RIGHTS OF THE VULNERABLE 1 95 Academy in Hyderabad asking that these be circulated to all concerned officers, including officer trainees. The Ministry also wrote to all the States asking them to furnish statistics in respect of DNTs and NTs. Reports have been received from the States of Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh, while the States of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan and West Bengal have indicated that action is being taken by them. No replies have been received from Maharashtra and Punjab and reminders have been sent to them. The Government of Karnataka has indicated that all the Denotified and Nomadic Tribes in the State have been included under the SC/ST and OBC categories and are being given all the benefits available for each of the categories. Therefore, it does not consider it necessary to carry out a separate enumeration of these communities. The Madhya Pradesh Government has stated that the majority, through out all of these communities have been included under SC/ST and OBC categories. It has requested the Union Ministry of Home Affairs to undertake the enumeration of those communities that have not been included under SC/ST or OBC categories. I 8.49 The Commission had also recommended that all those State Governments that had enacted the 'Habitual Offenders Act', should take the steps to repeal that Act. The responses on this point have thus far been inadequate. The Commission urges the Ministry of Home Affairs to pursue this matter, just as it will itself. F] Manual Scavenging 8.50 The Commission has been vigorously pursuing the need to end the degrading practice of manual scavengingin the country.It has taken up this matter at the highest echelons of the Central and State Governments through a series of personal interventions by the Chairperson. 8.51 In the preceding report, the Commission provided details of the high-level group it had constituted to elaborate recommendations and to pursue plans to end manual scavenging within a fixed time frame. The Secretary-General of the Commission then pursued this matter with his coimter-part in the Ministry of Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation, which is the nodal Ministry dealing with this subject. 8.52 Subsequently, the Chairperson of the Commission called a meeting on this matter on 6 August 2001 which was attended by the Secretary, Ministry of Social ANNUAL REPORT 2001-2002