SCHEDULED TRIBES

The tribal people of India, who come under the category of‘Scheduled Tribes’ in term of the provisions of the Constitution oflndia, number 84.3 million, constituting about 8.20 per cent of the population of the country (Census 2001). According to the Census 1961, there were 365 Scheduled Tribes. Their number has however, gone up as some new ethnic groups have also been included in the category of Scheduled Tribes. At present, there are more than 425 Scheduled Tribes in the country. Many more ethnic groups and communities have applied to the government for being included into the list of Scheduled Tribes.

The Scheduled Tribes of India belong to the differential racial, ethnic, linguistic and religious groups. They are mostly occupying the areas of isolation and relative isolation in the hilly and forested areas.

The Scheduled Tribes comprise the indigenous people. They have often been termed as the people of the ‘Fourth World’. The Scheduled Tribes are the people who cherish their own culture. They are the victims of past and present colonialism. They have maintained a close relationship with land. In their societies, there exists a co-operative attitude of give and take, a respect for the earth and life it supports. Their philosophy of life is: ‘From everybody accordingto his capacity, to everyone according to his needs'

hi terms of percentage and absolute population, the population of Scheduled Tribes is highly unevenly distributed. Their main areas of concentration of tribals are, however, in three regions as given in Table 13.2. The main concentration of the tribal population has been shown in Fig. 13.5.

Table 13.2 Main Areas of Concentration of Tribal Population

1. The North Eastern Region (NER) Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, and Tripura.

2. The Central Tribal Belt Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Dadar & Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, and West Bengal.

3. Other States and Union Territories Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu.

Source: Census of India, 2001.

The tribal communities live in about 15 per cent of the country’s area in varying ecological and geo-climatic conditions; mountains, hills, forests, plains and inaccessible areas. They have their presence in almost all the states and Union Territories of the country except Chandigarh, Goa, Delhi, Haryana, and Punjab (Fig. 13.6).

An interesting feature of the tribal population is that it is growing at a faster pace. The temporal change in the growth of population has been shown in Table

13.3.

It may be observed from Table 13.3 that the total population of the Scheduled Tribes in 1951 was only 225 lakhs accounting for 6.23 per cent of the total population of India. Their growth rate is however, higher than the national average. Consequently, in 2001 the tribal population became 843 lakhs or 8.20 per cent of the total population of the country. The lower standard of living of over 95 per cent of the tribal population may be the main cause of their high birth and high growth rate. The higher growth rate of the tribal population is also because of the inclusion of new tribes in the list of Scheduled Tribes.

According to the Census of 2001, about 87 per cent of the main workers from these communities were engaged in primary activities. A majority of Scheduled Tribes continue to live below the poverty line. They have poor literacy rates, suffer from malnutrition, undernourishment, waterborne diseases, and are vulnerable to displacement.

The Central and the State Governments have been implementing schemes/programmes, Centrally Sponsored Schemes, etc. However, a lot more is required to be done to achieve the desired developmental goals for Scheduled Tribes.

Table 13.3 India: Growth of Scheduled Tribe Population, 1951-2001

Source: Census of India, 2001.

Fig. 13.5 Density of Scheduled Tribes, 2001