Health Issues of a Branded Community in an Urban Slum of Mumbai

The ‘De-notified Tribes’ are those communities which were notified under the several versions of the Criminal Tribes Act (CTA) enforced during colonial rule in India between 1871 to 1947. After a severe criticism of the Act in India as well as overseas, the British enacted the Criminal Tribes Settlement Act in 1908, which ended up virtually imprisoning the criminal tribes in ‘settlements’ in the name of their rehabilitation. They had to live in a fenced area and had to take the permission of the guards to even answer nature’s call during the night. The 1908 Act was modified in 1911, which divided the legislation into four parts viz, notification, registration, restriction and settlement of criminal tribes. Major changes in the Act were brought in 1923-24. The changes were made to ‘integrate the communities with the mainstream society’ but the basic aim of the law was not altered. The act became a tool in the hands of the village officials to harass the community in legal way.