Society · 2 Aug 2026

Criminal Tribes Act 1871

With reference to the Banchhada community of Madhya Pradesh, consider the following statements:

  1. The community was notified as a "criminal tribe" under the Criminal Tribes Act,
  2. 2. It was denotified in 1952 and classified as a Scheduled Tribe.
  3. The Jabali Scheme, launched to rehabilitate Banchhada and Bedia women, has received no funding allocation for roughly four years.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

A1 and 3 only
B1 and 2 only
C2 and 3 only
D1, 2 and 3

Tests the ability to distinguish between adjacent but legally distinct classifications (denotified tribe status versus specific SC/ST categorisation) rather than assuming one implies the other.

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This question is based on: Celebrated at Birth, Pushed Into Sex Work: Inside Madhya Pradesh's Banchhada Community
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About this question

Why in news

A ground report on Madhya Pradesh's Banchhada community drew renewed attention to institutionalised caste-based sex work rooted in colonial-era criminalisation and a defunct state rehabilitation scheme.

Why for UPSC

This question tests the crucial and frequently confused distinction between denotified-tribe status and the specific post-independence classification (SC vs ST) a community actually received - precisely the kind of granular distinction UPSC probes to separate genuine knowledge from surface familiarity.

Prelims summary

The Banchhada community, notified as a "criminal tribe" in 1871 and denotified in 1952, was reclassified as a Scheduled Caste (not Scheduled Tribe) and its dedicated rehabilitation scheme, Jabali, has been unfunded for about four years.

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