After years of talks with stakeholders and community representatives, the Assam government has reconstituted a Committee of Group of Ministers to look into the demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status of six of the State’s ethnic groups, namely the Chutiya, Koch-Rajbongshi, Matak, Moran, Tai-Ahom and ‘Tea Tribe’ communities.
These communities have long been demanding ST status in Assam, with most recently Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren making the inclusion of Tea Tribes in Assam a priority in his public speeches. The communities referred to as Tea Tribes in Assam are largely from the areas of Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha.
They were taken as bonded labourers for the tea gardens in Assam during the Colonial government’s rule and have eventually settled there. While these communities have been classified as STs in Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal, and Odisha, they are not classified as tribes in Assam because of the criteria used by the Government of India to classify STs.
Responding to a question in the Lok Sabha on Thursday on the specific subject of the inclusion of these communities in the ST list of Assam from Pradyut Bordoloi (INC), Kamakhya Prasad Tasa (BJP), and Phani Bhushan Choudhury (AGP), the Tribal Affairs Ministry said, “The proposal for inclusion of Tai Ahom, Chutia, Matak, Moran, Koch-Rajbongshi and Tea Tribes has been received from the State Government of Assam.”
In January 2019, the erstwhile Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram had introduced a Bill to include these communities in the ST list of Assam, which has been pending since then. Mr. Oram took charge as Tribal Affairs Minister for the second time after the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
The Tribal Affairs Ministry said in its reply that the Government of Assam had constituted a Committee of Group of Ministers to look into the issue. This committee was supposed to “determine quantum of reservation for six communities in the State, suggest revised quantum of reservation for OBCs after creation of a new ST category in Assam and measures ensuring full safeguard to protect the interests, rights and privileges of the existing Scheduled Tribes of Assam”.
However, the State government has informed the Centre that on July 4 this year, this committee had been reconstituted.
While the MPs had asked specifically for the Registrar General of India’s and the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes’ opinion on the inclusion of these communities, the Ministry did not provide a direct reply. It said the procedure required the approval of both offices and that “all actions on the proposals are taken as per these approved modalities”.
