The document discusses various nomadic communities in India, including pastoral nomads, hunter-gatherers, and peripatetic nomads, detailing their economic activities, social structures, and cultural challenges. It highlights the historical context of nomads, their traditional livelihoods, and the legal and societal discrimination they face, particularly from governmental authorities and mainstream society. The document also addresses the need for political advocacy for the rights of nomads and outlines their struggles for recognition and basic human rights.

2. Nomads in India
• Pastoral
• Forest (hunter, gatherer)
• Peripatetic

3. Pastoral

4. Pastoral
• Pastoralism is an economic activity involving the care of herds of domesticated livestock. In its
traditional forms
• Pastoral nomads are producers of food, and the size of their tribal or ethnic units increases
accordingly. These groups raise livestock, and they move about within their established territory to
find good pastures for their animals.
• Pastoralism functions as a cultural system with a characteristic ecology. The community of the
pastoralists can be considered in two dimensions, as an ecological unit and as a socio cultural
community.
• Majority of the pastoral Nomads are European origin. Ahir (Abhera) is the main clan, settled
became Yadav. Those worked as Chieftains in the army of Aryan kings were given Adivasi lands and
a new landed class born from Sudras.
• Still remained as Pastoral Nomads- Dhangar, Kuruba, Rebari,Gujjar, Bakarwal
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvhmMF2aKrY
• /https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mysa4da7kR8&spfreload=10

5. Forest (Hunter, gatherer) nomads
• A hunter-gatherer is a human living in a society in which most or all food is
obtained by foraging (collecting wild plants and pursuing wild animals).
• Hunters and food-gatherers have always been nomads. These
communities move in search of food according to a seasonal pattern.
• Eco-systems are usually connected with migratory game species and
hunter-gatherers tend to adopt migratory settlement patterns.
• Hunter-gatherers have been described as egalitarian, living in small
community groups in forests, in social harmony with each other, and in
ecological tune with their forest environment.
• Some of these communities are fulltime nomadic foragers
• https://youtu.be/dSe4UMTb6vI

6. Chola/kattu naikkans primitive and
vanishing forest Nomads in Kerala

7. Chenchus hunter gatherer nomads
Nallamalai

8. Katkari are a tribal group of indigenous
hunter gatherers of Maharashtra

9. Peripatetic nomads
• “Peripatetic nomads” are mobile populations moving among settled
populations offering a craft, performance or trade.”
• A large number of these communities are nomadic and earned
livelihood through petty trade or offering services with local settled
communities.
• They used to carry their merchandise on the backs of their animals
and moved around selling petty articles or offering services.
• These nomads carry their hearth and home on their heads or
animals.
• Some of them are performers, acrobats or sooth Sayers or Religious
mendicants.
• Anuloma-Viloma system created Dalit Nomads, kept to watch burial
grounds, scavengers and untouchables & ‘Dom’ is the origin
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGGmW5CQmdw

10. Peripatetic nomads

11. Narikuravar –Tamil Nadu

12. Veera mushti, Andhra pradesh

13. Dommari selling donkey milk

14. Categorisation of Nomads
• Nomads are in the SC, ST, BC and Minority
category
• As minorities they are in Muslims, Sikhs or
Christians without any dignity or respect.
• Categorisation is not uniform across the
states.
• Same community with sub-caste is in different
category.

15. Traditional occupations of minority nomads
• Chapparband- Currency(coin) makers for kings
• Dafar – Gujarath
• Darvesh/ Fakirs
• Bear dancers/Kalandar
• Muslim Sapera/snake charmers
• Kasi/ muslim stone cutters
• Muslim Gosangi/ Muslim Banjara
• Sikh/Sikligar/others
• New generation nomads entering Christianity
mostly through independent minute churches.

