Adivasis of the mainland and tribes of the northeast, who is more deprived and why? Here’s a brief discussion.
In general, adivasis are also known as tribals, aboriginals, Autochthonous or Vanvasi. The tribal population of the country, as per the 2011 census, is 104.3 million, constituting 8.6% of the total population. And only 10.03% of the population live in urban areas.
Several scholars have classified the tribal population, like renowned sociologist Ghanshyam Shah categorised them as Frontier Tribes — the one that lives in the North Eastern States of India and shares boundaries with neighbouring countries — and Non-Frontier tribes — who inhabit the mainland of the country.
But according to the data on population percentage, more than 80% of the tribal population resides in the mainland, including Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Gujrat, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.
The Indian Constitution identifies 705 scheduled tribes in the country, but sociologist Xaxa argues there are only 461 tribal communities. In addition to their rights as citizens, the Constitution has made special provisions for them, ranging from statutory recognition as Scheduled Tribe (Article 342), ‘proportionate representation’ in the Parliament and State Legislatures (Article 330 and 332), reservation in state employment (Article 16(4)) and institutions of higher education, and provisions empowering the state to bring the area inhabited dominantly by tribes under special treatment for the administrative purpose.
Within the backdrop of these constitutional provisions, Xaxa categorised different measures taken by states for their upliftment into three categories: protection, preservation and development.
In the above discussion, I have talked about the tribes of India in general. To be more specific, mainland tribes usually identify themselves more as ‘adivasi’ rather than ‘tribe’, while frontier tribes don’t identify as ‘adivasi’ but just as ‘tribes’. Even the Indian Constitution makes a distinction between them through the Fifth and Sixth Schedule — the earlier one is for Adivasis and the latter is for tribals.
The provision of the Fifth Schedule has to do with the promotion of welfare and advancement of Scheduled Tribes and the administration of Scheduled areas. And under this schedule, there is the provision of Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas. But this has proven lacklustre, and only six states have implemented this Act so far. The Sixth Schedule has provision for the formation of an Autonomous District Council, which is an autonomous body to carry out local level governance.
To compare the adivasis and tribals, tribals of the northeast states have done way better in several indices than their counterpart adivasis in mainland states, according to a National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) report (55th Round). It was found that in almost all mainland states, the poverty level was higher than the northeastern states (below 20% in northeast states and higher in mainland states; for some states, it was more than 50%).
In the case of the literacy level, none of the mainland states has a literacy rate percentage of adivasis more than 58%, while in the northeast, except Arunachal Pradesh (64.6%), all states have a literacy rate of above 72%. These are two important indicators to reflect how much disparity exists between adivasis of the mainland and tribals of the northeast.
But the question remains: why is there such disparity? Early exposure to English education because of the northeast’s contact with Christian missionaries is one of the reasons for this disparity. Further, a lack of displacement because of mining and land acquisition in the frontier states (as compared to many non-frontier states) and their strong assertion for the protection of their identity are other reasons for their better social indicators.
These things make the northeastern tribes better off than their counterpart adivasis in mainland India. But this doesn’t mean that such a disparity will always continue. I think with smart policymaking, the Indian government can uplift the adivasis of mainland India. This includes giving them more autonomy to govern themselves (Autonomous District Council), ensuring better representation in decision-making and governance, and more.
Ulgulan Zindabad
About the author: Chhotelal Kumar has pursued their MA in Political Science From JNU, New Delhi.