B COMMITTEE ON THE ELIMINATION OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION RANDED ‘BORN’ CRIMINALS:
RACIAL ABUSES AGAINST DENOTIFIED AND NOMADIC TRIBES IN INDIA
INFORMATION FOR THE CONSIDERATION IN REVIEWING IN INDIA In 1952 the Indian Government withdrew the Criminal
Tribes Act of 1871 throughout India and enacted Habitual Offender’s Act.
The Resist Initiative International, a south asian human rights
and
democracy organization is extremely concerned by the failure of
the
Indian Government to safeguard the rights of Denotified and
Nomadic
Tribes (DNTs). It is an impossible notion to claim that a person
can be
born a criminal however DNTs are being branded at birth. The
notion that
these people are criminals from birth is so embedded in Indian
society
that harassment, racial discrimination, and prejudice seem to be
standard
practice without any accountability or justice being taken. There
are laws
to protect DNTs against persecution on the basis of their ethnic group
but these are not being enforced.
History of so-called born criminals in India
The social category generally known as the Denotified and Nomadic
tribes of India covers a population approximately of 60 million.
Some of
them are included in the list of Scheduled castes, some others in
the
Scheduled Tribes, and quite a few in Other Backward Classes. But
there
are many of these tribes, which find place in none of the above.
What is
common to all these DNTs is the fate of being branded as 'born'
criminals.
The Denotified and Nomadic tribes make up about 60 million of
India’s
population. There are 313 Nomadic Tribes and 198 Denotified
Tribes.
The names of the Denotified tribes in the state of Maharashtra,
some of
which are featured in this report, are Berad, Bestar, Bhatma,
Kaikadi,
Kankarbhat, Katabu, Lamani, Phase-Pardhi, Raj-Pardhi,
Rajput-Bhatma,
Ramoshi, Vadar, Waghari and Chhapparbandh. The Nomadic Tribes:
Bawa, Beldar, Bharadi, Bhute, Chalwadi, Chitrakathi, Garudi,
Ghisadi,
Golla, Gondhali, Gopal, Helwe, Joshi, Kasi-Kapadi, Kolhati,
Mairal, Masan-
Jogi, Nandi-Wale, Pangul, Raval, Shikalgar, Thakar, Vaidu, Vasudeo1.
1 Motiraj Rathod (200) ‘Denotified and Nomadic Tribes in Maharashtra’.
Traditionally the tribes wander and therefore have not integrated into
Indian society, as well as being a tradition it is also due to the
tribes not
having any livelihood production.
India’s Draft National Policy in Tribals does not include
Denotified or
Nomadic Tribes. The term ‘Criminal Tribes’ originates from the
British
colonial times. The British initiated the Criminal Tribes Act in
1871,
referring to around 150 tribes for their so-called “criminal
tendencies,”
giving the police wide powers to arrest them, control, and monitor
their
movements. The law in effect was that anyone born into one of the
tribes,
under this act, was seen as a criminal.
In 1952, the Indian Government withdrew the Criminal Tribes Act of
1871 throughout India and enacted Habitual Offender’s Act. Both
the
Criminal Tribes Act and the Habitual Offender's Act negate the
universally
proclaimed principle that "all human beings are born free and
equal". The
listing of these Denotified and Nomadic under the Habitual
Offender’s Act
also negates the principle of the criminal justice system –
innocent until
proven guilty.
There is no political will to eradicate such on going racism and
violations
of the tribal people and therefore any initiatives to do so have
no success.
In the Five Year plan to rehabilitate the Denotified Tribes, the
Indian
Planning Commission made a stipulation of Rs. 3.5 crores to insure
the
resettlement of ex-criminal tribes and programs to assist them in
integrating into Indian community life. Since the first Five Year
plan there
have been three more similar attempts to rehabilitate the tribes.
However,
the racist approaches to these initiatives continue and the
outcomes have
inevitability not been successful.
