Tribal forum for de-listing of converted tribals from ST list

Ranchi: A delegation of several tribal rights forums met governor Ramesh Bais on Sunday afternoon and handed him over a memorandum addressed to President Droupadi Murmu seeking de-listing of tribal men and women and their successors who had given up Sarna religious faith and converted to Christianity or Islam from the Scheduled Tribes (ST) category.
Under the banner of Scheduled Tribes Security Forum, the activists also took out protest march from Ranchi College Ground to Raj Bhavan which was attended by over 2,000 people.
Forum’s president Sandeep Oraon said: “In our memorandum, we threw light on the Article 341 of the Constitution which states that a person from the tribal community loses its ST tag if he or she converts to other religion. We urged her to amend the Article 342 so that such people can be de-listed and be removed from the ambit of reservations under the ST category.”
The protest march culminated in a public meeting at Ram Dayal Munda football stadium ground which was addressed by BJP’s former Khunti MP Kariya Munda. “Late Kartik Oraon had first brought this issue to light in 1970 and introduced a bill in the Parliament. But for some reason, it was not passed,” Kariya said.
The demand, Oraon said, was being made to ensure that the tribals of the Sarna faith get their due share through reservations in studies and employment.
Several tribal right forums in Chhattisgarh had raised a similar demand in 2021 and demanded the de-listing of tribal people who converted. Oraon claimed over 80% of the state’s tribal population have converted into Christianity or Islam over the past few decades.
Oraon, however, claimed that the forum was not associated with any political outfit and not aspiring for the division of tribal votes to facilitate any one political party.