tribal rights
TRANSCRIPT
A Critical Assessment of the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution
The Fifth Schedule of the Constitution was enacted to ensure that tribal “people could de-
velop according to the lines of their own genius.” Unlike the Sixth Schedule which provided
for greater autonomy by creation of autonomous councils for distinct tribes to preserve their
autonomy in relation to customs, social practices and governance, this model of autonomous
district councils was not adopted in the Fifth Schedule areas because it was assumed that
most of the tribal populations in these areas – which in administrative and sometimes aca-
demic parlance unproblematically subsumes a heterogeneous set of ethnic groups including
those categorised under the umbrella term Adivasis – had a greater interaction with the gen-
eral population and were relatively less isolated. The office of the Governor was to play the
pivotal role in the Fifth Schedule areas. It was felt that giving the Governor special powers to
make laws for the “peace and good government” of the scheduled areas and the power to
modify the application of central laws and state laws that were in conflict with the tribal inter-
est would be in the benefit of the tribals. While additional measures such as Panchayat (Ex-
tension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996, have been enacted to promote and protect the inter-
ests and rights of tribes, there are existing ambiguities in implementing this Act in the Fifth
Schedule areas where tribals continue to be marginalised and deprived and has not adequately
translated into tribal empowerment as a whole. This paper attempts to broach the lacunae in
these aspects, with particular emphasis on the Fifth Schedule.
Authors’ names:
H. Theresa Darlong. Jawaharlal Nehru University, New DelhiBasil N. Darlong Diengdoh. English and Foreign Languages University, HyderabadS. Elika Assumi. English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad
Address for correspondence:
101 Shabbir Residency, 12-12-165 SitaphalmandiRavindra Nagar, Secunderabad – 500 061Telangana
Email ID and contact:
[email protected] +91 – 87319 21733
[email protected] +91 – 99850 87930