Women and Children as Victims and Offenders: The Case of De-Notified Tribes in India

Author: Bokil, Milind & Raghavan, Vijay

Abstract: De-Notified and Nomadic Tribes, which were called “criminal tribes” during the colonial rule, are one of the most subjugated sections in modern India. The colonial administration enacted the Criminal Tribes Act (CTA) in 1871 based on the notion of hereditary criminal class in contemporary Europe, incorrect understanding of the Indian caste system and the social causes of criminality in India, and in a bid to establish law and order in the subcontinent. The CTA, which mostly targeted the nomadic, wandering and peripatetic communities, not only violated the basic dignity of human life but also criminalized millions of individuals. In independent India, the CTA was repealed but later replaced by the Habitual Offenders Act, which retained many of the provisions of the CTA, and led to the continued labeling and criminalization of the DNTs. This process further led to the marginalization and social exclusion of the DNTs, and their ending up becoming de-citizenized. Women and children had to bear the brunt of the criminalization process, in terms of institutional and structural violence—poor access to food security, education, healthcare, social protection and justice delivery. As DNTs were criminalized through the creation of a colonial discourse, their reintegration needs to be informed by an alternate body of liberating knowledge from sociology and criminology. The chapter argues that the vicious circle forcing the DNTs to remain in the criminal nexus can be broken through concerted efforts by the State, community associations of DNTs, civil society and DNT individuals. Specific suggestions informed by criminological theory can bring about a desired change for integrating the succeeding generations and establish a just, egalitarian and violence-free society.

Keywords: civil society, tribal community, British rule, East India Company, princely state