Important Web Link: Ministry of Tribal Affairs

Scheduled Tribes

Scheduled Tribes in India, as recognised the Constitution of the Indian Republic; a total of 645 district tribes. The term "Scheduled Tribes" refers to specific indigenous peoples whose status is acknowledged to some formal degree by national legislation. A collective term in use locally to describe most of these peoples is "Upajati".

Tribal communities live, in various ecological and geo-climatic conditions ranging from plains and forests to hills and inaccessible areas. Tribal groups are at different stages of social, economic and educational development. While some tribal communities have adopted a mainstream way of life, at the other end of the spectrum, there are certain Scheduled Tribes, 75 in number known as Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs), who are characterised by:-

• pre-agriculture level of technology
• stagnant or declining population
• extremely low literacy
• subsistence level of economy

The Scheduled Tribes are notified in 30 States/UTs and the number of individual ethnic groups, etc. notified as Scheduled Tribes is 705. The tribal population of the country, as per 2011 census, is 10.43 crore, constituting 8.6% of the total population. 89.97% of them live in rural areas and 10.03% in urban areas. The decadal population growth of the tribal’s from Census 2001 to 2011 has been 23.66% against the 17.69% of the entire population.

Broadly the STs inhabit two distinct geographical area – the Central India and the North- Eastern Area. More than half of the Scheduled Tribe population is concentrated in Central India, i.e., Madhya Pradesh (14.69%), Chhattisgarh (7.5%), Jharkhand (8.29%), Andhra Pradesh (5.7%), Maharashtra (10.08%), Orissa (9.2%), Gujarat (8.55%) and Rajasthan (8.86%). The other distinct area is the North East (Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur, Meghalaya, Tripura, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh).

Budget Allocation for 2018-19

Government is giving special importance to implementation of the schemes for welfare of Scheduled Tribes and Minorities. The allocation for Scheduled Tribes has been increased to Rs. 39,135 crores and for Minority Affairs to Rs. 4,195 crores. The Government will introduce outcome based monitoring of expenditure in these sectors by the NITI Aayog.

Recent Event for Empowering ST Teachers & Youth

• Empowering ST Teachers/Educators/Trainers/Counsellors/Corporate to do hand holding of Tribal Youth of India — 01 September, 2016 in Bhubaneswar, Odisha | Brochure & Roadmap

Reports & Schemes

• Empowerment of Tribal Women
• Scheme of Centres of Excellence
• Vocational Training Centres in Tribal Areas
• Post Matric Scholarship (PMS) for ST Students
• National Fellowship and Scholarship for Higher Education of ST Students
• Scholarship to the Student of ST for studies abroad

A Song by ST Students