Sixth Schedule~I
| Date | 06 December 2020 |
| Published date | 06 December 2020 |
| Author | GOVIND BHATTACHARJEE |
A large number of areas predominantly inhabited by tribals were brought under the purview of the Scheduled Districts Act of 1874; under the Government of India Act 1935 and the Government of India (Excluded and Partially Excluded Areas) Order 1936, these areas were designated as Partially Excluded/ Excluded Areas for the purpose of general administration. Following Independence, these areas were brought under the Fifth and Sixth Schedules respectively and referred to as Scheduled Areas for the purpose of preserving the autonomy, culture and for ensuring economic empowerment of the tribes. Though no criteria were specified in the Constitution to bring any area under these schedules, a specific set of criteria has evolved over a period of time which includes the preponderance of tribal population, the under-developed nature of the area and low economic standard of their tribal inhabitants, who are collectively identified as Scheduled Tribes (ST) under Article 342 of the Constitution.
Scheduled Areas have been notified in ten states ~ Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan and Telangana. However, not all tribal areas in the country are covered by these schedules ~ tribal habitats in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir are not covered either by the Fifth or the Sixth Schedule. The Sixth Schedule had its origin in the Cabinet Mission of 1946 that had suggested constitution of an 'Advisory Committee on the Rights of Citizens, Minorities, Tribals and Excluded Areas', which was formed by the Constituent Assembly, and which appointed a Sub-Committee under the chairmanship of Gopinath Bordoloi. It had made wide-ranging recommendations including the constitution of Regional Councils and Autonomous District Councils (ADCs) with specific powers to administer these areas, allocation of certain taxes and financial powers to these councils and only tribal representation from these areas to the state legislature. These generated angry debates in the...
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