Sikkim constitutes high-level committee to work on ST status demand of left-out communities

BIJOY GURUNG

Panel tasked to prepare detailed ethnographic report, justify why the 12 communities deeply qualify for tribal status

GANGTOK,: The Sikkim government has constituted a high-level committee to work on the modalities for inclusion of the 12 left-out communities of Sikkim in the Scheduled Tribes list.

Prominent anthropologists and academicians are included in this 12-member Sikkim State High Level Committee which was notified by the State government on November 4. The panel is headed by Prof BV Sharma, director of Anthropological Survey of India and director general of Raja Ram Mohan Roy Library Foundation under Ministry of Culture.

The committee is tasked to prepare a comprehensive ethnographic and anthropological report of the 12 left-out communities of Sikkim who have been pursuing the tribal status demand.

The left-out communities are Bhujel, Gurung, Jogi, Kirat Khambu Rai, Kirat Dewan (Yakha), Khas (Chettri-Bahun), Mangar, Newar, Sanyashi, Sunuwar (Mukhia), Thami and Majhi. Similar communities from neighbouring Darjeeling region are also demanding inclusion in the ST list.

As per the notification, the high-level committee is directed to make recommendations of the Sikkim government to the Government of India for the inclusion of the 12 left-out communities on a firm ethno-historical and geographical-ecology grounds; scientific-demographic and legal-constitutional basis and regional and national interest implications particularly in the context of the State of Sikkim, Himalayan borders and borderlands.

The committee has to meticulously spell out the grounds and substantive socio-cultural, historic-geographical, ecological and legal-constitutional justification as to why these 12 left-out communities deeply qualify for the ST status as per various provisions of the Constitution of India.

The committee would also be examining and elucidating the tri-junctional benefits/dividends that accrue from the inclusions of these left-out communities in the ST list in terms of:

·        Socio-economic upliftment and cultural-ecological conservations of these and other tribes spread over the entire Indian Himalayan region and more specifically in the Eastern Himalaya consisting of Sikkim and Darjeeling hills.

·        Significant enrichment of State level and national tribal heritage, cultural panorama and development trajectory of the indigenous communities in the Eastern Himalayan

·        Substantive contributions to the consolidations of national interest projects including national security in the sensitive border and borderlands of India.

The committee has been directed so submit its report to the Sikkim government within three months.

Eminent economist Prof Mahendra P Lama is the vice chairman of the committee which is another key step taken by the Sikkim government towards the ST status demand of the left-out communities.

On 11^th January 2021, the Sikkim Legislative Assembly adopted a government resolution seeking tribal status for the 12 left-out Nepali communities of Sikkim.

Last month, the organisations of the Nepali communities from both Sikkim and Darjeeling regions decided to collectively push for the ST status with a renewed manner and fresh strategy. They have formed a ‘Joint Action Committee for the Scheduled Tribe Demand’ which will work collaboratively to reinvigorate the demand and resubmit a joint ethnographic report to the Central Government.

Sikkim State High Level Committee

Chairman: Prof BV Sharma, director, Anthropological Survey of India and director general, Raja Ram Mohan Roy Library Foundation, Ministry of Culture

Vice Chairman: Prof Mahendra P. Lama, Development Economist & Senior Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University’s School of International Studies, New Delhi

Members: Prof Virginius Xaxa, former deputy director, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai; Dr. Satyabrata Chakrabarti, former general secretary, Asiatic Society & former deputy director Anthropological Survey of India; Prof. Nupur Tiwari, director, Centre of Tribal Research and Exploration, IIPA New Delhi; Prof AB Ota, senior advisor, UNICEF, advisor of Tribal Museum, Rashtrapati Bhavan; Prof. Sarit Kumar Chaudhury, dean of the faculty of Social Sciences, Rajiv Gandhi University, Arunachal Pradesh; Prof. Sandhya Thapa, head of Department of Sociology, Sikkim University; Bedu Singh Panth, Advisor;

EIECOS+1 chairman

Member Secretary: Secretary, Social Welfare Department