16. Sikligar

17. Sikligar Sikhs
• Sikligars Sikhs were the lohars (iron smiths
/black smiths) who once specialized in the
craft of making and polishing weapons
• They roam about in small groups carrying
their `meagre possessions making and selling
small articles such as knives, sickles, betel nut
cutters, sieves, locks, buckets and toys which
they often manufacture from waste metal.

18. Fakir Muslim Nomad

19. Religious Status of Minority Nomads
• In the ‘Hindu’, Muslim, Sikh and Christians & Religion is political
• Nomads & Adivasi are from the primitive ‘Sramana’(Bhoutika vada-Charvaka,
Ajivaka) and later years some nomads were as Kapalika, Kalmukha or Bhairava later
became Saktheya.
• ‘Nath Sampradaya’-founded by Sudras, no caste, no religion needed for salvation.
Kabir, Saibaba, Manju natha. Later Nath assimilated in Hindu through Dattatreya
and ultimately a Kshatriya of Kanhapata Nath sect became CM of UP.
• Nomads used for propagating Vaishnav and were pushed in to Hinduism without
any rights and respect.
• Muslim Nomads are mostly Snake charmers, Dalits, Stone cutters, Adivasis-
discrimination and stigma within, not allowed in to homes, priests in ‘Dargas’ none
in Darga committee and live by begging and performing with animals.
• Sikligars are devoted Sikhs and around Gurudwaras, no respect or dignity as Sikhs
and hardly any ‘Roti-Beti’ relationship with Sikhs.
• Nomads increasingly captured by the freelancer pastors in to the Hut churches,
deprives privileges of established churches.

20. Denotified Tribes
• Criminal tag cuts across all nomads & some of the DNTs are not nomads.
• Fought for territories were called thieves by Chanakya and Ardha Shastra
recommends to employ ‘thieves’ in Infantry.
• Most of the Non- Nomadic DNTs were erstwhile rulers of clan kingdoms
(Ganarajya) Ahir (Nayaka,Boya).
• Remaining were rulers of clan kingdoms among the Dandakaranya of
whom Chenchu, Konda Dora (Andhra) Sabar (Bengal) and Piramalai Kallar
(TN) were put in the CT list.
• Historical evidences reveal their kingdoms and their fight against the
outside encroachers (Aryan Kings/Britishers ) of their territories along with
for their control over the Jal , Jangal, jamin which continues even today in
different forms

21. CT Act
• Britishers notified 193 nomads as Criminals under the Criminal Tribes (CT) Act in the 1871 for
surveillance, Vigilance, curbing crimes and reform. Stephens refers caste system and calls as Thugs.
• Children were separated from parents and kept in Boarding school of Salvation Army, kept in
settlements, passports issued to move in villages, 6 times attendance, police check in the houses.
As Ayyangar Commission said ”In spite of the 3% of criminals among Nomads all the Nomads were
criminalised under the Act” Not allowed to own property. By the beginning of 18th Century ‘Hijras’
were also included under CTA. Many Gandhians worked for the repeal of the Act, rather the
Nomads struggles, hence leadership or mass movement doesn’t emerge.
• Subsequently CT Act was repealed on 31st August 1953 after 80 years, De-notified from the Act,
from then on being called as De-Notified Tribes or DNTs. Denotified and Nomadic Tribes combined
also called as DNTs.
• But introduced HOA, in spite of repealing, used against DNTs even today. Illegal detention without
FIR, not showing to the kin, demanding money or gold. Using for entertainment. Lynching, custodial
deaths and murders, culprits not arrested. Telangana eunuch Act-1919, Including Clause 36A to
Karnataka Police Act in 2009 also part of the HOA.