In the late 1990s, the government moved to abolish the Habitual
Offenders Acts. The judiciary reviewed the custodial death cases
of
Budhan Sabar in West Bengal and Pinya Hari Kale in Maharashtra. In
landmark judgments, the judges found the police guilty, punished
responsible police officers, and awarded compensation to
survivors.2
Although a significant incident for accountability by the State,
it did not
become a turning point in the lives of the DNT’s. The decision did
not
change the attitude of the forces or the administration and no
equality or
respect for the DNTs were shown by society as remains today.
The Telegraph in July 31, 1998 reported on the reasoning behind the lack
of progress on integrating the DNTs : "Madhya Pradesh Chief
Minister
Digvijay Singh today expressed concern over a series of recent
robberies
in Madhya Pradesh by Pardhi tribals, identified as having criminal
antecedents. These tribes [sic ], listed as criminal
ethnic groups, have
defied the efforts of the government to rehabilitate them. The CM
said
state projects to provide these people with education did not have
any
impact on their criminal instincts. Pardhis have "criminal
antecedents,"
are "listed as [a] criminal ethnic group," and nothing
the state does seems
able to change "their criminal instincts." This article
shows the brutality,
racism, and prejudice towards the DNTs remains part of Indian
culture.
The residual effects of 1871 Criminal Tribes Act are manifested in
the
wide range of atrocities perpetrated on members of these so-called
“criminal” tribes by those whose prejudice has not subsided.
Deep-seated
discrimination has led to various types of horrific treatment of
many of
these tribes in different parts of the country. Many tribes booked
under
this Act are without the knowledge or awareness that the
destruction of
their lives and the situation they are in is due to the State and
the nontribal
people.
Between 1979 and 1982, forty-two Lodha were mob-lynched without
suspicion of crime but based on their tribal identity. Police have
yet to
take any action on any of the cases.
Abuses against Denotified and Nomadic Tribes.
On January 30th 2007, the Forum for Fact-Finding and Advocacy
filed a
petition to National Human Rights Commission. Deba Paharia, was
allegedly murdered in a remote village on January 6, 2007. In
response,
several men and 3 ladies were arrested and taken to Sundarpahar
police
station in Jharkhand on January 9 (the police contest this date
and
claimed that the arrests occurred on January 11). The men were
allegedly
physically assaulted, and witnesses confirm that there were
tell-tale
marks of police brutality on their bodies. The three female
victims (all
aged between 28 and 31) claim that they were illegally detained,
and that
during that detention they were subjected to torture, rape, that
they were
stripped and paraded naked around the police station, and that the
police
stole Rs.120 from them. The victims have identified the
perpetrators as
the officer-in-charge, Dipnarayan Mandel and another officer,
Mahadev
Oraon.
In 2006, the Government of Jharkhand initiated a scheme to form an
armed police battalion comprising of primitive tribes. It was
allegedly an
attempt to rehabilitate the Paharias, one of the nine primitive
tribes in
Jharkland. It appeared to be a battalion of a special police
force. Out of
the 1.92 lakh primitive tribe population in the state, comprising
as many
as nine groups, as many as one lakh happen to be Paharias. Among
all
the primitive tribes in the state, there are only 101 graduates,
according
to welfare department officials3. Although supposedly a
rehabilitation
initiative, it derives from the fundamental basis of
discrimination that
these tribes were born with criminals or with criminal attributes.
The
Forum for Fact-Finding and Advocacy filed a complaint to the
National
Human Rights Commission on this issue. Without providing a chance
for
defending the case to Forum for Fact-finding Documentation and
Advocacy, National Human Rights Commission dismissed the
complaint.
It is against the principle of cardinal principle of natural
justice. The
Government of India permitted the State Government of Jharkhand to
form the tribal battalion on the basis of their ethnicity.
According to the Indian Confederation of Indigenous and Tribal
People
(ICITP), 80 percent of the tribal populations live below the
poverty level.
