Tribal communities of India and tribal policy

In short

India's Scheduled Tribes (STs) are communities notified under Article 342 of the Constitution because of their distinct culture, relative geographical isolation, shyness of contact with the wider community, primitive traits and economic backwardness. The 2011 Census counted 10.43 crore STs — 8.6% of the population, spread over about 705 notified groups including 75 Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs). Tribal policy is the body of constitutional protections (Fifth and Sixth Schedules, reservation), special laws (PESA 1996, the Forest Rights Act 2006, the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act 1989) and development programmes through which the State mediates between tribal autonomy and national development. This topic carries heavy marks in BA/B.Sc anthropology, sociology and social-work papers, and in UPSC/state PSC GS-I and GS-II, and is core knowledge for jobs in the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, ITDAs, TRIFED, state tribal welfare departments, NGOs and CSR/ESG and R&R teams of mining and infrastructure companies.

Explained

Who is a Scheduled Tribe — definition and criteria

• Constitutional route: Article 366(25) defines STs as tribes deemed so under Article 342. The President specifies them by order for each State/UT (after consulting the Governor); only Parliament by law can amend the list. There is no definition of "tribe" in the Constitution.
• Lokur Committee (1965) criteria, still used administratively: (1) indication of primitive traits, (2) distinctive culture, (3) geographical isolation, (4) shyness of contact with the community at large, (5) backwardness. Criticised as dated and paternalistic — the Xaxa Committee (2014) recommended revision; no new criteria have been notified.
• Modalities for inclusion/exclusion: proposal from the State → Ministry of Tribal Affairs → Registrar General of India → NCST → Cabinet → Bill in Parliament. Scheduling is State-specific and area-specific — a Gond is ST in Madhya Pradesh but may not be in another State.
• PVTG criteria (earlier "Primitive Tribal Groups", renamed 2006): pre-agricultural technology, stagnant or declining population, extremely low literacy, subsistence economy. 75 PVTGs are identified across 18 States and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands (Jarawa, Onge, Great Andamanese, Sentinelese, Birhor, Baiga, Cholanaickan, Katkari, Kathodi, Toda, Kurumba and others).
• Related but distinct categories: Denotified Tribes (DNTs) — communities once labelled "criminal" under the former Criminal Tribes Act 1871 (repealed 1952); Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes (NTs/SNTs). The Idate Commission (2017) reported on them; the Development and Welfare Board for DNTs (DWBDNC, 2019) and the SEED scheme serve them. Many DNTs are classified ST, SC or OBC depending on State.
• Classic definition (Imperial Gazetteer of India): a tribe is a collection of families bearing a common name, speaking a common dialect, occupying or professing to occupy a common territory, and not usually endogamous though originally it might have been so. D.N. Majumdar adds the observance of taboos regarding marriage and occupation and a well-developed system of reciprocity and mutual obligation.

Classification of Indian tribes

• By geographical zone (Roy Burman / Vidyarthi): (1) North-eastern region (Naga, Mizo, Khasi, Garo, Bodo, Apatani); (2) Central/Middle India belt — the largest, Jharkhand-Odisha-Chhattisgarh-MP-West Bengal (Santhal, Munda, Ho, Oraon, Gond, Bhil, Baiga); (3) Western (Bhil, Meena, Garasia, Warli, Katkari); (4) Southern (Toda, Kota, Kurumba, Chenchu, Irula, Kadar); (5) Island region (Jarawa, Onge, Sentinelese, Nicobarese, Shompen).
• By language family: Austro-Asiatic — Munda branch (Santhali, Mundari, Ho) and Mon-Khmer branch (Khasi, Nicobarese); Tibeto-Burman (most North-east tribes); Dravidian (Gondi, Kui, Oraon's Kurukh, Toda); Indo-Aryan (Bhili, Halbi). Santhali, Bodo and Manipuri are in the Eighth Schedule.
• By racial stock (B.S. Guha, 1935) — Negrito, Proto-Australoid, Mongoloid, Mediterranean, Western Brachycephals, Nordic. Taught for history of Indian anthropology, but racial classification is now rejected as scientifically invalid.
• By economy (livelihood typology): food-gatherers and hunters (Birhor, Chenchu, Jarawa); shifting cultivators (*jhum*/*podu*/*bewar* — Naga, Khond, Baiga); settled agriculturists (Santhal, Bhil, Munda); pastoralists (Toda, Gujjar-Bakarwal, Gaddi); artisans (Asur iron-smelters, Agaria); agricultural and industrial labour and plantation workers; folk artists.
• By degree of incorporation (Vidyarthi's assimilation scale): forest-dwelling, rural, semi-urban, urban/industrial.
• Tribe-caste continuum: Surajit Sinha, F.G. Bailey and N.K. Bose showed that tribes merge into Hindu caste society by gradual stages (Rajputisation, Sanskritisation, Hinduisation) rather than being a sealed category — hence the term "tribe-caste continuum" rather than a tribe/caste dichotomy.

