The demand for ‘Tribal’ status for Himachal’s Trans-Giri region

The Government of India is reported to be considering granting “tribal” status to the Trans-Giri region of Himachal Pradesh’s Sirmaur district.

Key Highlights

• The demand to declare Trans-Giri a tribal area is old — and is tied up with the demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status for the Hatti community which lives in the area.

• The Hattis are a close-knit community who take their name from their traditional occupation of selling home-grown crops, vegetables, meat, and wool at small-town markets known as ‘haats’.

• The Hatti homeland straddles the Himachal-Uttarakhand border in the basin of the Giri and Tons rivers, both tributaries of the Yamuna.

• The Tons marks the border between the two states, and the Hattis living in the Trans-Giri area in today’s Himachal Pradesh and Jaunsar Bawar in Uttarakhand were once part of the royal estate of Sirmaur.

• The Hattis are governed by a traditional council called ‘khumbli’.

Tribal Area

• The Constitution provides for two types of areas: Scheduled Areas in terms of the 5th Schedule of the Constitution, and Tribal Areas in terms of 6th Schedule.

• The Tribal Areas are designated in terms of Article 244(2) of the Constitution (Sixth Schedule).

• Himachal Pradesh has submitted a proposal for notifying entire Trans-Giri area of Sirmour district, Dodra Kwar Sub-Division of Shimla district, 15/20 areas of Shimla and Kullu districts as Scheduled Areas in Himachal Pradesh.

• For declaration of Scheduled Areas the criteria followed are: preponderance of tribal population, compactness and reasonable size of the area, a viable administrative entity such as a district, block or taluk, and economic backwardness of the area as compared to neighbouring areas.

GS TIMES UPSC PRELIMS & MAINS CURRENT AFFAIRS BASED BASICS  DAILY ONLINE TEST CLICK HERE

CLICK HERE DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS QUIZ FOR STATE CIVIL SERVICES

MORE THAN 30 QUESTIONS FORM GS TIMES UPSC 2022 PRELIMS CURRENT AFFAIRS DAILY TEST