Since the President of India issued the first notification to recognise the Scheduled Tribes in 1950, India had no policy to deal with indigenous and tribal peoples of the country. The Scheduled Tribes constituted about 8.1% of the total population according to 1991 census and remain in the lowest ladder of the society in all respects.  The government of India has issued a Draft National Policy on Tribals and is presenttly inviting public comments.

The term "Tribe" is nowhere defined in the Constitution of India and in fact there is no satisfactory definition anywhere. The Draft National Policy on Tribal provides that the characteristics considered by the President for notifying any tribe as “Scheduled Tribe” are the tribes’ primitive traits, distinctive culture, shyness with the public at large, geographical isolation and social and economic backwardness.

The government of India identifies all Scheduled Tribes as primitive races. In the Hindi text of the Constitution of India, the Scheduled Tribes is translated as Adimjati, literally meaning “primitive races”. Dr Rajendra Prasad, first President of India suggested Adimajati as a translation for the Scheduled Tribes as a compromised text by stating that it was used in Bihar. Mr Jaipal Singh and Mr A V Takkar insisted on the use of the word "Adivasi" instead of “Vanjati” to describe the Scheduled Tribes during the debates at the Constituent Assembly.

The use of “insensitive” and “derogative” terms such as “Primitive Tribal Groups” in the Draft National Policy on Tribals is antithetical to the universally recognised principles on the dignity and equality inherent in all human beings. The use of the term “primitive” fails to secure understanding of and respect for the dignity of the human person. Certain “derogative” terminologies are no longer acceptable in the lexicon of civilised societies.

The report of the "Excluded and Partially Excluded Areas (other than Assam) Sub-Committee" of the Constituent Assembly, was more progressive and used the term aboriginals to describe the Scheduled Tribes. "The Scheduled Areas and Scheduled Tribes Commission" appointed by President of India in pursuance of the provision of the Article 339 of the Constitution of India in its report in 1961 stated that "Scheduled Tribes" are known as indigenous peoples under international law. The government of India had ratified the ILO Convention No 107 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries in 1958.

What is most disturbing is the fact that the Draft National Policy advocates assimilation of vulnerable communities amongst indigenous and tribal peoples, the socalled Primitive Tribal Groups. As the third preambular paragraph of the ILO Convention No 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries states “the developments which have taken place in international law since 1957, as well as developments in the situation of indigenous and tribal peoples in all regions of the world, have made it appropriate to adopt new international standards on the subject with a view to removing the assimilationist orientation of the earlier standards”. The policy of assimilation violates the cultural rights of the groups.

There are 75 indigenous groups who are described as Primitive Tribal Groups. The 10^th plan of the government of India lucidly describes the problems of these vulnerable communities:“A decline in their sustenance base and the resultant food insecurity, malnutrition and ill-health force them to live in the most fragile living conditions and some of them are even under the threat of getting extinct. Prominent examples in this context are the Bay-Islanders like the Great Andamanese, Shompens, Jarawas, Sentinelese of the Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Even some of the mainland groups which can be cited in this context like the Bondos of Orissa, Cholanaickans of Kerala, the Abujhmarias of Chhattisgarh, the Birhors of Jharkhand are also dwindling”. In a reply in the Lok Sabha on 31 July 2001, then Minister for Tribal Affairs stated that “The National Commission on Population has constituted four sub-groups for detailed examination of the demographic problems and formulation of concrete proposals.”

The Draft National Policy on Tribals also fails to refer to the denotified tribals. The British India adopted the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871 to identified certain groups as criminal tribes. The Act was racist. In 1952, Government of India officially "denotified" the stigmatised ones but enacted the Habitual Offender's Act which is not much different from the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871. Both the Criminal Tribes Act and the Habital Offenders Act negate the universally proclaimed principles that “all human being are born free and equal”. The listing of certain tribes under the Habitual Offenders Act negates the cardinal principle of the crimina justice system - the presumption of innocence before proven guilty.

The five year plans to rehabilitate the Denotified Tribes have failed. In the first five year plan, the Planning Commission made a provision of Rs. 3.5 crores for the resettlement of ex-criminal tribes and for training them in the ways of settled community life. In the second plan, a provision of Rs. 2.94 crores was made.  The 3^rd Five Year Plan allocated “Rs. 4 crores. During the 4^th Five Year Plan, a plan outlay of Rs 4.5 crores was made. Thereafter, no specific programmes for the was included in the Five Year Plans. This is despite the fact that the Planning Commission in the Third Five Year Plan urged that “In view of the small results achieved thus far in rehabilitating denotified tribes, it is considered that their needs should be studied in each area at close range and suitable programmes should be formulated, keeping in view the long-term and complex nature of the problems involved”. Both the National Human Rights Commission of India and the National Commission on the Review on the Working of the Constitution made specific recommendations on the Denotified Tribes /Communities and Nomadic and Semi-nomadic Tribes/Communities about two years agos but failed to evoke positive response from the Central government and the state governments.

Although the Draft National Policy envisages to halt “stigmatisation” of the socalled Primitive Tribes, one wonders as to how such stigmatisation can be halted when the Draft National Policy uses such pejorative terms. A Draft National Policy must conform with existing international standards which secure understanding of and respect for the dignity of the human person and not provide impetus to archaic notions which promote the doctrines of racial superiority.

The Draft National Policy on Tribals should use the term “indigenous and tribal peoples” consistent with India’s obligation as a ratifying party to the ILO Convention No 107 and “vulnerable groups among indigenous and tribal peoples” to describe the socalled “primitive tribes.” In addition, the characteristics given by President of India to identify “scheduled tribes” be deleted and the characteristics accorded under ILO Convention No 107 and ILO Convention No 169 be adopted to describe these communities. The National Policy on Tribals must abandon any policy of assimilation with regard to the vulnerable groups amongst indigenous and tribal peoples, provide mechanisms for follow up and implementation of the recommendations of the sub-groups of the National Commission on Populations on the demographic problems of these vulnerable groups, conduct evaluation of the schemes undertaken for the development of the socalled Primitive Tribal Groups with a view to improve implementation of the existing schemes and include the Denotified Tribes under its Five Year Plans programmes.

(To be continued)