Open Forum

New Delhi, 17 September 2025,

Neglect of Tribals

WILL OUTREACH PLAN HELP?

By Dhurjati Mukherjee 

The Prime Minister’s visit finally to Manipur after May 2023 violent clashes between the two main communities of Meitei and Kuki is a testimony to the sheer neglect of the tribal problem. It must be admitted that the condition of tribals in the country has not shown any perceptible change in the last two decades or so and that development has eluded this population. As per 2011 census it was 104 million, constituting 8.6 per cent of the country's population.  Continuous dispossession and displacement has been one major reason for this. Development programmes have been imposed from above and executed without considering the distinct economic, social and cultural needs of these people. 

Many tribal communities have been displaced from their traditional lands due to development projects, mining, and other activities. This has led to losing their livelihoods, homes, and cultural heritage. In the case of Manipur over 60,000 people have been displaced while much earlier in the Sardar Sarovar Dam project in Gujarat displaced thousands of tribal people from their ancestral lands. They are often exploited and marginalized by powerful groups, such as government officials, landlords, and businessmen. 

Various studies have repeatedly pointed to the overwhelming deprivation of adivasis in terms of income, food security and child nutrition as well as access to public services, education and health. In both the states the household income is far below the average income of agricultural households in India. It is indeed distressing to note that even though the country has antribal President, the community seems to be lagging in almost all aspects of development, and its economic status is lower than all other social groups. 

In this backdrop, it’s heartening to know that the Centre has rolled out a tribal outreach initiative that will allow 100,000 tribal dominated villages to prepare their own five-year plans by October 2. The initiatives, which seek to ensure government schemes percolate down to the grassroots, will begin with training of two million officials and then engage villagers to prepare development plans, saturate all government schemes and set up single-window centres to address grievances of the people in each of the 10,000 villages. The tribal affairs ministry has already identified villages across 324 districts for the ‘Adi Karmoyogi Abhiyan’ on behavioural change programme. 

The main outcome includes 100 percent saturation of government schemes and an effective village development plan. Officials will be trained to ensure that schemes relating to sanitation, health housing and education reach the intended beneficiaries. Another component is to make Adi Sewa Kendras functional in each village. This will be a single accessible centre, which will have information on every government department’s officer-in-charge, schemes and beneficiaries, grievance redressal system and contact details of assigned person from the village for every department. 

The question arises how effective these initiatives would be because over the years, the government has not cared to make adequate allocation towards tribal welfare. In fact, there has been a declining trend. Moreover, both adivasis and Dalits have been missing a significant proportion of funds due to the non-distinction between the targeted and the non-targeted schemes. The targeted schemes directly benefit STs while the non-targeted schemes are general and notional schemes.  Available schemes show that during 2015-16 and 2024-25, the targeted schemes accounted for just 35.6 percent of the Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP).  

There can be no doubt that the TSP was devised to bridge development gaps with the general population by way of delivering to them direct benefits through specific interventions. It is distressing to note that a substantial large chunk of the allocations has been diverted to general or notional schemes, which provided only notional benefits to STs. It is surprising to note that the nodal ministry of tribal welfare did not exert any pressure to allocate more funds for direct benefits for tribals as also other marginalised sections. 

Even vacancies of STs have not always been filled while tribal women have been at the receiving end. There is very little awareness among them and very few leaders emerged who could assert their rights and the need for transformation of tribal districts. There is thus an imperative need to review the whole strategy followed in the TSP so that the tribals can get direct benefits in terms of employment, income and better livelihood opportunities. 

There is need to mention here the much-talked about Nicobar Island Project which the Union environment minister has defended saying the protection and well-being of the particularly vulnerable tribal groups will be taken care of. Though the project has national overtones and may position the islands from the defence point of view, what exactly will be done for the welfare of the tribal groups has not been underlined. As a result, there has been protests over the project as no independent assessment has been carried out over the actual rehabilitation plan of the tribals displaced from their habitat. In its complaint, the Tribal Council for Little and Great Nicobar alleged that the NOC was fake and the process for recognising and vesting rights under the FRA had not even been initiated on the Nicobar Islands. 

The widening disparity in the country, not just between the rich and the poor sections but also within the city and rural areas and again between developed villages and rural districts speaks clearly of the continued neglect of tribals over the decades. Recall decades back, land for the Tata factory and the building of the township in Jamshedpur was acquired – but truly speaking, taken away – from the adivasis and paid for it. But the uneducated people, who were displacedwere not aware about going somewhere else and buying land and setting up their livelihood. The money paid was spent on liquor and other unethical forms of entertainment. At that time, the government did not have a proper rehabilitation policy and the compensation paid was quite meagre. All this is documented by books brought by social activists. But this is not just a solitary case. There have been umpteen cases where land for business has been forcibly occupied and taken from tribals and no livelihood opportunities provided. 

There is a need to focus on the marginalised sections, specially tribals. But for this to fructify, there has to be a positive political will to change the situation and bring them into the mainstream of life and activity. Financial allocations have to be substantially increased and it should be ensured that every tribal girl goes to school and becomes educated. Special incentives should be given for these girls who pass Class X and also Class XII. 

Social transformation is possible if tribal communities’ living standards improve and they become active citizens. If this occurs for half of the tribal population soon, inclusive development and Gandhi’s vision of opportunity for all can be achieved.---INFA

(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)