Abstract: The Scheduled Tribes are tribes notified under Article 342 of the Constitution, which makes special provision for ‘tribes, tribal communities, parts of, or groups within which the President may so notify’. There is no definition of a tribe in the Constitution but one may distinguish some characteristics that are generally accepted: self-identification, language, distinctive social and cultural organization, economic underdevelopment, geographic location and initially, isolation, which has been steadily, and in some cases, traumatically, eroded. Many tribes still live in hilly and/or forested areas, somewhat remote from settlements. Many stereotypes flourish about the tribal persona and tribal society. Many of the tribal people are undeniably economically under-developed, and the process of their marginalization can be traced to the intrusion of British colonialism, which quickly detected in the forest that was home to tribals, great potential for appropriation of resources. Exploitation of forest-lands by both the British and the zamindars resulted in the clearing of huge tracts for commercial crops such as tea, coffee and rubber and allowing contractors to fell trees in the very heart of the forest. These actions deprived the tribal people of their livelihoods because many of them were hunters and gatherers of forest produce. The interaction with the outside world brought the tribal people face to face with problems they were not equipped to cope with, such as alcoholism and sexually transmitted diseases. In the post-Independence period, while the Constitution protected the rights of the Scheduled Tribes and accorded them reservation in the legislature, educational institutions and government jobs, other ‘development’ activities, such as the construction of large dams or the sale of timber, led to the further marginalization of some tribes. This study tries to show the real status of Scheduled Tribes in India.
Keywords: tribes, economic condition, vulnerable social groups and literacy.
Title: STATUS OF SCHEDULED TRIBES IN INDIA
Author: PANDURANGA R, NAYAKARA HONNURSWAMY
Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research
ISSN 2348-3164 (online), ISSN 2348-3156 (Print)
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