(Draft) Government of Kerala SCHEDULED TRIBES OF KERALA REPORT ON THE SOCIO ECONOMIC STATUS SCHEDULED TRIBES DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT GOVERNMENT OF KERALA NOVEMBER 2013 Scheduled Tribes of Kerala : Report on the Socio Economic Status CONTENTS Sl. No. Tittle Page (1) (2) (3) 1 Introduction : 1 2 Demographic Features 2.1 The Background : 3 2.2 Tribal Communities and Their Population Characteristies : 6 2.3 Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups : 31 2.4 Non Tribes in the Scheduled Tribe Families : 35 2.5 Distribution of Scheduled Tribes in the Districts : 36 2.6 Trends in Population : 44 2.7 Population Pyramid and Dependancy Ratio : 47 3 Habitation 3.1 Settlement Patterns : 86 3.2 Distribution of Settlements : 87 3.3 Family Size in Settlements : 88 3.4 Accessibility to Settlements : 88 3.5 Access to Educational Institutions : 90 3.6 Access to Institutions of Basic Services : 90 3.7 Access to Health Institutions : 91 3.8 Access to Public Offices : 92 3.9 Anganwadies in Settlements : 93 3.10 Access to Sources of Drinking Water : 95 3.11 Electric Power Situation in Settlements : 95 i Scheduled Tribes of Kerala : Report on the Socio Economic Status 4 Education 4.1 Literacy : 97 4.2 Status of Educational Attainments : 99 4.3 Enrolment in Pre School Institutions : 101 4.4 School Enrolment : 102 4.5 Economic Background of Students : 109 4.6 The Dropout Syndrome : 115 5 Livelihood Pattern 5.1 Employment Status : 124 5.2 Unemployment : 135 5.3 Indebtedness : 139 6 Health 6.1 Background : 142 6.2 Access to Health Care Institutions : 142 6.3 Tribal Medical Practioners : 143 6.4 Differentially Abled Persons and Patients with Chronic Diseases : 144 6.5 Food Intake : 146 6.6 Malnutition : 147 6.7 Occurance of Deaths : 148 6.8 Preventive Vaccination : 149 7 Basic Amenities 7.1 The Housing Status : 151 7.2 Houseless Families and Houses Requiring Replacement or : 157 Renovation 7.3 Electrification : 158 7.4 Domestic use of Cooking Fuel and Solar Energy : 161 7.5 Sanitation Facilities : 162 ii Scheduled Tribes of Kerala : Report on the Socio Economic Status 7.6 Availability of Drinking Water : 164 7.7 Access to Houses : 166 8 Land and Land Development 8.1 Background : 168 8.2 Landless Families : 168 8.3 Extent of Land : 169 8.4 Classification of Land : 170 8.5 Land Lost and Land Leased Out : 171 8.6 Other Characteristics of Land Possession : 172 8.7 Soil and Water Conservation Activities : 172 8.8 Animal Husbandry Practices : 173 9 Forest Interface 9.1 Habitations in Forest Area : 174 9.2 Literacy of Forest Dwellers : 176 9.3 Educational Status of Tribals in Forest Area : 177 9.4 Students in Forest Area : 178 9.5 Employment in Forest Area : 179 9.6 Participation in Forest Conservation Initiatives : 183 10 Social Security and Development 10.1 Distribution of Ration Cards : 185 10.2 The BPL Families : 186 10.3 Distribution of Election ID Cards : 187 10.4 Registration under MGNREGS : 188 10.5 Distribution of Welfare Pensions : 189 10.6 Insurance Coverage : 191 10.7 Atrocities Against Scheduled Tribes : 193 10.8 Miscellaneous : 194 iii Scheduled Tribes of Kerala : Report on the Socio Economic Status 11 Gender Status 11.1 Female Population : 196 11.2 Age and Marital Status : 197 11.3 Female Literacy and Educational Status : 200 11.4 Girl Students : 202 11.5 Dropout of Girl Students : 204 11.6 Employment Pattern : 205 11.7 Unemployment of Women : 211 11.8 Basic Amenities of Women and Women Headed Families : 214 11.9 Social Security Measure : 215 12 Major Findings and Observations : 217 13 Recommendations and Conclusion : 236 Annexures : 249 Appendix : Local Body wise Population of Scheduled Tribes : 401 iv Scheduled Tribes of Kerala : Report on the Socio Economic Status 1 INTRODUCTION Scheduled Tribes are the ethnic groups of historically disadvantaged people that are given recognition in the Constitution of India. The Constitution lays down general principles for the policy of affirmative action for the Scheduled Tribes. Articles 342 and 366 (25) dealing with Scheduled Tribes in the Constitution of India provide for as under :- “342. The President may with respect to any State or Union Territory, and where it is a State, after (1) consultation with the Governor thereof, by public notification, specify the tribes or tribal communities or parts of or groups within tribes or tribal communities which shall for the purposes of this Constitution be deemed to be Scheduled Tribes in relation to that State or Union Territory, as the case may be; (2) Parliament may by law include in or exclude from the list of Scheduled Tribes specified in a notification issued under clause (1) any tribe or tribal community or part of or group within any tribe or tribal community, but save as aforesaid a notification issued under the said clause shall not be varied by any subsequent notification”. 