U Sa Jen Mog and Dr. Jahar Debbarma Page 361 SOCIO
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International Journal of Movement Education and Social Science ISSN (Print): 2278-0793 IJMESS Vol. 7 Special Issue 1 (Jan-June 2018) www.ijmess.org ISSN (Online): 2321-3779 SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS OF TRIBAL COMMUNITIES IN TRIPURA U Sa Jen Mog development components and socio-economic Ph. D Scholar, Department of Economics, variables. Tripura University, Tripura(India) The Article 366(25) of Indian Constitution described Dr. Jahar Debbarma that, "Scheduled Tribes" means such tribes or tribal Associate Professor, Department of Economics, communities or parts of or groups within such tribes Tripura University, Tripura (India) or tribal communities as are deemed under article 342 to be Scheduled Tribes for the purposes of this Constitution. The Schedule Tribe population Abstract constitutes (disadvantaged group) 8.6 percent of the Tribes in the Indian context have been defined as total population of the country as per 2011 census. groups remaining outside of the structures of State The overall lower socio-economic position of the and civilisation.. The level of the socio-economic STs, made the framers of the constitution, realise development varies considerably between tribal and that unless some special provisions for safeguarding non-tribal population, between one tribe and another the interest of the segment of people is made, they tribe and even among different sub-group of tribal will remain backward for centuries. As a result some groups. Number of programmes have been taken by specific provisions have been incorporated in the Central and State Government, individually or Constitution to provide social justice to the members collaboratively to develop the level of wellbeing of of their tribes through protective discrimination. backward population. Besides those programmes, Consequent of these protective discrimination several Non Government Organizations are also policies, no doubt, since Independence improvement providing their best effort to upgrade tribal in social and economic conditions has been communities. Still there is considerable percentage recorded among these categories of the society, but of tribal populations are living below poverty line. desirable outcome is still far away from the reality. Though they are relatively better than the past but in In Tripura, total tribal population according to 2011 relation to their standard of living, most of the tribal census is 36, 73,917, which accounts for 31.75 people have low quality of livelihood. These percentage of the whole population of the state. As disparities and diversities make tribal development recognized by the Indian constitution there is 19 and micro level planning of tribal at the grass root tribes in Tripura (Economic Review of Tripura, 2014- level imperative. It is also a fact that more than 15). Good numbers of tribal families are preview of ninety percent of the Scheduled Tribe population below poverty line and the literacy rate of tribes is depends upon agriculture and allied activities in the below the state average. Dhalai district is having State. Tribal people in the State more or less depend highest number of tribal population with 2, 10,608 on the Government job and because of the fact that people and accounting for 78.92% percent of the the industrial sector is not developed. From the total tribal population. About 96 percent of tribe lives study it transpires that the State could achieve in rural areas and their livelihood mostly depends development in many sectors and therefore, tribal upon agriculture &are engaged in shifting cultivation areas are remaining neglected. (jhum). Among the tribal groups in Tripura there is a Key words: Collaborative, Literacy, Poverty line, diversification in cultural, social and economic and Socio-economy and Wellbeing. the difference in the level of attainments of various aspects of their wellbeing particularly in the socio- economic positions. It was observed that some level Introduction of qualitative improvement in the life and living The twin concepts of deprivation and discrimination standards of the rehabilitated shifting cultivators, are closely interconnected with tribe and race. In (Bhowmik-2013). Therefore, it will be of paramount Indian context, Schedule Tribe (ST) and Schedule importance to study and compare the level of Caste (SC) are the marginalized social groups. attainment in respect to their socio-economic status Historically, these groups have been suffering from amongst different major tribes of Tripura. discrimination and exclusion from the mainstream population in economic and social spheres. Even Literature Review after 70 years of Independence, there is still visible Tribal issues in economic development studies are inequality between marginalized (STs& SCs) and regarded as popular subject in the context of the mainstream population in case of major human North East India. Number of researchers, various U Sa Jen Mog and Dr. Jahar Debbarma Page 361 International Journal of Movement Education and Social Science ISSN (Print): 2278-0793 IJMESS Vol. 7 Special Issue 1 (Jan-June 2018) www.ijmess.org ISSN (Online): 2321-3779 institutions has conducted studies dealing with socio- to fill the vacancies as per the reservation criteria for economic impact on tribes after independence. On schedule tribes. the basis of the extensive literature reviewed undertaken; few relevant literatures are appended Scenario of Tribal Development in North East below: India: The strategy for tribal development requires, The term „tribe‟ originated around the time of the defining in clear terms, the contexts of development Greek city-states and the early formation of the for tribal which are bound to be different from the Roman Empire. The Latin term, “tribus” has since national contexts as described by Goswami (1984) in been transformed to mean, “A group of persons the article “Tribal Development with special forming a community and claiming descent from a reference to North-East India”. In the study on common ancestor” (Oxford English Dictionary). “Tribals in Transition: A Socio-Economic Study”. According to anthropologists, Majumdar & Similarly in the study conducted by Lollen (2000) Madan(1956), tribe as a social group with territorial “Impact of development planning on tribal affiliation, endogamous with no specialization of communities: A case study of Arunachal Pradesh” functions ruled by tribal officers hereditary or focused on four tribal communities the Adi, Apatani, otherwise, united in language or dialect recognizing Khamti and Sulungs communities and opined that social distance with other tribes or castes. Sukai the impact of development measures has (2010) in the article “Tribal Development in India: An notbenefited those who deserved it the most. Overview” stressed up on the intensive approach to the tribal problems in terms of their geographic and Tribal Development in Tripura: Tribal society in demographic concentration. The author opines that a Tripura does not own much assets except personal lot more need to be done with concerted focus on belongings. The jhumia settlement scheme, which the issues crucial to improve their status on par with was introduced since 1953-54, has created a new the rest of the population. Kumar and Choudhary dimension in the problem of socioeconomic (2005) in their study “A Socio-Economic and Legal adjustment of the Tripura Jhumias. The Jhumia Study of Schedule Tribes, Land in Orissa, settlement scheme has introduced a new dimension Bhubaneswar” analysed though land based in the problem of socioeconomic adjustment of resources are main livelihoods of tribal people, they Tripura Jhumias, the impact of which will be have poor access to land and they have been unavoidably felt in the years to come was the affected by land loss through alienation of plain observation of Mishra (1976).Ganchoudhury (1980) lands to non tribal and over 72 percent of them are in the article “The Perennially Charming Tripura”, living under the poverty line. The study conducted by narrated that the search for resourceful forests, inter- Paul(2013) entitled “Income, Livelihood and tribal feuds, and uncanny incidents were the reasons Education of Tribal Communities in Kerala- Exploring for the migration of the tribal communities. On the inter community Disparities “considered 12 other hand, the land granted by the Rajas and jobs communities which constitute around 90 percent of and business opportunity induced many plains the tribal population in the state. Standard of Living people to settle down in Tripura. Das Gupta (1993) Index (SLI) has been constructed to understand the in the book “Status of Tribal Women in Tripura” general living conditions of tribes taken into described that bride-price, is an indicator of the consideration the type of housing, availability of higher status enjoyed by specially Reang tribal toilets, drinking water, and possession of durable women and the woman is thus the backbone of the assets, cooking fuel used and energy used for Reang economy and household life. The study lighting. Each indicator was given scores in the band conducted by Sengupta(2013) “Shifting Cultivation of one to three, where 1 is given for minimum value and the Reang Tribe in Tripura” pointed out that or poor quality living, 2 for medium value and 3 for Government programmes have widened social maximum value or best quality of living available in disparities among the Reangs and the settled tribal region. Descriptive statistics has been used to cultivation that cannot sustain Reang tribe round