22. Piramalai kallar-Tamilnadu

23. NT & DNTs as workers
Traditional
• Animal breeding: Sheep, Goat, Pigs, Donkeys (milk & meat), Camels, Duck
rearing
• MFP collection: Honey, brooms, herbs, leaf plate material, beedi leaf,
Tamarind, fire wood collection
• Small time vending: salt, soap nut, Rangoli stones, powder,
• Handicrafts: Baskets, grinding stones, kitchenware, Savaralu, beed
garlands, timber toys, combs of animal horns and wood, musical
instruments (Mashtin), stone cutting, quarry and small mining , brick kiln
workers.
• Services: Repair of umbrella, torch lights, polishing knives, brewers
• Entertainment: Performers, bear, monkey, bull dancers, acrobats, Mashtin
wrestlers, puppet shows, snake charmers
• Cultural: Singers, local mythological story tellers, record keepers, Dalit,
Tribal, Sudra Priests, magicians (Moli), fortune tellers.

24. Alternative livelihoods
• Rag pickers: Collection from the dust bins
• Urban vendors: Toys, fruits
• Scavengers: Drainage, man hole cleaners
• Sex workers, pimps
• Rickshaw pullers
• Film Record dancers
• Mobile god keepers
• Small time processing and manufacturing activities,
selling and marketing
• Domestic servants
• Malish wallas

25. Violation of rights by the ‘State'
• The Constitution of India provides Fundamental Rights under
Chapter III. Article 21. Protection Of Life And Personal Liberty: No
person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except
according to procedure established by law.
• The relevant directive principles related to livelihoods are found in
Articles 39(a) and 41. Article 39(a) lays down that State shall, in
particular, direct its policy towards securing, (a) that the citizens,
men or women equally, have the right to an adequate means of
livelihood; while Article 41 provides that the State shall, within the
limits of its economic capacity and development, make effective
provision for securing the right to work, to education and to public
assistance in cases of unemployment, old age, sickness and
disablement, and in other cases of undeserved want.

26. Right to life includes livelihood
• In Olga Tellis v. Bombay Municipal Corporation, AIR 1986 SC 180 The Court has
observed that “….the question which we have to consider is whether the right to
life includes the right to livelihood. The sweep of the right to life conferred by
Article 21 is wide and far-reaching. That is but one aspect of the right to life an
equally important facet of that right is the right to livelihood because, no person
can live without the means of living, that is, the means of livelihood.”
• Nomads basic problem is lack of Housing and erosion of traditional livelihoods.
• Traditional rights of pastoral people over the grazing lands, territories, forests,
common lands and water bodies were not respected by the rulers.
• Hunter and gatherer livelihoods are affected by the Draconian Forest and Wild life
Related laws, by denying the basic human right –right to nutritious food.
• Peripatetic are affected with Abkari Act, Wild life Act, Police and municipal laws
deny basic right of street vendors to earn livelihood with dignity.
• Endowment laws: Mainstream religions taking over the livelihoods of sudra, dalit
adivasi priests through encroaching worshipping places and performing rituals.
• Indifference of the governments for the handicrafts, performance arts, lack of skill
development, unviable schemes, no spaces

27. Violation of Human rights
• NT/DNTs are not included in the Constitution of India, Population census not
available. No identity, No allocation of budgets are program planning or
creating implementation structures.
• 40% of the DNTs are homeless and remaining are living near garbage and
sewers. No Child education, women and adolescent girls are victims of lack of
privacy.
• By not enumerating under population censes separately and by not including
in the Constitution state is violating the right to constitutional recognition as
NT,SNT & DNT.
• By not issuing identification papers, by not conceiving exclusive welfare and
development schemes and by not providing access to the governance
guaranteed to all the citizens, nomads treated as repatriates by the state.
• By criminalizing and banning access to the livelihood resources without
showing any alternatives is against to the Right to life and livelihoods
guaranteed by the Constitution of India.

28. NT, DNT & SNT politics in India
• Nomad politics to be weaved around the above
issues.
• For repealing the draconian Acts preventing to
access along with making necessary
amendments.
• Punishing police booking cases under HOA
• Including nomads in the constitution of India and
enumeration.
• Study traditional & alternative livelihoods and
demand for nomad friendly policies and legal
frame work.

