THE PROBLEMS OF TRIBAL DEVELOPMENT
Land Alienations
Tribes and their territory are considered inseparable
in terms of their emotional and ancestral attachment
to it.
Their land is not only their inhabitation area but also
their identity, source of livelihood and responsibility
inherited through years of tradition.
The major problem areas lying around the problem
of land-alienation includes:
Failure of non-tribal planners in understanding
the special relationship between the tribals and
their land.
The nature of dispossession of the tribals from
their land: political motive, economic motive,
religious motive etc.
Increased chances of exploitation of tribals by the
traders and money lenders.
Loss of tribal rights over their land through
changes in the forest policy.
Inadequate amount of compensation for their land
given to tribals.
Displacement and migration issues.
Rehabilitation problem
Ineffective machinery and measures for
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implementation of legislation and prevention of
alienation.
Faulty preparation of the record of rights.
Recruitment of the tribal laborers into cruel
working conditions.
Indebtedness
The issue of indebtedness among the tribals of India
is in escalation as noticed through a sample survey
conducted by the Planning Commission which
reports that between 1975 and 1983, the indebtedness
increased from 14.47% to 33.77 percentages.
The main reasons for indebtedness can be listed as:
Poor income
Ignorance of equitable price system
Extravagant expenditure on large scale social
celebrations, festivals and occasions like
marriages, birth and death
Adherence to the panchayat decisions regarding
fines for fear of excommunication
The tribal economy is characterized by the
subsistence economy marred by the problems of
illiteracy and unemployment.
Even where the employment is present, the wages are
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so meagre that running a household from that amount
becomes difficult.
With the increase of tribal population after
independence, the problem has aggravated as in
accordance with the population the land yield has not
increased.
In such a situation, when the performance of the
traditional rituals like initiating ceremonies comes
forth, the tribals have to be dependent on one of the
following two sources:
Organized/ Institutional Sources (Banks,
Cooperative Societies etc.)
Unorganized sources (private money lenders,
shopkeepers. friends and relatives)
The various governmental legislations have failed in
eradicating indebtedness among tribals because:
The entire population is not covered
The extent of practice in different states is unknown
The word bonded labor has not been well defined
Lack of machinery to enforce these orders
Cases of bonded labor not reported mostly
because of their socio-economic background and
lack of knowledge
Financial Constraints for the developmental projects
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Identity-Crisis
The tribes of India which represents a relatively
isolated group,
faces the problem of identity-crisis, paradoxically
when they have gotten different representations by
different cultures, scholars and themselves.
Poor literacy and education
An important index of development is the estimate of
the literacy and education level of an area.
It imparts social cognition and ability to comprehend
their social, political and cultural environment better.
It is a catalyst for the social upliftment promoting the
importance of health, nutrition, savings, employment,
hygiene and personal and community growth. As per
the 2001 Census, the literacy rate among the
Scheduled tribes was recorded as 47.10% with the
females of the tribes of Bihar accounting for the
lowest 15.54%.
The data shows that the literacy rate among the STs
was lowest in Bihar (28.17%) and the highest in
Mizoram (89.34%).
Even among the tribes of India, the dispersion of
literacy is not uniform.
For example, In Bihar, the Oraons and Mundas are
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educated but the Birhors, Asurs and many other
numerically small tribal groups are the least
educated.
Over the years, illiteracy and lack of education has
proved to be the major cause of most of the tribal
problems including land alienation, indebtedness,
exploitation by money lenders, unemployment etc.
The major issues felt with the non-attainment of
the literacy level in tribal areas includes:
Remoteness of the schools and institutions
Poor livelihood means
Inadequate facility and quality of schools
Language and cultural barriers
Unavailability and unwillingness of teachers to teach
in remote and tribal areas
Lack of vocational training
The schedule and vacations of schools doesn’t match
the period of important tribal festivals.
As a result either the enrollment of the children is
low or there are high numbers of drop outs.
Some of the important factors for such a slow growth
of literacy in tribal India are:
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Poor Economic Conditions: Although most of
the tribals in our country are agriculturists and
pastorals, their economic status lies at the
subsistence level.
For most of the tribals, their children are the bread
earners and sustenance regulators of their family,
especially when they belong to the occupational
group of the hunter-gatherers, shifting cultivators
and pastoralists.
So, they discourage them from spending more
time in school. This can be attributed to the lack
of awareness among the tribals on the importance
of education.
Socio-cultural Factors: Among the various socio-
cultural factors, the important ones responsible for poor
education in India is gender bias, threat of family
splitting and cultural traits infused from an early age.
Unemployment
The major reasons for unemployment among the
tribals of India is illiteracy, addiction to alcohol,
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and several other social and cultural factors and
unawareness.
Though the government has providing them
reservation and provision against discrimination,
most of the reserved seats remain vacant because of
lack of eligibility for the position or unawareness
among the tribals.
Displacement and Rehabilitation
The rapid establishment of industries and modern
infrastructure, requires land and resources which are
generally sought from the forest areas.
These being the inhabitation areas of the tribals, are
disturbed with such a penetration, making the tribals
leave their land and hence identity to a new place
where they have no knowledge about the people and
resources and their illiteracy and lack of skills adds
to their obstructions.
Health, Nutrition and Hygiene
One of the major problems among the tribals is the
one created by them and lack of effective research
and policies- i.e., lack of health, nutrition and
hygiene.
The major reason for the poor health among the
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tribals includes:
Lack of personal hygiene and sanitation
Tobacco and alcohol consumption from an early age
Early marriage
Absence of effective waste disposal
Lack of family planning. Early child birth
Lack of ventilation in living place (overcrowding
and congestion)
Paucity of clean drinking water
Lack of immunization and medical facilities
Illiteracy and lack of awareness
Superstitions
Low consumption of important dietary products like
meat, fish, egg, milk etc
The problem is manifested in different forms like
malnutrition, frequent abortions, and fatal microbial
and pest diseases leading to low life expectancy
among the tribals.
Other Problems
The other problems as L.P. Vidyarthi pointed are at the
level of polity, implementation and recruitment and
training of personnel.
The reasons of poor impact can be listed as:
Lack of special attention to tribal and scheduled
areas in spite of constitutional provisions.
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Inadequate allotment of funds in both general
and special sectors to cover all aspects of tribal
development.
Lack of co-ordination and integration between the
sectorial programmes and departments both at the
Centre and State level.
Ineffective personnel policy of the government,
e.g., high transfer rate of monitoring professionals,
inadequate incentives, lack of specialized training
in tribal cultures and lack of social service spirit in
them.
Lack of scientific planning and research.
Politicization of the tribal issues and failure on the
part of tribal societies to erect dedicated and
enlightened social representatives.
