Denotified tribes, nomadic tribes, and semi-nomadic tribes across the country are coming together to push for a “separate column” for themselves in the 2027 Census. Their demand is for constitutional recognition of the Denotified Tribes in a Schedule, on par with the existing classifications of Scheduled Castes and Tribes (SCs/STs) and other backward classes (OBCs).
In February 2027, India will conduct a caste enumeration for the first time since 1931. Five years after that 1931 Census, the origins of the Scheduled Castes list came into being in the form of the Government of India (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1936. Half a century earlier, in 1871, a colonial law had classified entire communities, particularly nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes, as “criminals”. After the law was repealed in 1952, these groups became known as “denotified” tribes.
The Social Justice Ministry has now recommended to the Office of the Registrar General of India that these denotified, nomadic, and semi-nomadic tribes be included in the upcoming Census. The Office of the RGI has agreed to include them in next year’s caste enumeration exercise, Ministry officials assured community leaders in north India in a virtual meeting on January 30.
‘Separate column’
“But we have no idea how they will do this,” B.K. Lodhi, a community organiser in Uttar Pradesh who was at the January 30 meeting, told The Hindu. “If we are not counted in a separate column, a separate code, in the Census forms, we will be lost once again,” said 63-year-old Balak Ram Sansi, a Karnal-based organiser with the All India Denotified Nomadic Tribes Development Council.
The government told Parliament on Wednesday that it has not yet finalised questions for caste enumeration, even as it is planning a preparatory exercise by July this year, as reported by The Hindu.
Even as leaders from denotified, nomadic, and semi-nomadic communities across Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, and other parts of north India are fighting to have their own Schedule, some leaders have started to stress the importance of recognising “graded backwardness” within this grouping as well. They want the demand for sub-classification to go hand in hand with that for a separate Schedule.
These leaders, like Dr. Lodhi, are drawing their arguments from an August 2024 judgement, in which the Supreme Court of India paved the way for sub-classification of SCs and STs.
Denotified tribes
The Criminal Tribes Act was first enacted in 1871 and then amended in 1924, before being officially repealed on August 31, 1952. The 1871 Act said it was for the “registration, surveillance and control of certain criminal tribes and eunuchs”, describing “criminal tribes” as “tribe, gang, or class of persons” that are “addicted” to committing non-bailable offences.
“These communities were amongst the first to confront the Britishers and sustained the struggle. Many of them were either nomadic communities from before or were forced to become nomadic as they kept resisting colonial administrators. That is why the colonial government classified us as ‘criminal tribes’,” Mr. Sansi said.
After the Act was repealed in 1952, the communities notified as “criminal” under the law had become “denotified”, thus coming to be known as the denotified, nomadic, and semi-nomadic tribes (DNTs).
‘Political misclassification’
The last National Commission for DNTs, headed by Bhiku Ramji Idate, identified 1,200 such tribes, most of which have been assimilated in the SC, ST, or OBC classifications over the last seven decades. In its 2017 report, however, the Idate Commission, also listed about 267 DNT communities that have not been classified as such.
Dr. Lodhi, who served as Deputy Secretary and Director (Research) to the Idate Commission, said, “Most of the DNTs have been amalgamated in the SC, ST, OBC lists and they are not able to compete in these categories because of how marginalised they are.” Mr. Sansi added that it was “politics” that led to the DNT communities being “misclassified” within the existing lists of SCs, STs, or OBCs.
“Now, we are in a place where communities in the SC category are unable to get out to protect the political strength of the grouping; they are lost in the OBC classification, and are unable to enter the ST classification because the threshold for this is too high. Ideally, most of these communities should have been classified in the ST list in 1950 itself,” Mr. Sansi argued, citing examples of communities in north India whose culture, lifestyle, food, and community laws would technically qualify them for being in the ST list but are not.
“Even now, there are denotified, nomadic jatis in Haryana who do not have a single member who has completed their 10th class education. But they are in the SC list somehow and have been routinely crowded out by more politically powerful communities,” Mr. Sansi said.
‘Graded backwardness’
“Even though sub-classification has come into being for all three categories now, this will not be enough to recognise our specific situation and stigmatisation of having been classified as ‘criminal’ for fighting invading forces. We cannot also forget that about 260 communities are not even within these classifications,” Dr. Lodhi said. “What we need is a separate Schedule recognising this and sub-classification within that Schedule to recognise the graded backwardness between settled and nomadic denotified communities.”
He went on to say that this is the only thing that will force the government to consider these communities as deserving of special attention, a separate quota, and schemes for their upliftment.
“Till the 1960s, the communities that had been denotified were largely in the same situation of backwardness, regardless of whether they were settled or nomadic,” he said, adding that eventually, the “settled” communities were able to use the resources they had, such as land or businesses, to uplift themselves to a certain extent. “But it was the nomadic tribes that were left behind, socially, educationally, economically, and politically,” he said.
Mr. Sansi added that their stigmatisation has continued despite denotification, as local police continue to treat them as “criminal” under the pretext of being “habitual offenders”.
No caste certificates
Despite schemes for DNTs run by both the State and Union Governments, such as the SEED scheme, only a “minuscule” percentage of people are getting benefits, mainly because State and Union Territory Governments are not willing to issue DNT certificates, the leaders said.
The Social Justice Ministry has only spent ₹69.3 crore on the SEED scheme in the last five years (as of December 2025), compared to the planned expenditure of ₹200 crore. “The principal reason for this is that no State is issuing proper DNT community certificates for us despite constant reminders from the Centre to do so,” Dr. Lodhi said.
Even as associations for denotified tribes are organising meetings to discuss the way forward given next year’s caste census, conversations within the community are focussed on the importance of “being counted”.
In a virtual meeting of community leaders, largely from northern States, Mohit Tanwar said, “No matter where we go, to courts, to governments, or to political establishments, we face the question of what our numbers are.”
While Dr. Lodhi asserts that there could be as many as seven crore people in Uttar Pradesh alone belonging to denotified communities, there are no definite figures for their population across the country.
