Tag: understanding marginalisation

Scheduled Tribes are also known as Adivasis. These are the designated group of people who are disadvantaged indigenous people in India. Scheduled Tribes comprise about  8.6 percent of India’s population. 

Abolition of untouchability (Article 17) was mentioned under Fundamental Rights which are included in Part-III of Indian constitution. The article says that the untouchability is abolished and its practice in any form is forbiddable. The main goal of this article is to remove caste discrimination which is prevalent still in the country. Discrimination on grounds of caste is punishable by the court of law.

Article 330 provided that seats shall be reserved in Lok Sabha for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes and article 332 provides reservation of seats for them in the State Assemblies. Initially, this reservation was to last for ten years only. Article 334, as originally enacted, provided that these provisions relating to the reservation of seats for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes shall cease to have an effect on the expiry of a period of ten years from the commencement of the Constitution. The period fixed by this article was extended after every ten years through constitutional amendments in 1960, 1969, 1980 and 1990.

Scheduled tribes are also called as Adivasis. These people mostly depend on forests for their survival especially by selling forest products like honey, gum, fruits etc. Present day, problems faced by Adivasis are militarization, urbanisation, construction of dams, industrialisation which cause deforestation. Unlawful grabbing of tribal lands has been reduced these days. 

The Niyamgiri is a hill range situated in the districts of Kalahandi and Rayagada in Odisha. These hills are home to Dongria Kondh indigenous people also known as Adivasi. The hills have one of India's most pristine forests in the interiors.

The Environment and Forest ministry of Govt. of India scrapped a forest clearance given to a mining firm, Vedanta Resources, to mine bauxite in the area and the mining project was scrapped. In 2013, the Supreme Court of India asked the tribal people to take the decision, in which Bauxite Mining Process was rejected in all village council meetings.

From the 1830s onward, Adivasis from Jharkhand and adjoining areas moved in very large numbers to various plantations in India and the world - Mauritius, the Caribbean and even Australia. India’s tea industry became possible with their labour in Assam.

Groups of people or communities may have the experience of being excluded. Their marginalization can be because they speak a different language, follow different customs or belong to a different religious group from the majority community. They may also feel marginalized because they are poor, considered to be of low social status and viewed as being less human than others. The government releases various schemes to gain profit through the influence of these people and groups.

Around 8 per cent of India’s population is Adivasi and many of India’s most important mining and industrial centres are located in Adivasi areas – Jamshedpur, Rourkela, Bokaro and Bhilai among others. Adivasis are not a homogeneous population: there are over 500 different Adivasi groups in India. Adivasis are particularly numerous in states like Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and in the north-eastern states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura.