ST demand: IMF submits memo to NCST
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, December 23 2022:
The International Meetei Forum (IMF) has informed that a five-member delegation led by convener N Nilachandra submitted a memorandum and documents relating to tribal status of Meetei/Meitei community to the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) on Thursday.
According to a statement of IMF, the memorandum was submitted to NCST member Ananta Nayak while he was in Imphal and the latter gave assurance of meeting IMF delegation when they visit New Delhi to discuss about details of points mentioned in the memorandum.
Mentioning key points in the memorandum, the IMF statement said that ST population of India as per 2011 census was 104,454,716 with 92 percent of the ST population settled in valley areas and only 8 percent in hill areas of the country.
In Uttarakhand state, only 2.9 percent of total ST population of the state settle in hills and only 5.7 percent in Madhya Pradesh and 11.9 percent in Jammu & Kashmir.
However, there is a misconception in Manipur that only hill dwellers are tribes.
Though the UN gives definition of ST in different ways, ST status is given to Adivasi/ indigenous people in India, the memorandum said and urged the NCST to include indigenous Meetei/Meitei people in the ST list while claiming that the community has all the characteristics to be in tribe category.