How India's Oldest Tribal Community, Kalbelia, Continues To Live A Marginalised Life In The Post-Independence Era
The Kalbelia community is Rajasthan oldest tribal community of Rajasthan. It is one of the most backward, deprived and neglected communities in India. Though they have been categorised as Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs), they get negligible benefits from this categorisation
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However, in 1972, the tribe faced an existential crisis after the Wildlife Protection Act was enforced. They moved away from their traditional livelihood as nomadic snake charmers to whatever work they could find. They were even left to beg so now they are rag pickers or collect scrap.
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Speaking to NDTV, Kishan Nath, President of Kalbeliya Tribe, Rajasthan, informed If you that the Kalbelia community were not given access to water or road facilities., except from a very few places. Besides, Kalbelia has not been given any financial support or land rights. They don't have access to housing or to regular food, to the extent that they don't even have ration cards.
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The community remains de-notified. Most of them do not even have their birth certificates to further access their basic human and healthcarte rights. According NGO Bhasha's survey report, 44.1 per cent of the Kalbelia community have no birth certificates - that's the highest figure for all of India. This also corresponds to the low literacy rate among them.
