Revision summary
Nomadic and semi-nomadic groups live by herd, craft, or circuit, not one village. Colonial criminal-tribe law still shapes police practice after 1952. Idate Commission mapped missing lists and documents. Forests and cities have closed old routes. Settlement without grazing or trade rights is not a solution.
Model answer
Copper italics in this answer — like this — are the key facts. Each one is unpacked in the Facts & figures rail.
Introduction
Nomadic and semi-nomadic groups move with herds, crafts, or performance circuits rather than a single plough village. Their problems are legal stigma, lost routes, and missing settlement rights.
Body
Legal and census problems
- The Criminal Tribes Act, 1871 branded many mobile groups. Denotification in 1952 did not erase police suspicion.
- The Idate Commission on denotified, nomadic, and semi-nomadic communities recorded gaps in caste lists, ration cards, and school papers.
- Without a fixed house, they fall between Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, and OBC lists.
Livelihood problems
- Grazing routes close under the Indian Forest Act and private fences. Pastoralists such as some Gujjar and Deccan herders lose the old corridor.
- Urban bye-laws criminalise street performance and scrap trade that replaced older circuits.
- Health, vaccination, and girls’ schooling break at each camp.
Settlement paradox
- Forced sedentarisation without pasture or shop creates a slum, not a farm. Anthropology asks for portable rights: ration, school, and grazing, not only a brick house.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD N[Nomadic groups] --> C[Criminal Tribes stigma] N --> R[Closed grazing routes] N --> P[No portable papers]
Conclusion
The major problems are colonial stigma, closed routes, and papers that assume a village address. Denotification without portable rights leaves the camp illegal.
Quick related
Students also ask
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Austroasiatic languages.
Next question on this syllabus topic (2022 · Q5(e)). View answer →
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Are all nomads Scheduled Tribes?
No. Many are denotified or OBC. List status is one of their problems.
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Is the solution only housing?
Housing without pasture, market, and portable ration still breaks the livelihood.
Same topic · past papers
UPSC has asked this before
These previous-year questions sit on the same topic. Open one to practise the earlier ask.
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2023 · Q4(a) · Anthropology GS 2 · 20 marks
Elucidate the problems faced by Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups and the major challenges in the formulation of special programmes for their development. -
2024 · Q2(a) · Anthropology GS 2 · 20 marks
Critically discuss the recent welfare measures initiated by the Government for the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs). Comment why PVTGs were erroneously called Primitive Tribal Groups (PTGs).
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