Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Tuesday requested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take prompt action for the inclusion of ‘Narikoravan grouped with Kuruvikkaran community’ in the list of Scheduled Tribes of Tamil Nadu.
In a letter to the Prime Minister, she wanted him to ensure that necessary legislation was moved in the current session of Parliament for their inclusion in the ST list.
Ms. Jayalalithaa said the Narikoravas constituted one of the most deprived and vulnerable communities in Tamil Nadu, who were nomadic and extremely poor and deserved all the Constitutional protection and welfare measures envisaged by inclusion in the list of Scheduled Tribes.
“Justice in the form of inclusion of the community in the list of Scheduled Tribes has eluded the Narikkoravas for far too long. They urgently need to be provided all the Constitutional guarantees envisaged by Article 342 of the Constitution to enable them to lead a life of equality and dignity along with other citizens of India,” she said.
The Chief Minister said her government had been repeatedly writing to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, regarding the inclusion of “Narikoravan Grouped with Kuruvikkaran Community” in the list of Scheduled Tribes in Tamil Nadu.
In a letter on July 16, 2012, her government had clearly explained the urgent need for inclusion of the community in the Scheduled Tribes list.
In the said letter it had been clarified to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, regarding the spelling of the name of the community in the colloquial and formal forms in Tamil, and the use of the names Narikoravan, Narikuravan and Narikorava interchangeably to represent the same community. It was also clarified that Kuruvikkaran is an additional colloquial name of the community in Tamil Nadu, used to refer to one of their transitional occupations of trapping birds, especially sparrows, for which the Tamil word is ‘kuruvi’.
Hindi version
Further, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs had also sought the name of ‘Narikoravan grouped with Kuruvikkaran’ in its Hindi version in order to enable the Ministry to finalise the draft note for the Cabinet for inclusion of ‘Narikoravan grouped with Kuruvikkaran’ in the list of Scheduled Tribes of Tamil Nadu. The State government had furnished this information to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, she said.
