The state of Adivasi livelihoods after 75 years of planned development
Despite efforts to ensure their wellbeing, the Adivasi community remains one of the most deprived in India. In this post, Chaudhuri and Ghosh discuss the findings of a study surveying the livelihood status of the Adivasi population in Jharkhand and Odisha. Using personal interviews, focus group discussions and household surveys, they find that Adivasis lag behind the rest of the country in not only household income, but also nutritional outcomes, access to roads and public transport, literacy and landholdings.
People belonging to the administrative category of ‘Scheduled Tribes’, or Adivasis, living in the central Indian belt are one of the most marginalised communities in the country (Prasad 2016). Since independence, government and non-government agencies have been working towards ensuring the wellbeing of Adivasis. Despite this, development has escaped them. Various reasons account for this, including continuous dispossession and displacement (Fernandes and Thakural 1989). At the same time, mainstream development policies and programmes have been an imposition from above, as they have been implemented without considering either the distinct economic, social and cultural features of Adivasis, or the ecological zones they inhabit.