New Delhi, Feb 7:
The Rajya Sabha on Tuesday passed the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Amendment) Bill, 2024 and the Constitution (Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) Orders (Amendment) Bill, 2024 by a voice vote.
Replying to the debate, Union Minister for Tribal Affairs Arjun Munda said for 75 years, several primitive tribes were excluded from the Constitutional lists and so the Government was focusing on the welfare of neglected communities living in remote areas. This is the objective of PM-JANMAN scheme and the Government is moving ahead with this intention.
He said through these Bills, the government has tried to give the rights to those communities which have not been given any facilities even after 75 years.
He said these communities are living in remote tribal areas and are also called tribals, but their names are not in the tribal list. He said through these bills, some communities are being included in the tribal list. He said the sub-castes of some tribes or variations in their names are being removed and kept in the tribe list.
The Minister said he had personally written to the Chief Ministers of the states with regard to the population of tribals. He said he had examined the 2001 and 2011 census and observed that there was a reduction in the population of some primitive tribal communities.
Munda said many of these communities are on the verge of extinction and the population of some of them has come down to less than 200. The Government has given orders to find out the reasons for the decline in the population of these communities.
