NEWS – Himachal Pradesh state government has finally issued notification to give Scheduled Tribe (ST) status to the Hattee community of Trans-Giri area of Sirmaur district

PROCEDURE AND CRITERIA FOR INCLUSION

• Framed in 1999
• Proposal from respective State or Union Territory government + sent to the Union Tribal Affairs Ministry, which sends it to the Office of the Registrar General of India (ORGI).
• If the ORGI approves the inclusion + criteria set out by the Lokur Committee in 1965  + forwards to the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes
• Criteria include indications of primitive traits, distinctive culture, geographical isolation, shyness of contact with the community at large, and backwardness
• Final decision rests with the President’s office issuing a notification specifying the changes under powers vested in it from Articles 341 and 342

BENEFITS OF INCLUSION IN ST LIST / CONSTITUTIONAL SAFEGUARDS

• Reservation in educational institutions has been provided in Article 15(4)
• Specific safeguards have been provided in Article 244
• Article 243D – reservation of Seats for Scheduled Tribes in Panchayats
• Article 330 – reservation of seats for Scheduled Tribes in the Lok Sabha

HATTEE COMMUNITY

• Get their name from their tradition of selling homegrown vegetables, crops, meat and wool etc. at small markets called ‘haat’ in towns
• Straddles the Himachal-Uttarakhand border in the basin of the Giri and Tons rivers, both tributaries of the Yamuna
• Governed by a traditional council called Khumbli
• The two Hattee clans, in Trans-Giri and Jaunsar Bawar, have similar traditions, and inter-marriages are common