Demography and socio-economic profile (Census 2011; the 2027 Census will update these)

• Population: 10.43 crore (8.6%); decadal growth 2001-11 was 23.7% against 17.7% for all India.
• Largest in absolute numbers: Madhya Pradesh (1.53 crore), then Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Jharkhand. Highest share: Lakshadweep (~94.8%), Mizoram (94.4%), Nagaland, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh. No notified STs: Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Chandigarh, Puducherry.
• Literacy: ST 58.96% (female 49.35%) against 72.98% all-India — a gap of about 14 percentage points. Sex ratio 990 females per 1,000 males, better than the national 943.
• Residence and work: about 90% rural; a high share are cultivators and agricultural labourers; school dropout and seasonal migration rates are among the highest of any social group.
• Health: higher under-nutrition, anaemia, infant and maternal mortality; concentrated burden of malaria, tuberculosis and sickle-cell disease (addressed by the National Sickle Cell Anaemia Elimination Mission, 2023).
• Poverty and displacement: STs have borne a disproportionate share of displacement from dams, mines and sanctuaries — commonly estimated at about 40% of all project-displaced persons while being under 9% of the population (estimates vary by source and are contested).

Constitutional framework

• Definition and lists: Articles 342, 366(25); Article 342A deals with socially and educationally backward classes, not STs.
• Protective: Article 15(4) and 15(5) (special provisions, reservation in educational institutions), 16(4) and 16(4A) (reservation in posts and in promotion), 17, 19(5) (restriction of movement and property rights in tribal interest), 23 (traffic in human beings, forced labour), Article 46 (Directive Principle — promotion of educational and economic interests of SCs/STs).
• Political: Articles 330 and 332 — reserved seats in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies (47 ST Lok Sabha seats); 243D and 243T — reservation in panchayats and municipalities; Article 164(1) — a Minister in charge of tribal welfare in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha.
• Administrative: Article 244(1) and the Fifth Schedule — Scheduled Areas in 10 States (Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan). The Governor may direct that a central or State law shall not apply, or apply with modification, and makes regulations for peace and good government; a Tribes Advisory Council (TAC) of up to 20 members (three-fourths ST MLAs) advises. The Governor sends an annual report to the President.
• Article 244(2) and the Sixth Schedule — tribal areas of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram, administered through Autonomous District Councils/Regional Councils with legislative, executive, judicial (village courts) and financial powers over land, forests, shifting cultivation, inheritance, marriage and social custom. Article 244A permits an autonomous State within Assam.
• Oversight: Article 338A — National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (separated from the SC Commission by the 89th Amendment, 2003); a constitutional body with powers of a civil court. Article 275(1) — grants-in-aid from the Centre for tribal welfare and administration of Scheduled Areas. Article 335 — claims to services, consistent with efficiency; Article 339 — Union direction on tribal welfare schemes.
• Reservation: 7.5% for STs in central government posts and central educational institutions; State percentages differ and in some North-eastern States and UTs are far higher.

Key legislation

• PESA — Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996: extends Part IX to Fifth Schedule areas on the Bhuria Committee (1995) recommendations. Makes the Gram Sabha the primary unit: it approves plans and beneficiaries, issues utilisation certificates, must be consulted before land acquisition and before resettlement, owns minor forest produce, recommends prospecting licences and mining leases for minor minerals, controls local liquor, moneylending, village markets and is empowered to prevent land alienation and restore illegally alienated land. State compliance rules are incomplete and uneven — the central weakness in practice.
• Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (FRA): recognises pre-existing rights rather than granting new ones.
  • Individual forest rights (IFR): occupation of forest land cultivated before the cut-off of 13 December 2005, up to a ceiling of 4 hectares.
  • Community rights (CR): nistar, grazing, fishing, MFP collection, habitat rights for PVTGs and pre-agricultural communities.
  • Community Forest Resource (CFR) rights: the Gram Sabha protects, regenerates and manages its customary forest.
  • Eligibility: STs resident in forests; Other Traditional Forest Dwellers must show 75 years of dependence (three generations).
  • Process: claim → Forest Rights Committee of the Gram Sabha → Sub-Divisional Level Committee → District Level Committee (final). Nodal ministry: Tribal Affairs.
  • Section 4(5): no eviction until the recognition process is complete. Consent of the Gram Sabha is required for diversion of forest land under forest-clearance practice.
• SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 with the 1995 Rules, strengthened by the 2015 Amendment (new offences, Exclusive Special Courts, Special Public Prosecutors, victim and witness rights, a time limit for investigation) and the 2018 Amendment (restoring the bar on anticipatory bail and no preliminary enquiry, after *Subhash Kashinath Mahajan*). Relief and rehabilitation are scheduled by offence.
• Land alienation: State Land Transfer Regulations — Andhra Pradesh Scheduled Areas Land Transfer Regulation 1959 (as amended), the Chhotanagpur Tenancy Act 1908 and Santhal Parganas Tenancy Act 1949 in Jharkhand, the Maharashtra and Odisha regulations — generally bar transfer of tribal land to non-tribals and provide for restoration.
• Case law: Samatha v. State of Andhra Pradesh (1997) — in Scheduled Areas, government land cannot be leased to private mining companies, only to the State or tribal cooperatives. Niyamgiri/Orissa Mining Corporation v. MoEF (2013) — the Gram Sabhas must decide on community and religious rights; all 12 palli sabhas rejected bauxite mining. Wildlife First v. Union of India — the challenge to the FRA, in which an eviction order against rejected claimants was stayed in 2019.
• Displacement: the RFCTLARR Act, 2013 requires a Social Impact Assessment, consent of 80% of affected families for private projects and 70% for PPP, and has special safeguards for SCs/STs (development plan, land-for-land in Scheduled Areas, retention of reserved rights, prior consent of the Gram Sabha/Autonomous Council). Forest diversion is governed by the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam — the Forest (Conservation) Act as amended in 2023.
• Other: the Forest Rights Act read with the Wild Life (Protection) Act for Critical Wildlife Habitats and Critical Tiger Habitats; the VB-G RAM G Act (in force 1 July 2026, 125 days of guaranteed rural wage employment) replaced MGNREGA and remains a major tribal income source; MFP procurement at a Minimum Support Price through TRIFED and State agencies.

