others have occupied plains areas’.
‘Scheduled Tribe’ is an administrative term used for the purpose of ‘administering’ certain specific constitutional privileges, protection and benefits for specific section of peoples, historically considered disadvantaged and backward. Article 366 (25) of the Constitution of India defines Scheduled Tribes as ‘such tribes or tribal communities or parts of, or groups within such tribes, or tribal communities as are deemed under Article 342 to be Scheduled Tribes for the purposes of this Constitution’.
The Scheduled Tribe status confers on the tribe, or part of it, a Constitutional status invoking the safeguards provided for in the Constitution in their respective states/UTs. The Scheduled Tribe status is conferred on the basis of birth to a person into a Scheduled Tribe.
According to Clause 1 of Article 342, the Scheduled Tribes are the tribes or tribal communities or part of or groups within these tribes and tribal communities which have been declared as such by the President of India through a public notification (See Annexure 1 for the list of notifications).
Thus, the President notifies the Scheduled Tribes in relation to a particular state/ Union Territory (UT), and not on an all India basis, by an order after consultation with the State Governments concerned. These orders can be modified subsequently, to include or exclude, but only through an Act of Parliament under Clause 2 of the Article. Although no well-defined criteria have been developed for the purpose, the general official3 refrain has been that the identification of Scheduled Tribe (ST) is done on the basis of the following characteristics:-
(i) primitive traits;
(ii) distinctive culture;
(iii) geographical isolation;
(iv) shyness of contact with the community at large; and
(v) backwardness.