Nomad Times Ep 26, COVID - 19, Part 8 - Dr. Madan Meena
Channel: Nomad Times
Date: 2020-06-17

Dr. Madan Meena artist, researcher, curator, writer is a man of many parts, all of which are heavily influenced by his roots. Currently, he is working as Honorary Director of the Adivasi Academy at Tejgadh, Chhota Udaipur, Gujarat.

Fear of Lockup, and Now Lockdown! 
The lockdown has posed a major challenge for the De-notified and Nomadic Tribes (DNT-NT). Given the historical injustice faced by them and the stigma that continues to shape their everyday lives, the DNT-NT communities need specific attention and intervention. The communities began to experience the beginnings of economic distress when the national lockdown was announced. They faced an exacerbated situation, much worse than some others given that many of them were already struggling for livelihood, being away from their traditional support system. Their limited or almost no access to relief from the administration has added to this difficulty.

Who are Nomadic and Denotified Tribe?
Indigenous nomadic tribes are wide spread across the world. These tribes are also part of human evaluation and play a critical role in human civilisation. However nomadic way of life depend upon economic production, forest, community resources etc.. with the rise in modern society and state nomadic tribe across the world faced challenge for their survival. 

In 1871, British introduced the Criminal Tribes Act for the notification of Criminal Tribes, under which around 191 Tribes (mostly consists of Nomadic Tribe) were 'notified' as 'criminals' by virtue of their birth in a particular tribe. These so-called criminal tribes were actually communities of singers, acrobats, musicians, and cattle grazers, amongst others, whose nomadic lifestyle was a constant source of suspicion for the British. Under the Act, they were confined to newly created ghettos, put to work as cheap labour for industries and subjected to a pass system to control their movements. Later in 1952 after the recommendations of the Criminal Tribes Enquiry Committee Report, the Act was repelled. Thus these criminal tribes were de-notified in 1952 and termed as De-notified Tribes (DNT). 

For feedback please mail to us on - nomadtimesinternational@gmail.com