Policy approaches, committees and current programmes

• Three classical approaches: Isolation — Verrier Elwin's early position, "national park"/exclusion to protect tribal culture, criticised as creating a museum. Assimilation — G.S. Ghurye's "imperfectly integrated classes of Hindu society", absorb tribes into the mainstream; criticised for cultural loss. Integration — the adopted policy: development without destruction of identity.
• Nehru's Tribal Panchsheel (1958, foreword to Elwin's *A Philosophy for NEFA*): (1) develop along the lines of their own genius, avoid imposition; (2) respect tribal rights in land and forest; (3) build a team of their own people for administration and development, with few outsiders; (4) do not over-administer or over-spend on schemes; (5) judge results by the quality of human character built, not by statistics or money spent.
• Committees and commissions: Dhebar Commission (1960-61) — first comprehensive review, origin of the PTG idea; Shilu Ao Committee (1969) on tribal development; Bhuria Committee (1995) → PESA; Bhuria Committee II (2002-04) on Fifth Schedule governance; Bandyopadhyay Committee (2006) on development and Left-Wing Extremism; Xaxa Committee (2014) — the most cited: land alienation, displacement, forced migration, failure of PESA and FRA, criteria revision, a statutory status for TACs; Idate Commission (2017) on DNTs. A draft National Tribal Policy (2006) was circulated but never finalised, so there is no single tribal policy document.
• Administrative machinery: Ministry of Tribal Affairs (created 1999); Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP, 1974-75), now the Development Action Plan for Scheduled Tribes (DAPST) under which ministries earmark funds (roughly proportionate to ST population, pooled across 40-plus ministries); Integrated Tribal Development Projects/Agencies (ITDP/ITDA), MADA pockets (Modified Area Development Approach), clusters and PVTG projects; Tribal Research Institutes (TRIs); TRIFED (Tribes India marketing, Van Dhan); National Scheduled Tribes Finance and Development Corporation.
• Current schemes (names and amounts change in each Budget): Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRS) — residential schooling to Class XII in ST-majority blocks, under the National Education Society for Tribal Students; Ashram schools and hostels; pre-matric and post-matric scholarships, National Overseas Scholarship, National Fellowship (NFST); Van Dhan Vikas Kendras for value addition of minor forest produce by SHGs; MSP for MFP; PM-JANMAN (PM Janjati Adivasi Nyaya Maha Abhiyan, launched 2023) for PVTG habitations — housing, roads, electricity, mobile medical units, hostels; Dharti Aaba Janjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyan (2024-25) for saturation of basic services in ST-majority villages; National Sickle Cell Anaemia Elimination Mission; Janjatiya Gaurav Divas, 15 November (Birsa Munda's birth anniversary) and tribal freedom-fighter museums.
• Applied anthropology's role: baseline ethnographic surveys and Social Impact Assessments; culturally appropriate IEC for health and nutrition; documenting customary law and habitat rights for FRA and PESA claims; identifying PVTG habitat boundaries; evaluating schemes against Panchsheel's fifth principle; advising on R&R and benefit-sharing for mining and infrastructure projects.

Problems, debates and limitations

• Land alienation by benami transfers, mortgage, marriage and encroachment despite regulations; restoration orders are often not executed.
• Displacement without rehabilitation from dams, mines, industrial corridors and protected areas; cash compensation replaces a land- and forest-based livelihood.
• Indebtedness and exploitation by moneylenders and middlemen; low returns on minor forest produce.
• Shifting cultivation squeezed by shortened cycles and forest law, with no accepted substitute in many hill districts.
• FRA implementation gaps: high rejection rates without reasons recorded, negligible recognition of CFR rights compared with potential, poor awareness among Gram Sabhas.
• PESA on paper: several of the 10 States have incomplete PESA rules; Gram Sabha consultation on land acquisition and minor minerals is frequently ritual.
• Fifth Schedule weaknesses: TACs meet irregularly; the Governor's discretionary powers are exercised on ministerial advice in practice; the Sixth Schedule ADCs by contrast have real legislative power but face funds, functions and intra-tribal equity problems.
• De-listing and "fake certificate" disputes, demands for ST status (for example from several communities in Assam and Rajasthan), and the exclusion of urban migrant tribals from benefits.
• Left-wing extremism in the central tribal belt is in part a governance and land-rights failure, as the Bandyopadhyay Committee held.

Key points

• Article 342 - the President notifies STs State-wise; only Parliament can alter the list.
• Lokur criteria (1965) - primitive traits, distinctive culture, geographical isolation, shyness of contact, backwardness; dated, not yet revised.
• Census 2011 - 10.43 crore STs, 8.6% of the population, about 705 notified groups, 90% rural.
• PVTGs - 75 groups in 18 States and A&N; criteria are pre-agricultural technology, stagnant population, very low literacy, subsistence economy.
• Fifth Schedule - 10 States, Governor's power to modify laws, Tribes Advisory Council.
• Sixth Schedule - Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram; Autonomous District Councils with law-making power over land and custom.
• Article 338A - NCST, a constitutional body since the 89th Amendment, 2003.
• Article 275(1) - central grants-in-aid for tribal welfare and Scheduled Areas.
• PESA 1996 - Gram Sabha supremacy in Fifth Schedule areas; MFP ownership, consultation before land acquisition, minor minerals.
• FRA 2006 - cut-off 13 December 2005; IFR ceiling 4 ha; community and CFR rights; Gram Sabha claims through FRC-SDLC-DLC; no eviction till settlement.
• PoA Act 1989 - amended 2015 and 2018; special courts, no anticipatory bail, relief and rehabilitation.
• Samatha (1997) - no leasing of government land in Scheduled Areas to private mining firms; Niyamgiri (2013) - Gram Sabha consent.
• Tribal Panchsheel (1958) - integration, development along their own genius, judge by human character not money spent.
• Isolation / assimilation / integration - Elwin, Ghurye, Nehru respectively; India follows integration.
• TSP (1974-75) → DAPST - earmarking of ministry budgets roughly in proportion to ST population.
• Xaxa Committee (2014) - the standard critique: land, displacement, livelihood, education, health, governance.
• Tribe-caste continuum - Sinha and Bailey; tribes grade into caste society, they are not a closed category.
• Reservation - 7.5% ST in central posts and central institutions; 47 reserved Lok Sabha seats.

