August 31 is celebrated as Liberation Day by Denotified Nomadic Tribes across India, but real freedom stays far-fetched as social stigma and systemic discrimination continue to affect people belonging to such tribes, says Imaad ul Hasan in Outlook (Aug 30, 2020).
“There is a stereotype against Denotified Nomadic Tribes (DNTs) in police, media, society and even some judges. Every member of this community is considered a criminal by the virtue of birth and this stigma continues till they die,” says Sudam Rathore, a PhD research scholar from Laman Banjara tribe of Maharashtra.
Sudam is currently teaching in a tribal area of Dhindori in Nashik district. While talking about the institutional bias towards DNTs, he referred to a 2019 Supreme Court’s judgment.
In March last year, the Supreme Court had set aside its own 2009 judgment and set six convicts free, who were earlier sent to death row. It was a first of its kind ruling. They were convicted by multiple courts - including the Apex Court- in a famous rape and multiple murder case of Nashik district. The Supreme Court said the six men were falsely implicated and roped in by the police. All six of them, who spent 16 years in jail for a crime they never committed, belonged to the nomadic tribes formerly declared as ‘born criminals’.
Prominent and educated persons in law enforcement and government have also shown to have a bias against the DNTs, one example being former IPS officer and present Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry, Kiran Bedi. Bedi’s controversial tweet calling people from ex-criminal tribes as "hardcore professionals in committing crimes" came after police named Bawarias in Bulandshahr rape incident. She later apologised after protests.
In 2007, the UN Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) asked the Indian government to repeal the Habitual Offenders Act and affectively rehabilitate them. In its concluding observation, it expressed concern and stated that “the so-called denotified and nomadic, which are listed for their alleged ‘criminal tendencies’ under the former Criminal Tribes Act (1871), continue to be stigmatized under the Habitual Offenders Act (1852) (art. 2 (1) ) ©).”
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| Still from 61st National Award-winning film ‘The Lost Behrupiya’ by Sriram Dalton |
Sudam is currently teaching in a tribal area of Dhindori in Nashik district. While talking about the institutional bias towards DNTs, he referred to a 2019 Supreme Court’s judgment.
In March last year, the Supreme Court had set aside its own 2009 judgment and set six convicts free, who were earlier sent to death row. It was a first of its kind ruling. They were convicted by multiple courts - including the Apex Court- in a famous rape and multiple murder case of Nashik district. The Supreme Court said the six men were falsely implicated and roped in by the police. All six of them, who spent 16 years in jail for a crime they never committed, belonged to the nomadic tribes formerly declared as ‘born criminals’.
Prominent and educated persons in law enforcement and government have also shown to have a bias against the DNTs, one example being former IPS officer and present Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry, Kiran Bedi. Bedi’s controversial tweet calling people from ex-criminal tribes as "hardcore professionals in committing crimes" came after police named Bawarias in Bulandshahr rape incident. She later apologised after protests.
In 2007, the UN Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) asked the Indian government to repeal the Habitual Offenders Act and affectively rehabilitate them. In its concluding observation, it expressed concern and stated that “the so-called denotified and nomadic, which are listed for their alleged ‘criminal tendencies’ under the former Criminal Tribes Act (1871), continue to be stigmatized under the Habitual Offenders Act (1852) (art. 2 (1) ) ©).”