29. Nomads of the world
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nomadic_
peoples.
Gypsies
Roma
Travelers

30. Sea Gypsies –Asia

31. Sea Gypsies
• In ethnography Sea Gypsies refer to any of several ethnic groups of
southeast Asia:
• Sama-Bajau peoples, a collective name for several indigenous
ethnic groups residing in the Philippines, Sabah, eastern Malaysia,
Brunei, Indonesia, and parts of Sarawak, sometimes including the
people who speak Makassar, and Bugis
• Moken people, also known as the Selung, Salone or Chalome and
Chao Ley or Chao nam, an Austronesian ethnic group with about
2,000 to 3,000 members who maintain a nomadic, sea-based
culture
• Orang Laut, a group of Malay people living in the Riau Islands of
Indonesia
• Tanka people, a Han ethnic sub-group that lives on boats in
Southern China
• Urak Lawoi, coastal dwellers of Thailand

32. Sea gypsies
• Bajau have been a nomadic, seafaring people,
living off the sea by trading and subsistence
fishing.
• The boat dwelling Bajau see themselves as
non-aggressive people.
• They kept close to the shore by erecting
houses on stilts, and traveled using lepa-lepa,
handmade boats which many lived in.

33. Bajau woman and children
• Today the number of Bajau who are born and live primarily at sea is
diminishing,partially due to hotly debated government programs
which have moved Bajau on tothe mainland.Currently, there exists a
huge settlement of Filipino Bajau in Pulau
• Gaya, off theSabah coast. Many of them are illegal immigrants on
the Malaysian island. With the island as a base, they frequently
enter Sabah and find jobs as manual labourers.
• Discrimination of Bajau (particularly from the dominantTausūg
people, who have historically viewed them as 'inferior', and
less specifically from the majority Christian Filipinos and the
continuing violence in Muslim Mindanao, have driven many Bajau
to begging, or to emigrate. They usually resettle in Malaysia and
Indonesia, where they are less discriminated against.

34. Dom-Central Asia

35. Dom gypsies
The Dom have an oral tradition and express their culture and history through music, poetry and dance.
Initially, recent studies of the Domari language suggest that they departed earlier from the Indian
subcontinent, than the Romani, probably around the 6th century
Majority of the estimated Dom population of 2.2 million live in Turkey, Egypt and Iran with significant
numbers in Iraq. Smaller populations are found in Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Sudan, Jordan, Syria
and other countries of the Middle East and North Africa.
The actual population is unknown as some Dom are excluded from national censuses and others label
themselves in national terms rather than as Dom. Nowadays, they speak the dominant languages of
their larger societies, but Domari, their national language, continues to be spoken by more insular
communities. Iranians called them gurbati or kouli, both meaning "foreigners".
There is a large concentration of Dom/Gypsies in Jordan. Researchers claim that, "they accommodate
Arab racism by hiding their ethnic identity," since they would not be accepted into Arabian society once
their true identity is revealed. Another group of Dom origin in Iran are the Lori, who are found in the
Baloch regions of southeast Iran.
There is also a similar small community with some colonial Romanichal ancestors in Malta. That
community is called the Maltese Romanic

36. Dom people-Zordan
• .

37. Dom-Asia
• Other names that are used to designate Gypsy people in
the M.E. include Barake, Nawar, Kaloro, Koli, Kurbat,
Ghorbati, Jat/Zott and Zargari. These names are usually
more "tribe specific" but some are used in a more general
sense by non-Gypsies. Often the terms carry a pejorative
meaning.
• The term "Nawar," for example, is one of the most widely
used designations in the Arab world. The word is commonly
used as an insult.
• In turn, it is applied to the Gypsies, not only as an ethnic
designation, but also to designate them as worthless. The
Persians use the word Koli in much the same way. These
labels are a part of the general negative stereotyping of the
Gypsy people in the Middle East.

