The centre has approved The Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Amendment) Bill, 2018 to be introduced in the Parliament.
The bill seeks revision in list of Scheduled Tribes of Arunachal Pradesh with inclusion of ‘Nocte’, ‘Tangsa’, ‘Tutsa’, ‘Wancho’ in lieu of ‘Any Naga Tribes’, deletion of ‘Abor’, replacing Tai Khamti in place of Khampti, inclusion of ‘Mishmi-Kaman’ (Miju Mishmi), ‘Idu’ (Mishmi) and Taraon (Digaru Mishmi), and inclusion of Monpa, Memba, Sartang, Sajolong (Miji) in lieu of Momba.
The Nocte, Tangsa, Tutsa, Wancho tribes were earlier ambiguously clubbed together under ‘Any Naga Tribes’.
In 2015, Member of Parliament Ninong Ering introduced a private members’ bill in the Lok Sabha with a request of early inclusion of Yobin, Nocte, Tutsa, Tangsa and Wancho tribes in the list.
Arunachal Pradesh Government had also sent a proposal to amend the list of scheduled tribes of the state to the centre to do away with the category ‘any Naga’ tribe and replace it with the names of the tribes- Nocte, Tangsa, Tutsa and Wancho.
The Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Amendment) Bill, 2018 assumes significance since many of the names of tribes have been entered wrongly or tribes-with distinct linguistic and cultural identities have been clubbed together.
However, the proposed bill does not mention the name of Yobin tribe of Vijaynagar who have been deprived of their ST status. First, the tribe was stripped of their ST status, which was later restored. However, due to technical errors, they are yet to get back their ST status.
This too should come for rectification at the earliest.