366 (25) : “Scheduled Tribes” means such tribes or tribal communities or parts of or groups within such tribes or tribal communities as are deemed under Article 342 to be Scheduled Tribes for the purposes of this Constitution. For discharging these Constitutional obligations, the Census Organisation has been collecting data on Scheduled Tribes population since 1951. In the Census the Scheduled Tribes population has been enumerated strictly in accordance with Constitution (Scheduled Tribes ) Order, 1950, as amended from time to time containing the list of Scheduled Tribes for each State/Union Territory which are valid within its jurisdiction. The list has been amended in 1976 and 2002. During the early periods of the post-independence era, the schemes of tribal development were implemented through different development departments, which latter on dispensed with due to the notion that the benefit to these marginalised groups are not satisfactory due to lack of clear vision on the development gaps and inability to envisage meaningful projects for their upliftment. From the fifth five year plan (1974-75) onwards the Tribal Sub Plan (TSP) has been introduced. Seventy-third and Seventy-fourth Constitutional amendments paved the way for increased attention towards the development of the tribes as the subject was delegated to the three-tier Local Governments. Though there was tremendous progress in the delivery of quality services to the citizens by the Local Governments in Kerala, the same was not up to the expectation in the case of Scheduled Tribes attributable to the lack of proper database, which ought to have been disseminated at Oorukkuttams – the Gramasabhas in tribal areas. It was in this context that government decided to conduct a household and habitat survey of Scheduled Tribes in the state. Chapter 1 : Introduction 1 Scheduled Tribes of Kerala : Report on the Socio Economic Status The socio economic survey of Scheduled Tribes in Kerala was conducted during 2008-10 as a joint initiative of the Scheduled Tribes Development Department and Local Self Governments Department, with the participation of Local Governments. The survey has identified 4762 settlements (oorus) of Scheduled Tribes. Altogether, 1,07,965 families have been enumerated with a population of 4,26,208 spread over in 553 local bodies in the State (521 Grama Panchayats, 28 Municipalities and 4 Corporations). As the objective of the survey has been to provide the required data for micro level planning of Tribal Sub Plan by Local Governments, the data have been compiled local body wise and reports were furnished to them. The reports at all levels of local body have been prepared in a uniform pattern of presentation. This report is the outcome of the consolidation, analysis and interpretation of state level data of the survey. Chapter 1 : Introduction 2 Scheduled Tribes of Kerala : Report on the Socio Economic Status 2 DEMOGRAPHIC FEATURES OF SCHEDULED TRIBES 2.1 The Background The Scheduled Tribes Order 1950, had been subjected to modification in 1956, and Amendments in 1976 and 2002 respectively for various reasons such as inclusion, exclusion and for collating the list appropriately following the linguistic formation of States in 1956, lifting of area restrictions within the States to solve the problems arising out of mobility, corrections of spellings, addition of synonyms etc. Every time the anomalies are rectified so that the list appear more specific, unambiguous and unequivocal. The salient features of the list after the modifications and revisions are explained below:- (1) In the present list there are 43 communities of Scheduled Tribes serially numbered from 1 to 43. As per the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Orders (Amendment) Act 2002, (Act 10 of 2003) five communities (Serial Nos 7,11,12,14 and 28) have been excluded and two communities (Serial Nos 31 and 32) have been clubbed with an existing community (Serial No. 30). As such there are only 36 communities in the list. (Kotta, Kammara, Konda Reddies, Konda Kapus and Maratti were the communities excluded. Palliyan and Palliyar are the communities clubbed with Paliyan). (2) Another feature of the Amendment Order 2002 is that eight communities have been newly included in the list, namely; Malavettuvan, Ten Kurumban(Jenu Kurumban), Thachanadan (Thachanadan Moopan), Cholanaickan, Mavilan, Karimpalan, Vettakuruman and Mala Panickar. (Serial Nos 36-43) (3) Among the newly included, two communities, namely; Mavilan and Karimpalan (Serial Nos 40 and 41) were in the list of Scheduled Castes and as such it can be considered as transfer from Scheduled Castes to Scheduled Tribes. (4) There are entries in the list which have identical nature. Malai Arayan and Mala Arayan (Serial No. 20) and Malayarayar (Serial No. 26) are one and the same community. Similarly, Kochuvelan (Serial No.10) and Ulladan, (Ullatan) (Serial No.34) are also one and the same community.