About the Dhangar community of Maharashtra
Dhangars are a ‘Nomadic Tribe’.
They are a shepherd community who live mostly in Western Maharashtra and Marathwada, and make up about a crore of Maharashtra’s roughly 11.25 crore population (9%).
Leaders of the community claim Dhangars in Maharashtra are the same as those who are called Dhangad elsewhere in the country, and are listed as a Scheduled Tribe.
A typographical error had led to the community’s name being recorded as “Dhangar”, thereby denying them the benefits available to the ST “Dhangads”.
Dhangars are currently on the list of VimuktaJati and Nomadic Tribes (VJNT) in Maharashtra.
However, they have been demanding Scheduled Tribe (ST) status for the past several decades.
They play a key role in election outcomes at four (Baramati, Madha, Solapur, Satara) of the state’s 48 LokSabha seats, and 30-35 of the 288 Assembly seats.
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