The list can be prepared by collating the following sources:
(1) The Census of India, 1931, which gives a list of nomadic
communities, under the rubric of ‘wandering communities’.
(2) The People of India Project, which provides short
ethnographic sketches on 4,635 communities. A close reading of the volumes of
this project will help us in identifying nomadic communities or communities
that had a traditional nomadic background; may be a century ago, they were
leading a fullynomadic or semi-nomadic existence.
(3) The list of nomadic and semi-nomadic communities
provided by different states and union territories of India.
(4) The list of nomadic and semi-nomadic communities
prepared on the basis ofthe field survey undertaken by members of the
Commission.
(5) The representations made by different communities
claiming to be traditionally nomadic. For examining their claims, the following
criteria should be adopted:
(a) Communities that have a traditional social background
of nomadism; that is to say, which were nomadic in the past, say a century
ago, and their claim is supported with authentic historical evidence, whether
supplied by the community itself or by independent researchers; in all cases,
the veracity of sources needs to be ascertained before. Such communities had
(or may continue to have) a varietyof occupations, such as pastoralism,
begging, providing entertainment (sometimes with animals, such as bears,
monkeys, snakes, parrots), herbal treatment and fortune telling, artisan work,
hawking and vending, semi-skilled or skilled labour,etc,
(b) Marginalization from social and economic mainstream.
In global economy, goods and services are standardized and centrally controlled
by multinationals and other organizations. The newly emerging global economic
system does not allow these communities to lead their traditional life, with
the result that nomadic communities have lost their livelihoods and independence.
Folk artists of the past have become destitute; artisans who supplied
agricultural implements or weapons of warfare are reduced to beggars;
pastoralists who once owned large flocks of animals are now landless labourers
or marginal farmers.
(c) Low human development index and high relative
deprivation index. In other words, in matters of health, livelihood,
occupation, and education, their communities are lowly placed. They have long
periods of hunger; they remain in debt-bondage for longer period, and are
unable to pay off their loans for generations; they perpetually experience the
scarcity of resources. This is reflected in their social, economic, cultural,
and educational backwardness.
(d) Large deprivation from the gains of planned
development. As a consequence of their occupational requirements, they are
unable to take advantage of the development programmes; therefore, their life
continues as it is.
(e) Lack of empowerment. The nomadic communities have
been at the margin of the political system. Since they do not have a permanent
residence, they have not been able to obtain an ‘identity card’, or any other
proof of their being a citizen of the state. Their names do not exist in the
list of voters. As a consequence of this disability, they are debarred from all
those ventures that require a proof of theircitizenship. They are denizens of
the nation without the rights of citizenship.
(f) Carriers of social stigma. The label of
‘criminal’, ‘beggar’, and ‘untouchable’ is attached to them. The peasant
villages consider pastoral nomads as ‘nuisance’.
Source- Report of Naional Commission for Denotified, Nomadic and Semi-nomadic Tribes, 2008, p 18-19 http://socialjustice.nic.in/writereaddata/UploadFile/NCDNT2008-v1%20(1).pdf
Note- Above note is just an extract of the report.
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