By Melarbor Lyngdoh Thabah
Constitutional Schedule Tribes Order 1950 is the legal document that specifies which tribes are considered as Scheduled Tribes in different states. The benefit of this recognition is that tribes of other states can purchase land, property, conduct business, attain the same rights, get political representation, reservation in state government jobs and education in those states which recognise them as tribals. The process of inclusion / exclusion from the Schedule Tribe List involves the most important primary recommendation of the state government, followed by the Registrar General of India and the National Commission of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (NCSC&ST).
In the 1976 CSTO Amendment, Meghalaya simply adopted and accepted the notification of 17 (seventeen) tribes which are recognized as tribes from erstwhile Assam without thinking about the negative ramifications such an adoption process would wrought upon the 3 (three) indigenous tribes of the state namely the Khasi, Jaintia and Garo people.
One has to laud the MLA from North Shillong for bringing a motion for amendment on this important subject matter in the 2024 Assembly Summer Session. In my opinion, there should be only three indigenous tribes but an error was made in the adoption process from the Assam ST Order during the 1976 CSTO Amendment whereby the Khasi Jaintia people were wrongly sub-classed into 5(five) groups namely Pnar, Synteng, Bhoi, War and Lyngngam. These are merely different names of the same people based on their geographical residence. The time is now ripe for such a De-notification because of a dearth of land/property, jobs, education and business even amongst us indigenous tribals. The procrastination for Denotification will aggravate the horrendous situation that we the indigenous tribals are currently enduring. In the absence of the Chief Minister owing to illness, the Tourism Minister spoke on his behalf in his assembly reply, that a departmental committee would be set up to study in detail all the facts, involve all the stakeholders and finally send its recommendations to the competent authority within (3) three months’ time. It has now been 11 months and the names of the committee members have not been notified as yet, let alone submitting a report. Will the North Shillong MLA who introduced this special motion be included as a member, is a thought worth pondering.
It is a notable fact that the Biatei are recognized tribes in five states namely Assam, Tripura, Manipur, Mizoram and Meghalaya. Meghalaya must exempt them since they are already recognized in four other states where their population is more prominent. Questions linger whether they are truly indigenous to the Jaintia Hills. The 3 indigenous tribals compete amongst themselves for property, education and job seats, businesses which are meagre and to have these other additional tribes in our ST list serves as an unwanted exacerbation to our misery. What I am pleading is logical and fair; that is the other additional indigenous tribes, should only be recognized as tribals of the state of their origin.
The 2-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India in its judgement on February 7, 2024 had stated that tribes of one state should not be recognized as tribes in another state unless notified as tribals. The logic behind this ruling that I had deduced is that benefits of the indigenous tribals of recipient state are watered down and subjected to unfair competition when these other tribes emanating from other states acquire the same benefits as those indigenous tribes of that recipient state. The Khasi, Jaintia and Garo are not recognized as tribes in all those states where these tribes originating from others states are recognized as tribes in Meghalaya.
This is not a tit for tat situation even if those states recognize us as tribals. It is a fundamental matter of the inalienable right that we have not to recognize them for our protection. With due respect to them, is is important and just that they be recognized as tribals in their own state(s) from which they emanate. It is an urgent matter of protecting our own 3 indigenous tribes from being eroded by tribals of other states in terms of acquisition of our land/property since land / property is life and identity, conduct businesses and tax breaks which affects our survival in livelihood, attains the same rights like political representation, reservation in state government jobs and education et. al which all consequently increase their standard of living thus resulting in an increase in their tribal population thereby affecting the demography of the three indigenous tribes which affects our existence and identity.
All these concerns are not figments of our imagination but signifies a clear and visible danger hence the urgency to act which we urge upon the Cabinet to not delay and withhold the inevitable but to (a). Notify the committee members within 1 (one) month before the start of the 2025 Autumn session, (b). Within a deadline of 3 (three) from the date of notification of the committee members; to make public in the House and send its recommendations to the Registrar General of India and NCSC&ST, (c). The Cabinet must follow up on the amended De-notification of all the tribes except only the rightful Khasi, Jaintia and Garo indigenous Scheduled Tribes of our state for an approved order.
