Baleswar MP RK Jena has demanded Scheduled Tribe (ST) status for the Kudumi tribe. In Parliament on Wednesday, he said about the socio-economic problems faced by the Kudumi (or Kurmi) community in the country owing to decades of confusion about their status in the Constitution.
While the Constitution presently categorises the community as a Backward Class, the Kudumis have, for many decades, claimed tribal status. Census records show that they were categorised in 1931 as a Primitive Tribe, and in 1941 as Tribal Hindus in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district and as Kshatriyas in other areas. However, the Advisory Committee on Fundamental Rights, Minorities and Tribal and Excluded Areas formed in 1946, excluded the Kudumis while submitting its report, which resulted in their non-inclusion in the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950.
“The Advisory Committee’s scope was limited to India excluding the Princely States, as they existed in 1946. However, over the next few years, many of these States had integrated into neighbouring provinces, and should have been treated as part of those Provinces in the estimation of tribal populations in the country,” Jena said, adding that the Odisha Princely States (or Gadjats) were examples of such States and a large Kudumi population resided in the Gadjats and were not considered as a Scheduled Tribe.
The tribe retains several totemic practices and has a separate language, Kudmali. The community has been unjustly deprived for years of the facilities the Constitution guarantees to Scheduled Tribes, he said. In Odisha alone, the estimated population of the community is 25 lakh, a considerable number of who are in his constituency that includes parts of Mayurbhanj district.
Jena also suggested for surveys and research on the Kudumi tribe, their history and practices so that they may also have a fair opportunity to develop with the rest of the nation.