Karbis living in Assam’s plains demand Scheduled Tribe status, Autonomous Council

GUWAHATI: The Assam Plains Karbi Adarbar has demanded Scheduled Tribe (ST) status and an Autonomous Council for the Karbis living in the plains (or the Karbi-Mikirs).

Ajith Kathar, the General Secretary of the organization, lamented that despite the inclusion of several tribes into the ST (H) category in 2002 after an amendment, the Karbis have been bereft of this benefit.

“Our main demand,” Kathar said, “is granting of Scheduled Tribe status by the government.”

He said that the formation of an Autonomous Council for the community will help them surge ahead along the path of development.

“The creation of an Autonomous Council will go a long way towards ushering in development as our tribe still tends to be economically deprived."

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Addressing the press, he said that failure to do this will compel the community members to sustain their protest against the ruling government until their demand is met.

Kathar said that this probably occurred due to the Assam government’s inability to submit the research report of the Karbis dwelling in the plains.

“Today, we are saddened to have to struggle in order to get the ST status in 2021”, Kathar added.

The Karbi leader said that while as many as nine tribes have been earmarked as “plains tribes”, fourteen others have been tagged as hills tribes. However, the Karbis living the plains regions are yet to receive any benefits.

the Karbis (Mikirs) are an aboriginal tribe of Assam and have been living in both hill and plain areas in the State since time immemorial. In 1951, the United Mikir Hill and North Cachar Hill (now Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao) was declared a district and on June 23, 1952, both the hills were declared autonomous councils.

On February 28, 2015, the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) agreed to the proposal of the Assam Government to include Karbi (Mikir) community in the ST(P) list. It was also backed by the Register General of India (RGI).

On January 19, 2016, Prime Minister Narendra announced at Kokrajhar that the ST issue of Karbi (Mikir) in plains will be resolved. The matter was passed by the Union Cabinet on May 25, 2016. And the Bill regarding the issue was introduced in the Parliament on December 14, 2016. However, the Bill has been pending since then.

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