Formulas and examples

• Example 1 — ST share and growth. ST population 2001 = 8.43 crore, 2011 = 10.43 crore; total population 2011 = 121.09 crore.
  • Share = 10.43 ÷ 121.09 × 100 = 8.61%.
  • Decadal growth = (10.43 − 8.43) ÷ 8.43 × 100 = 2.00 ÷ 8.43 × 100 = 23.7%, against 17.7% for the whole population — tribal population is growing faster, so absolute welfare demand rises even if the share is stable.
• Example 2 — reservation roster. A State forest department advertises 240 posts; central-style quotas of SC 15%, ST 7.5%, OBC 27% are applied.
  • ST = 0.075 × 240 = 18 posts; SC = 0.15 × 240 = 36; OBC = 0.27 × 240 = 64.8 → 65 (rounded, as per roster rules); unreserved = 240 − 18 − 36 − 65 = 121.
  • If the State is a Scheduled-Area State with 22% ST reservation, ST posts = 0.22 × 240 = 52.8 → 53. State percentages are fixed by State law and differ widely.
• Example 3 — DAPST earmark. A State with an ST share of 21.1% has a development outlay of ₹48,000 crore.
  • Earmark = 0.211 × 48,000 = ₹10,128 crore.
  • If only ₹7,600 crore is actually spent on ST-specific and ST-benefiting heads, the shortfall is 10,128 − 7,600 = ₹2,528 crore (25% of the earmark) — the classic TSP criticism of diversion and notional allocation.
• Example 4 — FRA claim outcome. A block receives 1,250 individual claims averaging 1.4 ha; 810 titles are issued, 390 rejected and 50 are pending.
  • Rejection rate = 390 ÷ 1,250 × 100 = 31.2%; title rate = 810 ÷ 1,250 × 100 = 64.8%.
  • Area titled = 810 × 1.4 = 1,134 ha. Every claim is within the 4 ha ceiling, so none fails on area; rejections must record reasons and allow appeal to the SDLC/DLC.
• Example 5 — Van Dhan value addition. An SHG collects 500 kg of mahua flower. Raw sale price ₹30/kg. After cleaning, grading and packing there is a 10% weight loss, the processed product sells at ₹70/kg, and processing plus packing costs ₹5,000.
  • Raw revenue = 500 × 30 = ₹15,000.
  • Processed quantity = 500 × 0.9 = 450 kg → gross = 450 × 70 = ₹31,500; net = 31,500 − 5,000 = ₹26,500.
  • Gain = 26,500 − 15,000 = ₹11,500; value addition = 11,500 ÷ 15,000 × 100 = 76.7% over raw sale.

Where it is used

• Government service: Ministry of Tribal Affairs, State tribal welfare departments, ITDA/ITDP Project Officers, Integrated Tribal Development Agencies, NCST and State ST commissions — eligibility verification, DAPST planning, scheme monitoring.
• FRA and PESA implementation: district administration, Forest Rights Committees, Tribal Research Institutes; GIS and ethnographic mapping of habitat and CFR boundaries by consultants and NGOs.
• Corporate and infrastructure: Social Impact Assessment and R&R under the RFCTLARR Act for coal, bauxite, iron-ore and power projects in Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh; CSR and ESG teams of NMDC, Coal India, Tata Steel, Vedanta, Hindalco.
• Development sector: PRADAN, SEWA, BAIF, Ekjut, Vaagdhara and similar organisations on tribal livelihoods, nutrition, forest produce and education; donors and evaluation agencies.
• Livelihood value chains: TRIFED/Tribes India and Van Dhan Kendras for tendu, mahua, honey, lac, sal seed, bamboo, tasar silk and handicrafts.
• Competitive exams and teaching: UPSC and State PSC GS-I/II, UGC-NET anthropology and sociology, NET social work, college and TRI research posts; ethnographic documentation of 75 PVTGs.

