Nomadic Communities And Citizenship Questions In Rajasthan

Nomadic Communities and Citizenship Questions in Rajasthan or The Citizenship Status of Nomads

Are nomad’s marginalized citizens in Rajasthan, India?

Nomads are a group of communities travelling from one place to other place for their livelihood and existence. Nomadic tribes are always highlighted as the source of suspicion to ssedentary people. The total number of nomad population in India is 80 million people, contributing about 7 % of India’s population. In Rajasthan, there are near about two dozen nomad communities, which mainly include Gadiya Luhar, Bhopa, Bawariya and Banjara. Most of these communities have inherited their present professional life rather than earning it. For instance, Banjaras are nomad traders of Rajasthan dealing with salt and multani mitti, whereas the tribe Gadiya Luhar of Rajasthan is engaged in repairing tools and utensils (Dyer, 2012). On the other hand, a community like Bawariya spends their life by only hunting wild animals. Probably the most interesting occupation is possessed by the Nat tribe of this particular territory as they perform acrobatics in village fair. The community of Bhopa on the other side is known as worshipers of Pabuji as they are believed to have sacred rites. A number of policies have been developed for these migrant’s wellbeing as seemingly their professional aspects have relatively less prospects.

Nomads are un-rooted communities, who move from one place to other, seeking their livelihood. Due to changing socio-economic face of society, nomad’s lifestyle has become under strain progressively. It is unfortunate that instead of Rajasthan government’s initiatives for settling them down, the Banjaras did not settle down and moved away by selling their plots. The vulnerable citizenship of the Nomads of Rajasthan has been exacerbated by the Rajasthan government’s failure in providing proper infrastructure and land holding facilities for protecting their individual tenure. Moreover, their lack of having convenient legal status is supposed to be the potential cause behind their inadequate accessibilities to some of the basic amenities like land, road and water. It is unfortunate to denote that similarly like other suffering tribal communities of India, nomads of Rajasthan are still being deprived by not having legal recognition as indigenous or aboriginal tribes. It is the responsibility of developing societies to establish the citizenship rights of deprived citizenry (Xavier, 2012). Lack of recognition of their rights and identities by Rajasthan’s officials and agencies enhanced their feeling of exclusion. It has been highlighted that their perceived lack of loyalty towards the state or nation, where they reside is the reason for undermining their request for citizenship. It is unfortunate that Rajasthan state government’s ministry of social and tribal welfare could not have accomplished their nodal responsibility of advancing the educational, economic and socio-cultural growth of the nomads.  Their “excessive mobility” has been delegitimized their right of getting citizenship by political powers. Nomads are considered as “illegitimate outsiders” in the nation and their cross-border movement is classified as “destructive force to be controlled or restricted” (Grenet, 2012).

Identity Crisis: Reflected in Ration Cards, Voter Cards and Birth Certificates

As a result of their “excessive mobility” the entire population of Indian nomads is facing identity crisis. The main reason behind the identity crisis among the nomads of Rajasthan is most of the time the state government shows reluctance to provide accurate access to several rights as the parliament possesses misconception and misjudgments about them (Bhukya, 2012). It has been identified by numerous researches that government along with the common society of Rajasthan neglects the nomads as per their pattern of living does not match with the ideal pattern of the normal inhabitants. Most unfortunately, the nomads are insulted on a national level by not having legal identities for being regarded as untouchables several times. It is to contemplate in this regard that the misjudgment of the Rajasthan government has given birth to huge identical crisis in the lives of the nomads in terms of having legal certificates like ration, voter cards or even birth certificates.  It is unfortunate that whenever they seek or apply for a voter card they have to face some basic questions such as what is the purpose for having a voter ID, when they are even not in government files. Apart from their key issue of social discrimination, arbitrary arrests, detentions, human right violations, amenities; Rajasthan nomad’s status can be visualized by their no ration or voter card or any other documentation to prove their identity, as a result they are not registered or qualified for any developmental programs pursued by government. To improve their status, Rajasthan government needs collective action against exclusion for accessing available resources for their welfare.

A survey conducted by Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) revealed that 75 % tribal children in 22 districts of Rajasthan lagging behind other states in terms of education. In case of tribal girls, they are not enrolling to schools, thereby lowering the education level in the population. The data found 75% drop out of boys in 4^th or 5^th standard (homegrown.co.in, 2016). Key reasons behind poor educational standard was lack of awareness about the need for education and the traditional pattern of sending children in their traditional work. Singh (2012) revealed that in case of official education, nomads are complete failure. However, to thrive over a dry land, nomads are performing and experiencing their traditional education. Education programs oppose nomadic tradition and culture. It has been revealed that education programs are affecting the specific goals and needs of the tribe, affecting their principles, approach of solving a problem and evaluation paradigms. Poverty is a notable reason behind poor quality education in the Indian nomads.  

Education and Poverty in Nomads

Nomads are residing in poverty and struggle for meeting their daily basic needs including shelter, food and clothes. These are homeless population, thus, they have to reside where they travels for livelihood. The lack of proper placement is another reason for their poverty. They also do not have basic civic amenities regarding safe drinking water, electricity and water. In case of nomads in Rajasthan, lack of supply of water is a major factor affecting their livelihood. On the other hand, food includes a huge part if their meager income (Soharwardi, Ali & Nasir, 2012). Nomadic women are homemakers and do not seek for jobs, which bear double burden of poverty and deprivation. Experiencing economic ad survival compulsions, they started to camp near or within village.

