Table Of ContentTribal Development Report
This book sheds light on the status of tribal communities in central India
with respect to livelihoods, agriculture, natural resources, economy and
migration. Written by noted academics, thematic experts and activists,
this first-of-its-kind report by Bharat Rural Livelihoods Foundation brings
together case studies, archival research and exhaustive data on key facets of
the lives of Adivasis, the various programmes meant for their development
and the policy and systems challenges to build a better understanding of the
Adivasi predicament.
This volume,
• Provides a broad overview of the contemporary macro-economic
situation of Adivasi communities, with a special focus on the challenges
of agriculture, land, energy and water use, especially groundwater;
• Highlights the need to move into a new paradigm of agro- ecology-based,
nature-positive farming and sustainable water use driven by local
institutions;
• Examines the neglect faced by tribal areas in the development of
infrastructure in various dimensions, from irrigation to energy;
• Shares insights on the invisibility of tribal voices in the policy processes
and how political empowerment will enable socio-economic changes
for the Adivasis at grassroots levels;
• Discusses the Adivasi informal sector and the state of migrant workers,
whose plight drew national attention during the recent COVID-19
pandemic.
This book will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of indigenous
studies, development studies and South Asian studies.
Mihir Shah co-founded the Samaj Pragati Sahayog in 1990 and has spent
the past three decades living and working in remote, central tribal India,
forging a new paradigm of inclusive and sustainable development. From
2009 to 2014, he was Member, Planning Commission, Government of India,
chiefly responsible for drafting the paradigm shift in water enunciated in the
12th Five Year Plan, as also a makeover of MGNREGA, with a renewed
emphasis on rural livelihoods, based on construction of productive assets.
In 2019, the Government of India invited him to chair a committee to draft
the new National Water Policy.
P.S. Vijayshankar is Co-founder of Samaj Pragati Sahayog, one of the l argest
civil society initiatives in water and agriculture based in central India. He
has lived and worked among the tribal communities for over 30 years. He
was Visiting Scholar at the Centre for Advanced Study of India (CASI),
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA, (2011) and is currently
Adjunct Faculty at Centre for Public Affairs and Critical Theory (C-PACT),
Shiv Nadar University, Delhi. He is Founding Director of Nature Positive
Farming and Wholesome Foods Foundation (N+3F), a company engaged in
the promotion of sustainable agriculture.
Bharat Rural Livelihoods Foundation (BRLF: http://brlf.in) was set up by
the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India as an i ndependent
society with the aim of upscaling civil society action in partnership with
government, with a focus on the central Indian tribal region. Together with
its civil society partners and several state governments, BRLF is w orking
with hundreds of thousands of mostly tribal households to eliminate p overty
and deprivation, develop climate-resilient sustainable livelihoods, create
empowered community institutions led by women and build capacities and
tribal leadership at the grassroots. This Tribal Development Report has
been anchored by BRLF’s research vertical.
Tribal Development Report
Livelihoods
Edited by Mihir Shah and
P.S. Vijayshankar
Bharat Rural Livelihoods Foundation
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2023 Bharat Rural Livelihoods Foundation
The right of Mihir Shah and P.S. Vijayshankar to be identified as
the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their
individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77
and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-0-367-72472-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-00126-5 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-17285-7 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003172857
Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
List of Figures vii
List of Tables ix
List of Contributors xiv
Acknowledgements xviii
Introduction 1
MIHIR SHAH AND P.S. VIJAYSHANKAR
1 Macroeconomic Situation of Scheduled Tribes in India
With a Focus on Central Indian Tribal Belt 9
SAYANTANI SATPATHI
2 Tribal Agriculture: Context and Challenges 37
P.S. VIJAYSHANKAR
3 Managing Groundwater Across the Diverse Central Indian
Drylands: the Need for a Nuanced Approach 66
SIDDHARTH PATIL, NEHA BHAVE, P.S. VIJAYSHANKAR AND
HIMANSHU KULKARNI
4 Urban Underclasses and Industrial Serfs of Transforming
Tribal Central India: Survival Realities of Footloose Tribal
Migrants 109
AJAY DANDEKAR, RAHUL GHAI AND PRAMATHESH AMBASTA
5 Improving Adivasi Access to Energy and Infrastructure 174
PRAMATHESH AMBASTA
vi Contents
6 Land and Tribal Human Development: Part I 254
PRADIP PRABHU
7 Land and Tribal Human Development: Part II 281
