Bihar to set up Scheduled Tribes commission

The Bihar government has decided to set up a commission that will recommend measures for the socio-economic development of Scheduled Tribes in the state, a minister said Thursday.

The move to set up the Scheduled Tribes Commission is to implement an all-inclusive growth in the state, said Jitan Ram Manjhi, minister for backward class welfare.

Manjhi said a census of tribal population in the state would be undertaken soon to survey their problems.

He said that the government was in the process of implementing Right to Forest Act, 2006, in 14 districts with substantial tribal population.

The Scheduled Tribes Commission will be set up on the lines of the comission for Maha Dalits, most deprived and marginalised section.

The Maha Dalit commission was established in 2007 for the welfare of certain Dalit sub-castes, which are socially and educationally more backward than others.

Bihar was the first state in India to constitute a commission and study the status of the neglected sub-castes among Dalits and to suggest ways to uplift them.

The commission in its first interim report to the government a few months ago painted a bleak picture of these Dalit sub-castes. The report said there were no high school teachers or senior officials from these castes in the state despite reservations in government jobs for them.link