SCHEDULE TRIBE STATUS (Syllabus: GS Paper 2 – Vulnerable Section)

Context: In a landmark development, the Lok Sabha has passed the Constitution (Jammu and Kashmir) Scheduled Tribes Order (Amendment) Bill, 2024, marking a significant stride towards empowering marginalized tribal  communities in the region.

About Constitution (Jammu and Kashmir) Scheduled Tribes Order (Amendment) Bill, 2024: Salient feature

• Granting Scheduled Tribe status to the Pahari Ethnic Group, Padari Tribes, Koli, and Gadda Brahmin in Jammu and Kashmir.
• The inclusion of these communities in the list of Scheduled Tribes in Jammu and Kashmir will have absolutely no impact on current level of reservations available to the existing Scheduled Tribe communities such as Gujjars and Bakarwals. They will continue to get reservation like before.

Constitutional provision for providing ST status:

• Addition: Under Article 342(1), the President may with respect to any State or Union Territory, and where it is a State, after consultation with the Governor, by a public notification, specify the tribes or tribal communities or part of or groups within tribes or tribal communities as Scheduled Tribe in relation to that State or Union Territory.
• Removal: Under Article 342(2), the Parliament may be law include in or exclude from the list of Scheduled Tribes specified in a notification issued under clause (1) any tribe or tribal community or part of or group within any tribe or tribal community, but save as aforesaid a notification issued under the said clause shall not be varied by any subsequent notification.