UPSC Prelims Practice Questions — Celebrated at birth, pushed into sex work
Q1. Once a community such as the Bedia has been included in the Scheduled Castes list of a State by a notified Presidential Order, any subsequent inclusion in or exclusion from that list can be effected only by which one of the following?
- A. The National Commission for Scheduled Castes, through a binding recommendation sent to the State Government
- B. The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, through an executive notification issued to the State Government
- C. Parliament, by law amending the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order made for that State
- D. The State Legislature, by a resolution ratified by the Governor of the State concerned
Q2. The Banchhada, Bedia and Bachara of Madhya Pradesh, once registered under the Criminal Tribes Act, 1871, are today placed in which single category recognised by the Constitution?
- A. Scheduled Tribes, since their colonial registration was expressly as 'tribes' subject to surveillance
- B. Scheduled Castes, in the list notified for the State of Madhya Pradesh
- C. Denotified Tribes, a distinct constitutional category created when the 1871 Act was repealed
- D. Other Backward Classes, in the Central list maintained for the State of Madhya Pradesh
Q3. The Development and Welfare Board for De-notified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Communities, approved by the Union Cabinet in February 2019, was set up as a body registered under which one of the following?
- A. The Societies Registration Act, 1860, under the aegis of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment
- B. Section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013, under the aegis of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs
- C. A statute enacted by Parliament, on the pattern of the commissions set up under Article 338B
- D. The Indian Trusts Act, 1882, under the aegis of the Ministry of Rural Development and NITI Aayog
Q4. In official usage in India, the expression 'De-notified Communities' refers precisely to which one of the following?
- A. Nomadic communities that were left out of the Scheduled Tribes list when the first Presidential Order on Scheduled Tribes was issued in 1950
- B. Forest-dwelling communities whose habitations ceased to be reserved or notified forest areas after the repeal of colonial forest regulations
- C. Communities that gave up their itinerant occupations and were settled in registered villages under the Habitual Offenders Acts of the States
- D. Communities that had been registered as 'criminal tribes' under colonial law and lost that designation when the Criminal Tribes Act was repealed in 1952
Q5. Among the communities linked to family-sanctioned commercial sexual exploitation in Madhya Pradesh, which one is spread over the largest area — about a dozen districts across the Chambal, Malwa and Bundelkhand regions?
- A. The Bachara, whose presence is confined to the districts of the Malwa plateau
- B. The Bedia, whose settlements extend across roughly twelve districts of the State
- C. The Kanjar, whose settlements extend along the districts bordering eastern Rajasthan
- D. The Nat, whose presence is concentrated in the districts of the Bundelkhand region
Q6. The practice known as 'Chaari Pratha', reported among a nomadic community of Rajasthan, denotes which one of the following?
- A. The dedication of a daughter to a temple deity, after which she may not marry any mortal man
- B. The sale, or mortgaging for a fixed period, of daughters by their parents for prostitution before adulthood
- C. The obligation on a family to keep the eldest daughter unmarried so that she inherits the household's land
- D. The exchange of daughters between two families in lieu of bride price when a marriage is contracted
Q7. The Jabali Yojna, aimed at ending socially accepted prostitution among certain denotified communities and at rehabilitating their children, was launched by the Government of Madhya Pradesh in which year?
- A. 1986
- B. 1989
- C. 1996
- D. 1992