Criminal Tribes Act - Post-independence Reforms

Post-independence Reforms

In January 1947, Government of Bombay set up a committee which included B.G. Kher, then Chief Minister Morarji Desai, and Gulzarilal Nanda to look into the matter of 'criminal tribes', this set into motion the final repeal of the Act in August 1949, which resulted in 2,300,000 tribals were being decriminalised.

Post independence, the Act was ultimately repealed, first in Madras Province in 1949 as the result of struggles led by Communist leaders such as P. Ramamurthi and P. Jeevanandam, and Forward Bloc leader U. Muthuramalingam Thevar, who had led many agitations in the villages starting 1929, urging the people to defy the CTA, as result the number of tribes under CTA was reduced. Other provincial governments soon followed suit.

Subsequently, the Committee appointed in the same year by the Central government, to study the utility of the existence of this law, reported in 1950 that the system violated the spirit of the Indian constitution. The Habitual Offenders Act (HOA) (1952) was enacted in the place of CTA, which states that an habitual offender is one who has been a victim of subjective and objective influences and has manifested a set practice in crime, and also presents a danger to society, though effectively re-stigmatized the already marginalised "criminal tribes". Since the stigma continues around the previously criminalised tribes, because of the ineffective nature of the new Act, which in effect meant relisting of the supposed Denotified tribes, and today the social category generally known as the denotified and nomadic tribes of India has a population of approximately 60 million in India.

However many these denotified tribes continued to carry considerable social stigma of the Act and come under the purview of the 'Prevention of Anti-Social Activity Act' (PASA). Many of them have been denied the status of Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) or Other Backward Classes (OBC), which would have allowed them avail Reservation under Indian law, which reserves seats for them in government jobs and educational institutions, thus most of them are still living below poverty line and sub-human condition Over the course of the century since its passing, the criminal identity attached to certain tribes by the Act, was internalised not just by the society, but also by the police, whose official methodology, even after repeal of the Act, often reflected the characteristics of manifestation of an era initiated by the Act, a century ago, where characteristic of crimes committed by certain tribes were closely watched, studied and documented.

National Human Rights Commission, in February 2000 recommended repeal of the Habitual Offenders Act, 1952. Later in March 2007, the UN’s anti-discrimination body Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), noted 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 stigmatised under the Habitual Offenders Act (1952) (art. 2 (1)), and asked India to repeal the Habitual Offenders Act (1952) and effectively rehabilitate the denotified and nomadic tribes. According to the body, since much of 'Habitual Offenders Act (1952)' is derived from the earlier 'Criminal Tribes Act 1871', it doesn't show a marked departure in its intent, only gives the formed notified tribes a new name i.e. Denotified tribes, hence the stigma continues so does the oppression, as the law is being denounced on two counts, first that "all human beings are born free and equal", and second that it negates a valuable principle of the criminal justice system – innocent until proven guilty.

In 2008, the National Commission for Denotified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes (NCDNSNT) of Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment recommended that same reservations as available to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes be extended to around 11 crore people of denotified, nomadic or semi-nomadic tribes in India; the commission further recommended that the provisions of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 be applicable to these tribes also. Today, many governmental and non-governmental bodies are involved in the betterment of these denotified tribes through various schemes and educational programs.