38. Struggle of Dom-Asia
• After decades in the shadows, Jordan’s closet
gypsy community is coming forward to demand
their rights as one of the country’s largest
minorities.
• They’re seeking representation in parliament,
recognition as an official tribe, and calling for an
end to systematic discrimination that has forced
thousands to break ties with their family and
heritage.
• France deporting Roma population fr

39. • True nomadism has rarely been practiced in Europe since the modern period,
being restricted to the margins of the continent, notably Arctic peoples such as the
(traditionally) semi-nomadic Saami people in the north of Scandinavia, or the
Nenets people in Russia's Nenets Autonomous Okrug. In ancient and early
medieval times, Eurasian nomads dominated the eastern steppe areas of Europe.
• Historically, at least until the Early Middle Ages, nomadic groups were much more
widespread, especially in the Pontic steppe of Eastern Europe (part of Europe in
the contemporary geographical definition, but as part of the Eurasian Steppe
historically considered part of Asian Scythia). The last nomadic populations of this
region (such as the Kalmyk people) became mostly sedentary in the Early Modern
period under Tsarist Russia. Seasonal migration over short distance is known as
transhumance (as e.g. in the Alps) and is not normally considered "nomadism".
• Sometimes also described as "nomadic" (in the figurative or extended sense) is the
itinerant lifestyle of various groups subsisting on craft or trade rather than on
livestock.
European Nomads

40. Sami Nomads-earlier days

41. Roma people

42. Demography
• In 1939, about a million Roma lived in Europe.
• About half of all European Roma lived in
eastern Europe, especially in the Soviet Union
and Romania. Hungary, Yugoslavia, and
Bulgaria also had large Romani communities.
• In Greater Germany there were about 30,000
Roma, most of whom held German citizenship
• 11,200 lived in Austria and few Roma lived in
western Europe.

43. Occupations
• Roma traditionally worked as craftsmen and were
blacksmiths, cobblers, tinsmiths, horse dealers, and
toolmakers.
• Others were performers such as musicians, circus
animal trainers, and dancers.
• By the 1920s, there were also a number of Romani
shopkeepers. Some Roma, such as those employed in
the German postal service, were civil servants.
• Although many so-called sedentary Roma often moved
seasonally, depending on their occupations.

44. Irish Travellers (Irish: an lucht siúil)
• Also called pavees or pejoratively referred to as tinkers,
pikeys, and gypsies, are a traditionally itinerant ethnic
group who maintain a set of traditions.
• Although predominantly English-speaking, some also
use Shelta and other similar cants.
• They live mostly in Ireland as well as having large
numbers in the United Kingdom and in the United
States. Their origin is disputed.
• Traveler rights groups have long pushed for ethnic
status from the Irish government, finally succeeding in
2017.

45. ITM

46. Irish
• In 2016, the USA's Country Reports on Human
Rights Practices for the United Kingdom stated
that Irish Travellers (among other groups) widely
reported discrimination in the country, and
highlighted that the High Court had ruled the
government had illegally discriminated against
Travellers by unlawfully subjecting planning
applications to special scrutiny.
• Many Travellers are breeders of dogs such as
greyhounds or lurchers and have a long-standing
interest in horse trading.

47. Travelers Rights are Human rights

48. Nomad and Human rights
• Nomadic peoples are scattered worldwide and have highly heterogeneous lifestyles, they face
similar threats to their mobile livelihood and survival. Commonly, nomadic peoples are facing
pressure from the predominant sedentary world over mobility, land rights, water resources, access
to natural resources, and migration routes.
• Adding to these traditional problems, rapid growth in the extractive industry and the need for the
exploitation of the natural resources are putting new strains on nomadic lifestyles.
• An innovative rights-based approach is needed to the issue of nomadism looking at issues including
discrimination, persecution, freedom of movement, land rights, cultural and political rights, and
effective management of natural resources.
• whether the current human rights regime is able to protect nomadic peoples, and the ways to
address the lacuna that currently exists in international human rights law in relation to nomadic
peoples .
• An innovative approach yet to be evolved for proposing avenues for the development of specific
rights for nomadic peoples freedom of movement, land rights and development in the context of
nomadism

