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The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment set out its welfare architecture for De-notified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic (DNT/NT/SNT) communities, delivered through the Development and Welfare Board for De-notified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Communities (DWBDNC).
The Board implements the Scheme for Economic Empowerment of DNTs (SEED), which has four components - free coaching for competitive examinations, health insurance, community-level livelihood initiatives and financial assistance for house construction.
The release traces the institutional chain: the National Commission for De-notified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes was constituted in January 2015 and reported in December 2017, and the DWBDNC was set up in February 2019 on its recommendations.
Address the education, health, livelihood and housing gaps of De-notified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic communities through a single umbrella scheme.
Key: Launched on 16 February 2022 by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment with an outlay of about Rs 200 crore over 2021-22 to 2025-26; implemented by the DWBDNC through an online portal for registration and monitoring.
Enable DNT candidates to compete for civil services and entry to professional courses.
Key: Free quality coaching for competitive examinations, including civil services and entrance tests for medicine, engineering and management.
Bring DNT households under a health cover rather than leaving medical expenditure to be met out of pocket.
Key: Delivered through Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY of the National Health Authority - a convergence design, not a standalone insurance product.
Support income generation at the community level rather than only the individual level.
Key: Assistance for livelihood initiatives taken up by clusters or groups within DNT communities.
Give settled housing to communities historically defined by forced mobility and surveillance.
Key: Financial assistance for construction of houses for members of DNT/NT/SNT communities.
Implements welfare and development programmes for DNT/NT/SNT communities, including SEED. Its composition includes a Chairperson appointed by the Government of India, a Chief Executive Officer of Joint Secretary rank as Member Secretary, a Joint Secretary of the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, representatives of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and the Department of School Education, and five eminent persons working with these communities.
Reconstituted in January 2015 to identify these communities and recommend welfare measures. It reported in December 2017, identified over 1,200 DNT, nomadic and semi-nomadic communities, and flagged 267 communities that had never been classified under any of the SC, ST or OBC lists.
The earlier commission on the same subject, set up in 2005. It submitted its report in 2008 and recommended reservation for DNT, NT and SNT communities along with a permanent institutional mechanism for their welfare.
A committee was set up under NITI Aayog to complete the identification of DNT communities that remain unclassified - the exercise the Idate Commission had flagged as unfinished. The classification question matters because welfare entitlements flow through the SC, ST and OBC lists, and a community outside all three has no route to them.
The colonial law under which entire communities were notified as habitually criminal by birth and placed under registration, restriction of movement and surveillance. It is the source of the stigma the current schemes are meant to undo, and the reason these communities are called 'de-notified' at all.
The Act was repealed on 31 August 1952 and the listed communities de-notified; the date is observed by these communities as Vimukta Jatis Day. 'Vimukta Jatis' - liberated communities - is the term for those de-notified.
State legislation enacted from 1952 onwards which replaced the repealed central Act. The standard criticism is that by shifting the target from named communities to 'habitual offenders' the laws preserved much of the earlier policing practice, which is why de-notification alone did not end the stigma.
The Criminal Tribes Act notifies entire communities as criminal by birth, subjecting them to registration and surveillance.
The Act is repealed and the communities de-notified; the date is observed as Vimukta Jatis Day. State Habitual Offenders Acts follow.
The Renke Commission examines the condition of DNT, NT and SNT communities and recommends reservation and a permanent welfare mechanism.
The National Commission for De-notified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes is constituted under Bhiku Ramji Idate.
The Idate Commission submits its report, identifying over 1,200 communities and flagging 267 that remain unclassified.
The Development and Welfare Board for De-notified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Communities is constituted as a society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860.
The Scheme for Economic Empowerment of DNTs (SEED) is launched with four components and an outlay of about Rs 200 crore.
DNT/NT/SNT is not a constitutional category. Communities sit inside the SC, ST or OBC lists or - for the 267 the Idate Commission flagged - outside all of them, which is why identification, not funding, is the binding constraint on their welfare.
The 102nd and 105th Constitutional Amendments govern how backward class lists are drawn; DNT communities seeking entitlements have to enter through one of those lists, which is the legal reason for the persistent demand for a separate constitutional category.
The Criminal Tribes Act sits alongside the Indian Penal Code's sedition provision and the Indian Forest Act, 1927 as instances of colonial statutes whose social effects outlived their repeal - a ready GS1 example of continuity in Indian society.
SEED buys health cover off PM-JAY rather than running its own, the same pattern SMILE follows through its MoU with the National Health Authority - a recurring design choice across Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment schemes.
Many nomadic communities are pastoralists whose grazing routes cross forest land; the Forest Rights Act, 2006 recognises the rights of 'nomadic and pastoralist' communities, a provision often missed in scheme-focused answers.
GS Paper 1 > Indian Society > Vulnerable Sections; GS Paper 2 > Governance > Welfare Schemes
General Awareness > Government Schemes and Modern History
General Awareness > Current Affairs
De-notified communities recur in UPSC GS1 society questions and in Prelims through scheme and commission pairings; the Criminal Tribes Act is a standing modern-history reference.
Communities that were listed as 'criminal tribes' under the Criminal Tribes Act, 1871 and de-notified when it was repealed in 1952; also called Vimukta Jatis.
Communities whose livelihoods involve regular or seasonal movement - pastoralists, itinerant traders and performers - and who therefore struggle to establish domicile-based entitlements.
31 August, the anniversary of the 1952 repeal of the Criminal Tribes Act, observed by de-notified communities.
State laws enacted from 1952 that replaced the repealed central Act, targeting individuals said to offend habitually rather than named communities.
The Development and Welfare Board for De-notified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Communities - a registered society under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment that implements SEED.