Interview questions

• Q: Who decides whether a community is a Scheduled Tribe? A: The President notifies STs for each State under Article 342 after consulting the Governor, on the basis of State proposals cleared by the Registrar General and NCST; thereafter only Parliament by law can add or remove a community.
• Q: What are the Lokur Committee criteria and why are they criticised? A: Primitive traits, distinctive culture, geographical isolation, shyness of contact and backwardness. They are criticised as dated, pejorative and unsuited to urbanised or assimilated tribal populations; the Xaxa Committee recommended revision.
• Q: Difference between the Fifth and Sixth Schedules in one line each? A: The Fifth Schedule gives the Governor power to modify laws for Scheduled Areas with an advisory TAC; the Sixth Schedule creates elected Autonomous District Councils in four North-eastern States with real legislative, judicial and financial powers.
• Q: What does PESA actually change on the ground? A: It makes the Gram Sabha, not the panchayat or the collector, the competent authority — owning minor forest produce, approving plans and beneficiaries, and being consulted before land acquisition and minor-mineral leases in Fifth Schedule areas.
• Q: What is the significance of 13 December 2005 in the Forest Rights Act? A: It is the cut-off date of occupation for recognising individual forest rights; claimants must show they occupied the land before that date.
• Q: Does the FRA grant new rights? A: No. It recognises and vests pre-existing rights that were not recorded during earlier forest settlements, correcting a "historical injustice" stated in its preamble.
• Q: What did the Niyamgiri judgment establish? A: That the Gram Sabhas of affected villages must decide on community, individual and religious/cultural claims before forest land is diverted for mining — Gram Sabha consent became a real precondition.
• Q: What is the Tribal Sub-Plan and what went wrong with it? A: From 1974-75 States and ministries earmarked plan funds roughly in proportion to ST population; in practice allocations were notional, diverted to general works or surrendered unspent, which is why it was restructured as the DAPST with ministry-wise earmarking.
• Q: Name the three approaches to tribal development and India's choice. A: Isolation (Elwin), assimilation (Ghurye) and integration; India follows integration, codified in Nehru's Tribal Panchsheel of 1958.
• Q: What is a PVTG and roughly how many are there? A: A Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group — pre-agricultural technology, stagnant or declining population, very low literacy and subsistence economy; 75 are identified in 18 States and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
• Q: What is the "tribe-caste continuum"? A: The finding of Sinha, Bailey and others that tribal and caste society are not discrete; communities move along a continuum through Hinduisation, Rajputisation and economic change.
• Q: Why do STs appear over-represented among displaced people? A: Mineral, forest and water resources are concentrated in tribal belts, their land titles are weak or absent, and compensation regimes historically recognised recorded ownership rather than customary and common-property rights.

Common mistakes

• Treating the ST list as national — scheduling is State- and area-specific, and a community may be ST in one State and not in another.
• Confusing Article 342 (STs) with 342A (socially and educationally backward classes), or quoting Article 338 for the ST Commission instead of 338A.
• Saying PESA applies to Sixth Schedule areas, or that it covers the whole country; it applies to Fifth Schedule areas in 10 States.
• Writing that the FRA gives 4 hectares to every tribal family — 4 ha is a ceiling on land already under occupation before 13 December 2005, not an entitlement.
• Calling the Criminal Tribes Act current; it was repealed in 1952 and those communities are the denotified tribes.
• Using Guha's racial classification as a live scientific framework rather than as history of the discipline.
• Quoting a "National Tribal Policy" as law — the 2006 draft was never adopted; and quoting Census figures without the year, or mixing 2001 and 2011 data in the same answer.

Related topics

Medical anthropology · Rural development concepts and approaches · Social change and Sanskritisation · Economic anthropology and subsistence systems · Ethnographic field methods and SIA · Indian constitutional provisions for weaker sections