We shall first have to hand over this hubris of considering tribes backward. Every tribe features a rich and living cultural tradition and we must respect them.
-Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu
The tribal population makes up to 8.6% of the total population of India.
Among them Particular Vulnerable Tribal Groups are more vulnerable group of tribal communities which are underdeveloped, less populated and with negligible literacy rate.
PVTGs generally live in remote localities having poor infrastructure and administration.
Due to this factor more developed group of tribal population takes the major chunk of tribal development funds.
Therefore in 1973, a separate group has been created by Dhebar Commission named primitive tribal groups (PTGs), who are less developed among the tribal groups.
In 2006, the Government of India renamed the Primitive Tribal Group (PTGs) as Particular Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTGs).
PVTG isn’t a constitutional category and are also not recognised constitutionally.
In 1973, during 4th five year plan, government of India started to identify the most vulnerable tribal group and declared 52 such groups. And in 1993 government added 23 more tribal group making it to group of 75 PVTGs from 705 STs.
PVTGs are spread over 18 states and one union territory Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
The highest numbers of PVTGs are found in Odisha followed by Andhra Pradesh.
The criteria for creation of PVTGs are :
- Pre-agricultural level of technology
- Stagnant or declining population
- Extremely low literacy
- Subsistence level of economy
- Absence of written language
Issues faced by PVTGs:
- Outdated PVTG list: Name of some communities are repeated. For instance, the list contains synonym of an equivalent group like the Mankidia and the Birhor in Odisha, both of which are of the same group.
- many PVTGs are facing declination in population growth.
- Human interventions in their environment by industrial development and tourist activity has threatened their traditional livelihoods, habitats and customary resources.
- Poverty: many PVTGs are struggling with hunger, malnutrition, ill-health, illiteracy etc.
- Education: due to unavailability of educational centres and their poor contact with outer world, the educational status of these groups especially women is very low compared to other tribal groups.
- Health: The health indicators such as Infant Mortality Rate (IMR); malnutrition; and certain chronic diseases like Leukemia, Skin disorders etc. are very high and common.
- Infrastructure: lack of infrastructure, Lack of safe drinking water, unhygienic sanitary conditions, difficult terrain and unavailability of medical services are great concerns.
- And most importantly lack of awareness and non-recognition about their own rights have made them more vulnerable.
Reference: Dristi IAS
wikipedia