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Sixth Schedule

Context: Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) constituted a high-powered committee to protect the Ladakh’s unique culture and language taking into consideration its geographical location and strategic importance.

More on the news

• Civil Society groups of the Union territory are not happy with announcement as the MHA order instituting the committee avoids any mention of the their  primary demand for inclusion under the sixth schedule of the Constitution.

What are the Provisions of the Sixth Schedule?

• The Sixth Schedule under Article 244 have provisions related to creation autonomous administrative divisions called Autonomous District Councils (ADCs)
• These councils have some legislative, judicial, and administrative autonomy within a state.
• Such Councils have up to 30 members with a term of five years, and can make laws, rules and regulations with regard to land, forest, marriage and divorce, social customs and mining town-level policing water, agriculture, village councils, health, sanitation etc
• The Bodoland Territorial Council in Assam is the only exception with 40 members in the council.
• The Sixth Schedule applies to the states of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura.
• Expect Tripura which have 1 Council, all the remaining states have 3 Councils.

Why Ladakh wanted to get into the Sixth Schedule?

• With removal of Article 370, Ladakh became a separate Union Territory there was much enthusiasm initially Buddhist-dominated Leh district had long demanded UT status because it felt neglected by the former state government, which was dominated by politicians from Kashmir and Jammu.
• The enthusiasm lost some shine when as it was understood that while the UT of Jammu and Kashmir would have a legislature, the UT of Ladakh would not.
• The administration of the region is now completely in the hands of bureaucrats.
• They also fear of big businesses and conglomerates taking away land and jobs from the local people.
• The two hill districts of Leh and Kargil do not come under 6^th Schedule and have very limited power and are limited to collection of some local taxes such as allotment and use of land and parking fee vested by the Centre.

Is there any possibility of inclusion?

• The National Commission for Scheduled Tribes recommended the inclusion of Ladakh under the Sixth Schedule in 2019
• The commission noted that that the new UT was predominantly tribal people from other parts of the country had been restricted from purchasing or acquiring land there, and its distinct cultural heritage needed preservation.
• Yet Ladakh’s inclusion in the Sixth Schedule seems The Constitution is very clear on Sixth Schedule.
• These provisions are for the Northeast States, there is the Fifth Schedule for rest of the states.

Way Ahead

• It seems that the not keen to give any special status to Ladakh, the MHA informed a parliamentary standing committee recently that the objective for inclusion of tribal population under the sixth schedule is to ensure their overall socio-economic development, which, the UT administration has already been taking care of and that sufficient funds are being provided to Ladakh to meet its overall developmental requirements.
• A report tabled in Rajya Sabha stated that the Ladakh administration recently increased the reservation for the Scheduled Tribes in direct recruitment from 10% to 45% which will significantly help the tribal population in their development.

It is expected that the high committee recently formed will bring an end to the conflict and would provide enough provision related to safeguarding the rights of people of Ladkah.