Addition of Tribes to the List of STs

In News 

• Recently, the Union Cabinet approved the addition of four tribes to the list of Scheduled Tribes, including those from Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh. 

About 

• The Hatti tribe in the Trans-Giri area of Sirmour district in Himachal Pradesh, the Narikoravan and Kurivikkaran hill tribes of Tamil Nadu and the Binjhia in Chhattisgarh, who were listed as ST in Jharkhand and Odisha but not in Chhattisgarh, were the communities newly added to the list.
• Further, the Cabinet approved a proposal to bring the Gond community residing in 13 districts of Uttar Pradesh, under the ST list from the Scheduled Caste list.
  • This includes the five subcategories of the Gond community (Dhuria, Nayak, Ojha, Pathari, and Rajgond).

Process of Inclusion 

• The process to include tribes in the ST list begins with the recommendation from the respective State governments, which are then sent to the Tribal Affairs Ministry, which reviews and sends them to the Registrar General of India for approval. 
• This is followed by the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes’ approval before the list is sent to the Cabinet for a final decision.

Source: TH