DNT Training

Keynote Address -Sri. Annadurai DNT communities are spread all over the country, with different names in different states. Denotified and Nomadic tribes are living as small groups in micro habitats which are thinly spread all over the state, 70% of parimalai kallars are suffered without source of livelihoods and children of these community are being taken as contract labor for manufacturing of 'Murukku' within and outside the state, children are also working in the spinning mill as contract labor, Kal ottar community is living in a of a state of insecurity, due to the ban of stone quarrying and not provided with the alternatives, they are working at low wages as construction laborers, without any job security, Nari kuravar community in spite of recent Scheduled Tribal status majority of them are living as nomads in the road margins. Valayars don't know who are they, they are not clear about their identity, traditionally they were snake and rat catchers and use to eat rats. The snake catching banned as per the law and they were not provided with alternatives, today Valayars are working as construction laborers, street vendors and ultimately they have forgot hunting which was their main source of livelihood, another community is Lambadi, whose source of livelihoods are uncertain and their living conditions are very poor, political parties are using us DNTs as curry leaves, unless we become organized and learn to fight for our rights our lives will continue like this.

GENESIS: To ascertain, understand and share the issues and problems of the De-Notified and Nomadic Tribes (DNTs), to consolidate and for evolving demands along with strategies, so that ogy for following up with the polity and policy makers as a follow up of the five state level workshops, this national level workshop is being conceptualised. On the basis of this a national level core group of CSOs and DNTs was also visualised to take this further and make as a part of National Agenda. THE CONSULTATION Inaugural Session: The consultation was formally inaugurated by Ms. Bidulata Huika, State Convenor, Odisha Adivasi Manch, She along with DNT leaders Sri Nageswar Rao, Andhra Pradesh, Sri Anna Durai, Tamil Nadu, Er. Madhabendra Gochhayat, Odisha, Sri Totaram Jhadav, Maharashtra and Sri Siddhu Thoravat from Karnataka inaugurated the Consultation through brief deliberations, subsequently about 50 participants from Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra, introduced through the method of self introduction. Introducing the theme of consultation: Sri Subba Rao, a DNT and Convenor, National Campaign for DNT Human Rights (NCDNTHR) while introducing the background, aims and objectives of the Consultation, said that it took almost sixty seven years, post independence for the NT-DNTs to come together and share as an organised gathering of at national level, even now men are majority and participation of women is low, however this occasion could be considered as a good beginning. This Consultation is the first of its kind at the national level, where NT-DNTs came together independently at their own strength, without the influence of non NT-DNT 'godfathers/mothers'. Nomads are pastoral, hunter-gatherers and performers, who are also called Peripatetic, nomads are of Pre-Rig Veda period, who doesn't have caste system, while Manu Smruti was instrumental in spearheading the caste system, Chandragupta Mauraya is a combination of Mura tribe from his mother and Gupta from his father, Chanakya is the first administrator prepared Criminal Tribal lists, Bipra Binodis were out casts of the Brahmins, Dom is the horizon of all performer communities among the nomads, Ramanujacharya preached Gayatri Mantra in public and gave vaishnava deekasha to nomads who became mendicant dasas.

Vidyawarta Peer-Reviewed International Publication, 2019

Keynote Address -Sri. Annadurai DNT communities are spread all over the country, with different names in different states. Denotified and Nomadic tribes are living as small groups in micro habitats which are thinly spread all over the state, 70% of parimalai kallars are suffered without source of livelihoods and children of these community are being taken as contract labor for manufacturing of 'Murukku' within and outside the state, children are also working in the spinning mill as contract labor, Kal ottar community is living in a of a state of insecurity, due to the ban of stone quarrying and not provided with the alternatives, they are working at low wages as construction laborers, without any job security, Nari kuravar community in spite of recent Scheduled Tribal status majority of them are living as nomads in the road margins. Valayars don't know who are they, they are not clear about their identity, traditionally they were snake and rat catchers and use to eat rats. The snake catching banned as per the law and they were not provided with alternatives, today Valayars are working as construction laborers, street vendors and ultimately they have forgot hunting which was their main source of livelihood, another community is Lambadi, whose source of livelihoods are uncertain and their living conditions are very poor, political parties are using us DNTs as curry leaves, unless we become organized and learn to fight for our rights our lives will continue like this.

