The Rajya Sabha approved two bills on Tuesday that aim to revise the list of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.
Through a voice vote, the Upper House passed the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Amendment) Bill, 2024, and the Constitution (Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) Order (Amendment) Bill, 2024.
The initial bill aims to revise the roster of Scheduled Tribes in Andhra Pradesh, whereas the second bill aims to revise the roster of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in Odisha.
Both the bills were piloted by Minister of Tribal Affairs Arjun Munda in the upper house.
Replying to the debate, he said both the bills have been brought with long-term planning.
In Andhra Pradesh, three additional ethnic groups - Bondo Porja, Khond Porja, Parangiperja, will be included in the Scheduled Tribes list.
Meanwhile, Odisha will add four groups to the list.
All these are part of Primitive Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) and they have been added to the scheduled list after 75 years of independence.
"There are 75 PVTGs which are spread from Andaman Island to the mainland. The government has started a scheme and worked in mission mode with a target to reach them in the far-flung area in which they reside," said Munda.
According to him, the names of such 10 PVTGs were not added to the list of scheduled tribes, and they were deprived of conditional rights and faced injustice.
Munda further said he has written letters to the state governments, where the population of PVTGs is on the decline.
Moreover, the government has also launched schemes such as PM-JANMAN (Pradhan Mantri Janjati Adivasi Nyaya Maha Abhiyan) to improve the socio-economic conditions of the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups, he said.
He thanked the members of the house and said there is no need for any politics in supporting such kind of bills.
Munda said some members have suggested adding some more communities from their states to the list, and the government is considering that.
However, he added inclusion in the list of scheduled tribe is based on certain criteria of characters.
"Scheduled tribe is a character, not a caste. It inherits the character of the community," he said.
Participating in the discussions, Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan said the two bills seek to correct the historical anomalies with the inclusion of seven communities from Odisha and Andhra Pradesh in the SC/ST list.
The passage of the bills in Rajya Sabha and later in Lok Sabha will have an immense socio-economic and psychological impact on the four primitive tribes from Odisha, he said.
Thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he noted that it is after 22 years that the Parliament has taken up bills to make changes in the SC/ST list. He also attacked the Congress for doing nothing for backward castes even after being in power for such a long period.
Pradhan said in 2013-14, the tribal affairs ministry had a budget allocation of Rs 42,095 crore, which has gone up by a considerable amount now.
He said that the government will not leave out any deserving community which needs to be included in the SC/ST list.
Citing the example of Odisha, he noted more than 120 proposals came to the central government.
He noted that proposals have been sent back to the state government with some queries and as soon as the Odisha government sends them back, those would be considered by the government.
CPI member Binoy Viswam alleged that the BJP government is against tribals, people from backward castes, and women, and only in the time of elections, they seek the support from such communities.
Ryaga Krishnaiah (YSRCP) and Ashok Kumar Mittal (AAP) also participated in the discussion.
Santanu Sen of the TMC said that "while standing to speak on this bill, it really gives me pain when I recall that the respected President of India who belongs to a tribal community is not invited during the inauguration of this new Parliament building or during the Pran Pratishtha in Ayodhya. This reflects how this government respects the tribal communities at large."
L Hanumanthaiah of the Congress sought to know why the government cannot look at the whole Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes list afresh and make it an inclusive list of SCs and STs across the country at a time so that this problem will not be there and every now and then we need not have to amend these bills from time to time.
(With PTI inputs)
