According to the 2011 census, more than 104 million people — or 8.6% of the population — are from the various tribes that are listed in the Indian Constitution for affirmative action, which was provided for based on their seclusion at the time of India’s independence from British rule in 1947.

“Being tribal is by birth, but religion is choice,” Ratan Tirkey, a Catholic member of the Tribes Advisory Committee of Jharkhand state, told UCA News. “It is quite surprising that right-wing groups are not ready to follow what has been written in the Constitution and bills passed in parliament on the scheme to help tribal people.”

Tirkey warned that stopping benefits meant for tribal Christians would amount to “challenging the constitution and Supreme Court, which clearly state that the scheme is meant for poor people and it was not given in the name of any religion.”

India’s “untouchable” Dalit people, as per the caste hierarchy in the Hindu society, who account for 16.6% of the country’s population, or 201.4 million, were also given affirmative action rights in the Constitution. However, a 1950 Presidential Order denied the benefits and protections to Dalits who convert to Christianity or Islam. Hindu nationalists are now seeking the same for the tribal who have converted or might convert to Christianity.

An estimated seventy per cent of India’s thirty-two million Christians are Dalit, and about twenty per cent are tribal. However, Christian persecution is prevalent mostly in districts where tribal people are the majority.

Source: christianpost.com