Ladakh's Sixth Schedule Demand

Recently, India's Union Home Ministry refused to respond to a question about Ladakh's inclusion in the Constitution's Sixth Schedule.

Background of the issue:

• Demand for UT status: The Buddhist-dominated Leh district has long sought UT status because it felt neglected by the former state government, which was dominated by politicians from Kashmir and Jammu.
• Separation from J&K: On August 5, 2019, the former state of Jammu & Kashmir was divided into two Union Territories: Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, the latter of which does not have a Legislative Assembly.

Ladakh's Sixth Schedule Demand:

• After its special status was removed, several political groups in Ladakh demanded that land, employment, and Ladakh's cultural identity be protected under the Sixth Schedule.

LAHDC Act Amendment:

• Ladakh's sole Lok Sabha member also demanded constitutional safeguards by amending the Ladakh Autonomous Hill District Council (LAHDC) Act under the Sixth Schedule to protect land, employment, and Ladakh's cultural identity.

Ladakh also faces the following issues:

There is no power decentralization:

• There were four MLAs from the region in the previous J&K Assembly; the region's administration is now entirely in the hands of bureaucrats.
• Many people in Ladakh regard the government as even more distant than Srinagar.

Jammu and Kashmir's domicile policy has been altered:

• In addition, the region is concerned about its own land, employment, demography, and cultural identity as a result of the changed domicile policy in Jammu and Kashmir.

Financial constraints:

• The UT has two Hill councils, one in Leh and one in Kargil, but neither is listed in the Sixth Schedule.
• Their authority is limited to the collection of some local taxes, such as parking fees, as well as the allotment and use of land vested in the Centre.

National Commission on Scheduled Tribes Recommendation:

• Ladakh was recommended for inclusion in the Sixth Schedule by the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes in September 2019.
• The Commission noted that the newly formed Union Territory of Ladakh is primarily a tribal region of the country.

Highlights from the Parliamentary Standing Committee's report:

• The Rajya Sabha recently heard a report from the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs.
• According to the report, the tribal population in the Union Territory of Ladakh is 2,18,355, accounting for 79.61% of the total population of 2,74,289.
• Special Status: The committee recommended that the Union Territory of Ladakh be granted special status in light of the tribal population's developmental needs.

Inquiring about the possibility of a fifth or sixth Schedule:

• The Committee also suggests that the possibility of including Ladakh in the fifth or sixth Schedule be investigated.

Centre's point of view:

• Ensuring overall development: Union Home Ministry opines that the main objective of the inclusion of tribal populations under the said schedule is to ensure their overall socio-economic development, which the Union Territory's administration "has already been taking care of since its creation".
• Direct recruitment: It was also stated that the Ladakh administration had recently increased the reservation for Scheduled Tribes in direct recruitment from 10% to 45%, which would significantly aid the tribal population's development.

About the Sixth Schedule:

• Article 244 of the Sixth Schedule provides for the formation of autonomous administrative divisions — Autonomous District Councils (ADCs) — within a state that have some legislative, judicial, and administrative autonomy.

About Autonomous District Councils (ADCs):

• ADCs can have up to 30 members and serve for a five-year term.
• They have the authority to enact laws, rules, and regulations concerning land, forest, water, agriculture, village councils, health, sanitation, village and town-level policing, inheritance, marriage and divorce, social customs, and mining, among other things.
• The Bodoland Territorial Council in Assam is an exception, with over 40 members and the authority to pass laws on 39 issues.

Other States with Sixth Schedule:

• The Northeastern states of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram (three Councils each), and Tripura are covered by the Sixth Schedule (one Council).

Possibility of including Ladakh in the Sixth Schedule

Other states' observations:

• Notably, the Sixth Schedule does not include any regions other than the Northeast.
• In fact, even in Manipur, which has a tribal majority in some areas, the autonomous councils are not listed in the Sixth Schedule.
• The tribal states of Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh are also not included in the Sixth Schedule.