49. Decade of Roma inclusion

50. Romani decade
• Romani movement in the European context
could cover lot of ground over the last ten
years, especially post Durban conference,
through increasing their visibility and UNO
declared Romani decade (2005-2015),

51. The Decade of Roma Inclusion (Deshbersh
le Romengo Anderyaripnasko- in Romani)
• The 12 countries taking part in the Decade of Roma Inclusion were:
Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic,
Hungary, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and
Spain. All of these countries have significant Romani minorities,
which has been rather disadvantaged, both economically and
socially. Slovenia and the United States maintain observer status.
• The governments of the above countries have committed to closing
the gap in welfare and living conditions between the Roma and
non-Roma populations, as well as putting an end to the cycle of
poverty and exclusion that many Roma find themselves in. Each of
these countries has developed a national Decade Action Plan that
specifies goals and indicators in the Decade's priority areas:
education, employment, health and housing.

52. Components of Roma decade
The Roma Education Fund (REF), a central component of the initiative, was established
in 2005 with the mission of expanding educational opportunities for Romani
communities in Central and Southeastern Europe.
REF's goal is to contribute to closing the gap in educational outcomes between Roma
and non-Roma through a variety of policies and programs, including desegregation of
educational systems.
REF receives funds from governments, multilateral organizations and private sources.
It finances projects that are proposed and implemented by governments, non-
governmental organizations and private organizations.
Planning for the Decade was guided by the International Steering Committee (ISC),
which was composed of representatives of the participating governments,
international partner organizations and Romani organizations. Each year, one of the
participating governments holds the Decade’s Presidency.
Limitations: All European nomads not included, Roma dominated- but achievement.

53. Empowerment of Asian Nomads in
lines with Roma
• There are 52 Countries in the Asia region
• In spite of the presence of the large Number of nomads in the Asian
region, their visibility is almost negligible, except some pieces of
uprising, here and there, consolidated struggles yet to see light.
• Except some documentation by academicians (Joseph C. Berland
and Aparna Rao-world and Mahasweta & Ganesh Devi -Indian
DNTs) systematic organizational or political interventions have not
been taken up to understand the socio, economic and political
conditions of the nomads or for the political empowerment of
nomads.
• Identification, education, organization of a Coalition at the Asia
level needed so that the respective countries could focus attention
on their development.
• Saperas of Bnagladesh in no mans land

54. Asia coalition & links with world
Nomads
• A Forum for sharing the Socio, political and economic
conditions of the nomads among the respective countries
of the Asia region.
• Exploring collaborative interventions for study and
collection of information on conditions of nomads.
• Forging alliances with stakeholders and nomad
counterparts, to evolve a world coalition of nomads.
• Represent the cause of the Asian nomads in United Nations
Commissioner for Human Rights and other international
agencies related to human rights.
• Creating separate group for the Nomads of the World in the
UNO, so that to review living conditions and government
interventions.

55. In Solidarity with Nomads of India &
Asia
• Initiating Nomads wings in rights organizations
• Capacity building of the peers and or leaders at the
grass roots through training in Fact finding, RTI, dealing
with police etc.
• Fund raising or giving exposure to provide help in
creating fund raising systems/infrastructure.
• Providing technical support in educating communities
and general public regarding nomads(communication,
media management).
• Facilitating access to the Nomad movements with the
Rights organizations across Asia along with contacts.

56. International
• Providing contacts to the UN system so that to
lobby and take up advocacy for creating a
separate caucus for the nomads of the world.
• Convening Nomad conventions at the
national, Asia and international level.
• Increased support for enhanced political
perspective and united struggles at various
levels.

57. Thanq