In 1998, the National Human Rights Commission established a panel
to
investigate the condition of the country's 20 million denotified
tribal
people. During 2000, the panel prepared a report for the National
Human
Rights Commission on their condition, which recommended that the
Habitual Offenders Act, aimed at the denotified and nomadic
tribes, be
repealed. At year's end, no action had been taken on this
recommendation. According to the ICITP, more than 40,000 tribal
women, mainly from Orissa and Bihar, have been forced into
situations of
economic and sexual exploitation; many come from tribes that were
driven off the land by national park schemes. Special courts to
hear
complaints of atrocities committed against tribal people were to
have
been established under the Protection of Civil Rights Act, but
this never
was accomplished4.
In September 2006, a Bhil woman was attacked and raped by a Madhya
Pradesh police officer while her brother-in-law was tied up and
beaten
after trying to protest her rape. After in incident, on arrival at
the police
station to report crime, the police harassed the pair and refused
to file
their complaint. The situation erupted and subsequently other Bhil
tribal
members, due to the inaction towards the perpetrators, fought with
police.
The Tribal Welfare Research Institute, a Jharkhand government
organisation, has undertaken an intensive survey of the Primitive
Tribal
Groups. In their reports, it was found that the two Pahariya
groups in
Pakur district have pledged for loans around 2,500 acres of
precious
agricultural land. The official survey by the institute has
revealed that out
of 22 districts, in 14 districts the Primitive Tribal Groups have
taken loan
of over Rs 1.4 crore of which only Rs 64 lakh have been disbursed
by the
banks. This loan amount was overwhelming especially when
considering
that 80 per cent of the populations were making a living of less
than Rs
600 per month. Only 1.09 per cent had an income of more than Rs
1,000.
They belonged to Korwa tribe living in Garhwa district5.
In 2003, the government in Jharkhand aimed to acquire tribal land
from
the Paharias in order to pursue a coal-mining project in the
region. The
project breeched the Land Acquisition Act and the Santhal Pargana
Tendency Act, would have deleterious effects for over 50,000
tribal
members.
In Madhya Pradesh, the impoverished status of many of the Bhil
people
has resulted in the International Labor Organization finding that
they
constitute a significant portion of bonded labor in the agricultural
sector
there. In perhaps the most publicized of these cases, the threat
of
submersion posed by the Narmada Valley damn project is borne
primarily
by the Bhil tribe. They are the primary inhabitants of the and in
the
Narmada Valley, having occupied it for centuries. The perception
of the
Bhil’s as ‘criminal’ seems to render their rights unimportant in
the eyes of
the government and private enterprises, which seek to benefit from
harnessing the resources of the region.
On August the 28th 2001 a Pardhi woman, after
her sons were falsely
arrested, ignited herself in protest in court. This incident led
to
merchants burning down over 100 homes belonging to Pardhi
villagers.
These are only a few cases of violence and other atrocities that
have been
committed against the “criminal” tribes of the Paharia, Lodha,
Pardhi and
Bhil and other DNT’s. There are more on record, which date back to
before independence. The incidents demonstrating the difficulty
many of
these tribal members face in filing reports with the police,
suggest that
many more violations have occurred though have yet to be recorded.
There are 60 million “de-notified” tribal members who are
ostracized and
victimized, particularly by the police. The number of cases
recorded
however is only a small fraction.
Conclusion
DNT’s are distinguished in relation to their ancestry, their race
- this
discrimination prejudices their benefit of many human rights – the
right
to life, liberty and security, the right to equality before law,
and the right
not to be discriminated against. It is also important that the
specific
human right violations made by state authorities, including
police,
against these tribes are accounted for by the State and the
colonial view
that DNTs have “criminal tendencies” are not used to scapegoat
these
victims or deny them justice to human right violations that they
have
suffered. There is also the need for adopting policy measures and
ending
the existing racial laws in India.
We respectfully ask the members of the Committee on the
Elimination of
Racial Discrimination to raise these issues with the government of
India
and ask concerted effort to end all racial discrimination against
the
Denotified and Nomadic Tribes by ensuring its commitment to
international human rights standard and principles.
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