Understanding Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs)

This article discusses the origin, definition, and policy significance of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups, including why they are included in the Census and why they are not equitably developed.

In India, especially Vulnerable Tribal Group, among the Scheduled Tribes (STs), which are known to be specifically vulnerable and highly socio-economically marginalized and culturally isolated. A small number of India's Scheduled Tribes, Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) are identified by their low literacy rates, pre-agricultural technologies, geographic isolation, economic backwardness, and static or decreasing populations.The PVTGs, which were developed based on the findings of the jurisprudent Dhebar Commission (1960-61) that carried out an extensive investigation into the circumstances of the STs, address the inequalities within the STs. The Commission noted that some tribal groups were much less developed, with pre-agricultural subsistence systems, very low literacy, falling or flat population growth, and few connections with mainstream society. The Government of India responded by initiating the classification of Primitive Tribal Groups in 1975 (a status later renamed PVTGs in 2006) in order to enable the relevant policy interventions.The last few years have seen increasing prominence given to the necessity of distinct enumeration of PVTGs in the national Census, as a policy shift towards more fine-grained and inclusive data collection has occurred. This is to enhance the accuracy of welfare delivery as per schemes such as PM-JANMAN or to ensure that the special needs of such communities can be adequately met. This Article is a critical study of how PVTGs have changed over time, their defining features, and whether PVTGs are as relevant today, and how their unique status in the Census may contribute to equitable development and governance.

Development of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs)

The notion behind Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) came out of an increasing awareness that not all Scheduled Tribes (STs) in India have access to equal measures of development, access, or resilience. It is due to this understanding that a more subtle classification was formulated to identify and benefit the most marginalized tribal communities.

Dhebar Commission
The genesis of the concept to recognize the PVTGs can be traced to the Dhebar Commission (1960-61), which was set up to investigate the position of Scheduled Tribes throughout India. The Commission, under the leadership of U.N. Dhebar, noted blatant intra-group differences between tribal groups. Whereas a few STs had started to assimilate into mainstream society, there are those who are still isolated with little access to education, healthcare, and economic opportunities. The Commission also proposed a sub-categorization to reflect these internal inequalities, with a clear necessity for a special development policy of the most underprivileged tribal groups.

Name Change: PTGs to PVTGs.
According to the recommendations made by the Commission, the Government of India came up with the category of Primitive Tribal Groups (PTGs) in the Fourth Five-Year Plan of 1975. These groups were distinguished according to certain indicators, including pre-agricultural forms of subsistence, illiteracy, stagnant or falling population levels, and abysmal social and economic backwardness. With the course of time and five-year plans, the list got extended to 75 such communities. The nomenclature was updated to Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) in 2006 (more sensitive and inclusive).

Separate Enumeration Rationale
A distinction between PVTGs in their developmental requirements and demographic vulnerability justifies their separate listing in the national Census. In contrast to other STs, PVTGs in most cases are not documented, are located in remote areas, and are characterized by different cultural practices that make them very difficult when enumeration is used. This would then be required to do so in a manner that the finer details of data collection could take place, so as to plan and resource distribution can be more effective. It is also consistent with recent programs such as the PM-JANMAN project to provide customized welfare interventions to these cohorts.

Ethical Imperative and Developmental Justice
The acknowledgment that PVTGs represent a different category is not just a statistical exercise, but it is a moral and constitutional imperative. They are the thinnest layers of the tribal population of India and have a tendency to be systemically marginalized and ecologically displaced. Recognition of their distinctive position makes it possible to approach development in a rights-based way, so that the concepts of equity and justice cease to be ideals but effective norms of tribal government.

Characteristic features of the PVTGs

The Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) classification is a by-product of the attempts made by the Indian state to locate and address tribal communities that are disproportionately disadvantaged in terms of socio-economic and demographic factors. These communities have peculiarities that make them unique among the rest of the Scheduled Tribes (STs), and which deserve a specific policy.

Subsistence Economy and Prehistoric Technology
The key characteristic of PVTGs is that they are also dependent on subsistence economies based on pre-agricultural livelihoods. There are still large numbers of societies relying on hunting, gathering, and primitive shifting cultivation, with little penetration into markets. Such technological backwardness not only limits their productivity but also strengthens their exclusion from mainstream economic progress. Not being equipped with mechanized tools or irrigation infrastructure, only increases their susceptibility to environmental shock and depleted resources.

Changes in Population and Demographic Frailty
One of the major requirements of identifying the PVTGs is that they have a stagnating or decreasing population. PVTGs tend to die frequently, reproduce poorly, and suffer ill health during times when other tribal groups have demonstrated demographic and economic resilience. These trends are attributed to a lack of medical assistance, malnutrition, and migration to ancestral locations. Until recently, government policies actually limited access to contraceptives by some of the PVTGs, an indication of a paternalistic attitude to population management that has since been held legally invalid.

Academic Literacy and Education Deficiencies
Among the tribal populations, the PVTGs are always registering the lowest literacy rates. Their systems of teaching are normally sterile, and formal education is crippled by cultural barriers, i.e., language barriers and their own ways of teaching. This has led to poor dropout rates and intergenerational illiteracy due to the absence of residential schools, trained instructors, and culturally responsive curricula. This educational exclusion curtails their power to interact with the state institutions or even to enjoy entitlements.

