Poverty and Social Exclusion among Scheduled Tribes

Abstract

newlineAccording to Census 2011, the total population of Scheduled tribe is 10.43 crore, which is 8.6 newline percentage of the total population of India. After independence of India various measures were newline taken for the up-liftment of Scheduled tribes in India. However, a concentrated effort and newline constitutional provisions may have benefitted only a small section of scheduled tribes and a large newline section of the tribal community still remains deprived of their benefit. The Xaxa Committee newline Report on socio- economic, health, and educational status of tribal communities (2014) shows newline that 43 percentage of scheduled tribe population is below poverty line (BPL) compared to 22 newline percentages among the general population. Concepts of poverty, deprivation and social exclusion newline need to be understood in an interlinked manner in the Indian social structure. In this context, newline following are the objectives of the study:- newline 1. To understand the relative socio-economic level of the Bhil community, in relation to the newline non-tribal communities at the village level. newline 2. To understand the processes underlying poverty and deprivation among the Bhil newline community. newline 3. To understand the perceptions and experiences of Bhil community about government newline programmes and schemes. newline This study was conducted among the Bhil community with the Rajput and Kunabi Patil newline community being the predominant other social group communities in four villages of Shindkhede newline block of Dhule district. The study was conducted with a grounded theory approach, and involves newline the use of both qualitative and quantitative research tools and techniques. Having examined the newline relative socio- economic development indicators among Bhil community and the processes newline underlying poverty and deprivation, the study concludes that social exclusion of Bhils is newline embedded in the village level societal inter-relation with other community. The experiences of newline Bhil respondent about government schemes show that dominant community played important newline role in the selection process, who eliminating and deny resources to poor Bhils households