PRADIP PRABHU
Index 313
Figures
1.1a State-wise percentage distribution of number of
operational holdings for STs (2010–11) 25
1.1b State-wise percentage distribution of number of
operational holdings for STs (2015–16) 25
3.1 Share of surface water and groundwater in the net
irrigated area 71
3.2 Conceptual hydrographs for rivers in eastern India (left)
and peninsular India (right) 73
3.3a Comparison between the district-level and block-level
assessment of CGWB for the year 2013 75
3.3b Comparison between the district-level and block-level
assessment of CGWB for the year 2014 76
3.4 Share of groundwater irrigation in the net irrigated area 78
3.5 Share of groundwater in all MI Schemes 79
3.6 Groundwater schemes not in use 81
3.7 Groundwater schemes not in use due to low discharge
and drying up of wells 82
3.8 Classification of the selected districts according to regions
in the MI Census 83
3.9 Region-wise energy source for groundwater extraction 84
3.10 Sources of finance for irrigation wells 85
3.11 Overlay of the 112 irrigation-deprived districts 86
3.12 Representation of the storativity values provided in Table 3.2 90
3.13 Representation of the transmissivity values provided
in Table 3.3 91
3.14 Simulation of pumping drawdowns in two contrasting
aquifer systems – (a) alluvial/sedimentary systems and (b)
hard rock systems 94
3.15 Conceptual depiction of the timeline of groundwater
development in Bagli tehsil 96
3.16 Conceptual depiction of the situation described in Case IV 101
4.1 Composition of income of a typical Sahariya household 148
viii Figures
4.2 Predicted shares of different sources of income for
different size classes of landholding 151
4.3 Participation (days worked) in the labour market by
respondent households 152
4.4 Irrigated area to sown area (STs and others), 2011 153
4.5 Adivasi households which do own, possess or cultivate
land in rural India 155
4.6 Share of land cultivated by Adivasis in different land-size
categories 155
4.7 Proportion of Adivasi households in different size-classes
of operational landholdings of Adivasi households,
rural India 156
4.8 Households grouped by employment days 159
4.9 District-wise composition of MGNREGA expenditure 161
4.10 Projected drop in shares of labour components in
household income across landholding size categories 162
4.11 Projected changes in composition of household income 163
4.12 Income share changes if agricultural land is assigned and
100% irrigation is provided to some of the households 164
4.13 Predicted drop in labour days worked with full irrigation
and more land 165
4.14 Predicted drop in migration days with full irrigation and
more land 165
5.1 Road length under PMGSY 181
5.2 Road length (PMGSY) year-on-year growth percentage 182
5.3 Correlation between share of tribal population in state
and share of unconnected habitations 186
5.4 Progress in full coverage under NRDWP (40 lpcd norm) 197
5.5 Fully covered habitations (55 lpcd norm) 198
5.6 NRDWP fully covered habitations as on 1st April 2017
(55 lpcd norm) 198
5.7 Piped water supply: target and achievement in terms of
full coverage 201
5.8 Fully covered slipped back habitations as share of total
habitations (2011–12 to 2016–17) 202
5.9 Share of slipped back habitations (partially covered and QA) 203
5.10 Status of community involvement in drinking water 206
5.11 Share of population practising open defecation in India,
Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan 208
5.12 Share of electrified households 221
5.13 Share of households using kerosene 221
Tables
I. 1 Distribution of Adivasi Districts by Ecological Zones, 2011 2
1.1 Demographic Features of Adivasis in CITB 10
1.2 Salient Features and Resources of the CITB 11
1.3 Traditional Sources of Livelihoods of Adivasis 12
1.4 Monthly Income of Highest Earning Household Member
(For All Social Groups, SCs and STs) 14
1.5a Percentage of Population Below Poverty Line Calculated
by the Lakdawala Committee and the Tendulkar
Committee for the Year 2004–05 15
1.5b State-Wise Poverty Ratios Among SCs and STs (1993–94
and 2004–05) 16
1.5c State-Wise Percentage of Population Below Poverty Line
Over Time – General Population 18
1.5d State-Wise Percentage of Population Below Poverty Line
Over Time – Tribal Population 19
1.6 Labour Informality Across Social Groups 20
1.7a State-Wise Percentage Distribution of Main Workers by Sex 21
1.7b State-Wise Percentage Distribution of Marginal Workers
by Sex 22
1.7c Occupational Distribution: Percentage of Working and
Non-Working Population – SCs, STs and All Social Groups 23
1.8a Percentage Distribution of Households by Household
Classification Across Different Social Groups 24
1.8b Percentage Distribution of Number and Area of
Operational Holdings by Social Groups 26
1.9a Assets Possessed by the Households Among STs and All
Social Groups 28
1.9b Condition of Houses Occupied by STs and Other
Households 29
1.10 Proportion of Budget Allocation towards Adivasis 30
2.1 Distribution of Tribal Population Across Districts, 2011 39
2.2 Characteristics of Sub-Districts, 2011 40