Geographical seclusion and Cultural uniqueness
The majority of PVTGs occupy remote ecologically vulnerable areas like forest interiors, hill tracts, or islands. They are geographically isolated with limited transportation, communication, and administrative outreach. Such societies also have their own cultural attributes, such as languages, rituals, and social patterns. Such cultural richness cannot be priced, but it often ends up alienating mainstream development paradigms that fail to accept indigenous ways of doing things and world views.

Implication of the policy and census

These policies and census effects of the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) are a turning point in the policy of tribal welfare in India. Since the state is trying to catalog these communities on an individual basis, the decision has enormous administrative, developmental, and ethical implications.

Reason to Separate Enumerate
The idea of distinguishing between PVTGs in the next Census is based on their socio-economic and demographic profile. Compared to the other Scheduled Tribes, PVTGs are vulnerable and geographically isolated, highly illiterate, and have subsistence economies, often to an extent that they are beyond discernment in aggregate statistics. Independent listing would learn more about the lifestyle they lead, i.e., their demographics and their culture, which would also come in handy in the aspect of better judgment and judgment which is also holistic in nature.

Policy Co-ordination with Welfare Plans
The need to classify the census data is aligned with the emerging policy recommendations, like the PM-JANMA scheme, which is likely to provide customized services to PVTGs. Successful schemes rely on accurate data, which can be used to more effectively allocate, monitor, and evaluate resources.

Implementation challenges
The individual counting of PVTGs is logistically and ethically challenging, although promising. A large number of PVTGs are remote, forested where the administration has minimal access, which makes enumerating them difficult. Further, previous experiences indicate that data collection may not bring about significant policy change unless it is accompanied by the acknowledgment of land rights, cultural autonomy, and participatory patterns of development. Bureaucratic tokenism still exists unless enumeration is incorporated in a larger context of tribal empowerment.

Towards inclusive governance
The Census project should not be considered as a process of pure statistical activity but as a move towards integrative governance. The acknowledgment of PVTGs as a separate group of people confirms their entitlement to visibility, as well as representation, and specialized development. It also challenges the homogenizing character of tribal policy, and does speak in favour of more particularised, and situational approaches. Finally, this initiative will succeed or fail depending on how the state agrees to maintain the constitutional promise of equity and dignity among the various tribal communities.

Challenges and Way Forward

All these historical omissions, structural marginalization, and lack of sensitivity to policies are put together to pose many impediments in the developmental process of a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) in India. Those problems cannot be solved in one dimension and without cultural sensitivity.

Poor Access and Structural Marginalization
PVTGs tend to be located in isolated and environmentally sensitive areas with little infrastructure. The result of this geographic isolation is inaccessibility to education, healthcare, and livelihood opportunities. This is not entirely done using the same schemes due to the administrative bottleneck and the fact that service delivery systems are not there like it is acceptable in a culture that has a constitutional protection. Lack of roads, schools, and health centres in most of the PVTG habitats contributes to their marginalization in regular development activities.

Culture Erosion and Displacement
Cultural autonomy of PVTGs has often been compromised by development interventions. Traditional livelihoods have been displaced and lost because of mining and deforestation as well as other infrastructure development projects. Resistance to erosion of native knowledge systems and community systems further undermines the stability of the community. Although laws, including the Forest Rights Act (2006), do provide some protection, they are not enforced consistently, and most PVTGs do not understand their right to protection.

Data deficiency and policy blind spots
One of the biggest constraints to effective governance is the inability to access disaggregated data on PVTGs. Their poor representation in the national surveys and census is inhibiting policymaking grounded on evidence. Lack of proper demographic and socio-economic profiles will lead to the welfare schemes being skewed or under-allocated. The separate reporting hereby proposed in the next Census is a healthy step in the right direction and in providing partial treatment.

Plans of inclusive development
The only solution is a rights-based and participatory approach to development. It is associated with community institution empowerment, promotion of community-responsive curriculum-based education, and enhancement of livelihood options, which are based on the livelihood literature. Projects such as PM-JANMAN need to be followed by long-term investment in infrastructure, capacity building, and legal empowerment. Furthermore, PVTGs could be supported to develop sustainably and with dignity through incorporating traditional knowledge within contemporary governance structures.

Conclusion

The Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) listed separately represent a new development point in the road to achieving inclusive tribal governance in India. Based on the findings of the Dhebar Commission, the PVTGs classification recognizes the fact that there are entrenched inequalities among Scheduled Tribes, and differentiated policy measures will be required. Their own features, such as subsistence-based economy, demographic vulnerability, education denial, and cultural seclusion, highlight the relevance of interventions that address the problems of the groups in question. Despite recent events, such as PM-JANMAN and Census reform proposals, that show a newfound zeal to embrace equity, some problems, such as wrong data, service delivery, and cultural preservation, still exist. The need to cover these is a result of the rights-based, participatory framework that combines the traditional knowledge and the new development paradigm. After all, the future of PVTGs relies not solely on administrative acknowledgment but long-term action towards granting dignity, autonomy, and justice to the most marginalized tribal units in India. They should be included in an inclusive manner, both statistically and substantively, in terms of their commitment towards transformative and ethical governance.