Lokur Committee

Lokur Committee

Subject :Polity

Section :MSc

The All-India Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram (AIVKA), an RSS affiliate that works for tribal population, in its central executive meeting held earlier this week, passed a proposal that the criteria and procedure pre scribed by the law and the Lokur Committee (1965) should be followed while adding new castes to the list of Scheduled Tribes

Concept:

Lokur Committee

• The Lokur Committee (1965) was set up to look into criteria for defining Schedule Tribes.
• The Committee recommended 5 criteria for identification, namely, primitive traits, distinct culture, geographical isolation, shyness of contact with the community at large, and backwardness.

Internal task force and proposed Criteria

• A Task Force under the Chairmanship of the then Secretary (Tribal Affairs) was constituted by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs in February, 2014 to examine the existing criteria and procedure.
• The Task Force in its report submitted to the Ministry has made recommendations, among other things, for revision of criteria and procedure for scheduling of tribes as STs.
• It includes “socioeconomic, including educational, backwardness, the rest of the population of the State; historical geographical isolation which may or may not exist today; distinct language/dialect; presence of a core culture relating to life­cycle, marriage, songs, dance, paintings, folklore; endogamy, or in case of exogamy, marital relationship primarily with other STs.