New panel for welfare of nomadic communities

  1. Committee will be setup under NITI Aayog to complete the task of identifying de-notified, nomadic and semi-nomadic communities not yet formally classified.The committee will follow up on the work of the Renke Commission and the Idate Commission.
  2. A Welfare Development Board will also be set up under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment to design and implement programmes for these hard-to-reach communities.
  3. Denotified Tribes (DNTs) are the tribes that were listed originally under the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871 enforced by Britishers whereby entire population were identified as criminals by birth.
  4. Nomadic tribes are those tribes who travel from place to place for their livelihood such as acrobats, snake charmers, ayurvedic healers etc.
  5. On the other hand, Semi-nomadic tribe are those who are on the move but return to a fixed habitation once a year especially for occupational reasons.