Introduction As per the report submitted by the National Commission for De-notified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic tribes set under Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India, Delhi has 27 de-notified tribes (DNT). Currently in Delhi many DNTs communities such as Aheria, Banjara, Bawaria, Bhil, Nat, Bhantu, Bhatt and, Sapera and the like live. They are mainly found in clusters in different pocket of Delhi like, Rangpuri Pahari, Mahipalpur, Ekta Vihar, Sonia Vihar, Rajeev Gandhi camp and Adiwasi Camp (in Nehru Nagar). Some of them have been in the city since the time of Independence of India. Some of them came to the city later on in different phases at different point of time. De-notified tribes are quite marginalized and they are subjected to social stigma and discrimination. Even the Government and bureaucracy were not free from labeling the communities. The title of the piece of legislation “Criminal Tribes Act, 1871” which contained the word “criminal” labeled the large numbers of Tribes as criminals. In other words, they were “notified” as criminals. Under the act, they were subjected to various form of harassment. Post-independence, in the year 1952, the act was repealed and the set of tribes groups were “de-notified” and since then, they are called as de-notified tribes. The community faces stigma due to 150 years old law, which had labeled them as “habitual criminals” The de-notified community still remains in the abject poverty. These tribal communities have always remained alienated and ignored by the civil societies and government bodies. They are deprived of proper housing, schemes, programmes and also, the identity. Due to the social stigma, the DNTs also had to move to the other cities. A lot of them lost their traditional occupations due to the criminal Tribal Act, 1871. DNTs are mostly the people who used to be nomadic in nature, therefore, they are found in different states and Union territories. Many committees and commissions have been formed since 1962 but each one of them has failed to understand their issues and problems. One of the major issues with any of the policies drafted by any of the committee is the inability to come up with a concrete solution for the problem of the issue of the identity and of the existing anomalies in the classifications under Other Backward Castes, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes among the states. The identity bestowed over them were of no help and the religion, they adopted did not come to as their rescue too. There is still a fair percentage of DNTs without an identity and are not accepted by the society. One of the reasons for their lack of identity is directly related to uprooting of them from their culture, tradition and norms. They no longer practice the traditions, which were part of their culture. Rationale of the study The study would help to understand the changes, variations and continuities of values, norms and tradition and so on. In addition, the way DNTs is identified in the community. Further, the study would also look into the community’s adaption to the current urban location. It would also look into the prevailing status of the communities even after setting up of the commissions. Objectives • To develop perspectives on the social economic aspects of the families of de-notified tribes • To understand the policies and legislations related to de-notified tribes before and after independence of India. • To document the everyday life of select families and the process of their adaptation to a new locality and to the rapid changes in the society. On methods used in the study The study would be descriptive research design and the study would be qualitative in nature.The study would aim to describe the phenomenon, the situation, the people and the community. The universe of the study would include all the de-notified tribes residing in Delhi. The tools of data collection would be through Semi-structure interview, observation, oral history and case studies. The different narratives and perceptive where put under different themes and sub- themes to analyze the life of DNTs. Under different sub-themes the three cases where analyzed. Summary of the findings and conclusions The study provided with a scope to understand the group of people, whose tradition, culture and norms have undergone a major change to become a part of the mainstream society. The study provided with the scope to understand the policies, legislature and its impact on them. Although, CTA, 1871 has been repealed but, was replaced by the Bombay Habitual Offenders Act, 1959. It is the need of hour to provide with justice to DNTs by repealing Bombay Habitual Offenders act, 1959. In addition, the police officers and authorities need to be sensitized with regards to DNTs and proper legislature; policies and laws should be put into the place to provide DNTs with safeguard measures. The standard of living of DNTs is also low and the issues and problems of DNTs are not dealt with much sensitivity. The proper intervention plans are needed and civil society should come forward with the plan of action and intervention to provide DNTs with equality and justice.

Praxis India, 2017

PRAXIS INDIA, 2020

Background: The word NT or DNT is alien to Orissa till NCDNTHR entering the state and organising first Workshop in Bhubaneswar in 2013, with the kind help of Shri. Badal Kumar tha and Shri Bishnu Mohanti. Subsequently we organised a National convention at Hyderabad, where considerable number of people participated, but subsequently nothing happened and all the contacts gone to the hibernation. My recent visit to Orissa helped to revive the contacts and for evolving a road map to work in the Rayagada district in association with Badal leading a resourceful organisation and Kuldeep from the DNT community, having good grassroots base. Information compiled in this report will be helpful for the activists to organise the NT & DNTs in the Orissa.