As per the reports made by the National convention, nomads of Rajasthan possess unimpressive public and political profile due to having lack of support from the Rajasthan government. It is true as per the fact that nomads of this particular state are still running with extreme illiteracy, superstition, child marriage, migratory lifestyle, drug abuse and scarcity of civic amenities. More specifically, one nomad tribe in Rajasthan, the Bawariyas were known as criminals, due to their core job, wild animal hunting and their past history (Singh & Singh, 2016). After passing the Wildlife Protection Act 1972, their key resource of livelihood became punishable by law. They have been criminalized from their birth. However, due to the nomad’s different pattern of lifestyle as misjudged by the Rajasthan government, the tribal communities of Rajasthan do not get their identity proof like ration or voter card. All of the above factors are indicating their low public and political profile. On the other side, tribal communities like Bhopa, Nat are facing crucial juncture as their ground of occupation is being limited with each passing day. Visibly, the state government of Rajasthan holds lack of policies for performance of acrobats, which is forcing these tribes to get adapted in the urban lifestyle.

Government and non-government organizations are undertaking policy initiatives for settlement of nomads. However, legal aid, which is pivotal for marginalized communities, is not accessible to nomad population. The Muktidhara Sansthan (MDS) is helping the population by providing direct legal services, by reducing their inaccessibility like accessing bail funds, protecting them from illegal custody cases, human right violation and harassment cases by writ petition. Rajasthan government has noted that there are 602 hostels in the state for supporting senior secondary students, within which 30 hostels are exclusively for the nomadic and denotified students (Sikdar, 2012). In addition, state government provides pre-matric and post-matric scholarship for students. A special integrated scheme for house-cum-shop is being implemented, which can support the poor nomad population to purchase raw material for manufacturing equipments and agricultural needs.

Very Low Public and Political Profile

As described earlier, there is a contradiction between education and continuing with Nomadian existing traditions. Nomads are facing significant dilemma regarding education It has been revealed that the leaders in these nomad groups admire the need for social education in both males and females, but it has been observed that a huge number of drop outs are there in the community, whereas no enrollment for girls at all. In this community, children experiencing school level education would seek employment out of their community and no longer engaged with their traditional job, animal husbandry an treat it as their only livelihood option, as this job include loneliness and do not need literacy (Mehra, Bali & Arora, 2012). It has also been observed that tribal girls no longer agree to marry the boy she was engaged to, as they desire higher career.

From the above analysis, it has been identified that the nomad population in Rajasthan, India is at the edge of marginalization. More vigorous strategies needed for their settlement, while respecting their culture and source of livelihood. The study shows that each of the nomad communities holds specific qualities, which are largely being neglected by the authoritative bodies of the state. Hence, it could be underpinned that Rajasthan’s government requires prioritizing on mitigating the issue of illiteracy and child marriage related to most of the nomad tradition. At the same time, the government needs to promote the age-old, authentic occupational traditions related to these groups.

Reference List

Bhukya, B. (2012). Colonialism and its Nomads in South India.

Dyer, C. (2012). Formal education and pastoralism in western India: inclusion, or adverse incorporation?. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 42(2), 259-281.

Gandhi, M. (2012). Education a means for development: india's experience with right to education of denotified communities (with special reference to andhra pradesh). Journal of Educational Review, 5(4).

Grenet, F. (2012). The Nomadic Element in the Kushan Empire (1st–3rd Century AD). Journal of Central Eurasian Studies, 3, 1-22.

homegrown.co.in,. (2016). Meet The So-Called ‘Criminal’ Bawariyas Of Rajasthan, A Tribe That’s Been Ignored For Too Long. Homegrown. Retrieved 18 November 2016, from https://homegrown.co.in/meet-the-so-called-criminal-bawariyas-of-rajasthan-whose-story-isnt-heard-enough/

Mehra, A., Bali, U., & Arora, N. (2012). Quality of Primary Education in India: An Inter-state Perspective. Journal of Social Science Research, 2(1), 91-101.

Sikdar, M. (2012). Socioeconomic covariates and their impact on the opportunity for natural selection in a riparian tribe of Northeast India. Anthropologischer Anzeiger, 69(3), 273-287.

Singh, N. K. (2012). Management in Ancient India. In Eastern and Cross Cultural Management (pp. 13-18). Springer India.

Singh, S., & Singh, D. (2016). Envirnmental migration of cattle: an inevitable way of survival for some of nomadic communities of western rajasthan-a study with special reference to haryana. Global Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies, 5(2).

Soharwardi, M. A., Ali, K., & Nasir, J. A. (2012). Econometric analysis of income of nomads in irrigated areas of cholistan desert. International Journal of Physical and Social Sciences, 2(1), 159-176.

Xavier, M. S. (2012). Impact of Acculturation on Traditional Material Culure: A Study of Lambada Tribes in Andhra Pradesh, India. International Journal of Social Science Tomorrow, 1(6), 1-8.