Socio-Economic Development of PVTGs in India: Problems and Solutions

The central part of India, the middle belt and the north-eastern states are the main adobe of tribal people in India. The tribal communities were hard to access and they were violent, too. Therefore, the British Government adopted a policy of pacification through indirect rule with respect to tribal areas and treated them differently from the rest of the country. The British policy resulted in exploitation an encroachment of tribal lands and thus they have lost command over the natural resources in their own habitat. The British administrators have neglected the tribal areas. At present, 94 percent of the forest dwellers are tribes or PVTGs and their economy is depending on forest to a great extent. They exploited the forests for fulfilling their basic needs by hunting wild life and collecting roots and fruits. Primitive Tribal Group (PTG) has a pre-agricultural system of existence, hunting and gathering culture, zero or negative population-growth and extremely low level of literacy in comparison to other scheduled Tribes as defined in Article 366(25) of the constitution of India. The primitive conditions of the tribe’s life, their vulnerability to economic exploitation, the existing socio – psychological barriers due to isolation necessitated a cautious and phased approach for the development of PVTGs. A special approach should have been formulated by the Indian Government with protection and integration of tribes as its principal objective of all-round development of tribes. The Present paper draws a clear scape about the pre and post independence state of the PVTGs and the problems of this group and effective solutions. Abbreviations: ST (Schedule Tribes); PTGs (Primitive Tribal Groups); PVTGs (Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups); UT (Union Territory); MFP (Minor Forest Produce) PESA (Provision of the Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Area). Key Words: Schedule Tribes, Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs), Constitution of India, Tribal Development. JEL Classification: D63, F43, I15, I25, J11, J15