Denotified Tribes in India: A Sociological Study

Denotified Tribes, also known as Vimukta Jati, are the tribes that were listed originally under the criminal tribe’s act of 1871, as criminal tribes and addicted to the systematic commission of non-bailable offences. Once a tribe become “Notified” as criminal, all its members were required to register with the local magistrats failing which they would be charged with a ‘crime’ under the Indian Penal Code. The Criminal Tribes Act was repealed in 1949 and thus ‘de-notified’ the tribal communities. The UN’s anti-discrimination body committee on the elimination of racial discrimination asked India to repeal the Habitual Offenders Act (1952) and effectively rehabilitate the denotified and nomadic tribes on 9 March 2007, for around 110 million people belonging to the denotified tribes, nomadic or semi-nomadic tribes in India.