India, Feb. 8 -- Veteran linguist, author and activist Ganesh Narayan Devy has urged the Centre to grant the Denotified and Nomadic Tribes (DNTs) their own separate entry in the forthcoming Census of India.

A year from now, in February 2027, India will be conducting an enumeration on the basis of caste for the first time since 1931. "It has entries for identifying as Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST). But there is nothing for DNTs. This would be a grave injustice," Devy, who is in Delhi, told Down To Earth (DTE) on February 8, 2026.

"Many DNTs are identified as SCs, STs or Other Backward Classes. But they continue to remain poor, marginalised and downtrodden as their problems differ from the other three groups. They may not ...