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Home/Anthropology/Mains PYQ/2025/Paper II/Tribal Development, Policy & Safeguards
UPSC MainsAnthropology Optional Paper II 2025 15 Marks Model Answer Available

PVTG Identifying Criteria, Status and Distribution — 2025 Paper II

Question · 2025 · Paper II · 15 Marks

What are the identifying criteria for PVTGs in India? Examine their current status, nomenclature and distribution.

Model Answer

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Introduction

Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups are communities identified within the Scheduled Tribes as facing exceptionally severe demographic, educational and livelihood vulnerability. The Dhebar Commission (1961) drew attention to a “lower layer” among tribes; 52 groups were identified as Primitive Tribal Groups during the Fifth Plan and 23 were subsequently added, making 75 PVTGs.

Identifying criteria

The conventional criteria are:

  • pre-agricultural or relatively simple technology;
  • a subsistence-oriented and economically vulnerable economy, often strongly dependent on forests;
  • extremely low literacy;
  • a stagnant or declining population.

These criteria are indicative rather than a precise statutory test, and actual groups differ considerably.

Nomenclature and its critique

The official term Primitive Tribal Groups was changed to Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups in 2006 because “primitive” was evolutionist and stigmatising. The new term locates the problem in vulnerability, but policy discourse may still portray communities as culturally deficient. Vulnerability is often produced by land loss, restrictive conservation, disease exposure and administrative neglect rather than by tradition itself.

Distribution

The 75 PVTGs are located in 18 States and the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

  • Central-eastern belt: Odisha has the largest number of distinct PVTGs; major concentrations also occur in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Examples include Bonda, Dongria Kondh, Juang, Birhor, Baiga, Kamar and Chenchu.
  • Southern and western India: Toda, Kota, Kurumba, Irula, Paniyan, Kadar, Koraga, Siddi, Kathodi and Saharia occur across Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan.
  • Northern, eastern and north-eastern regions: Buksa/Raji, Lodha, Toto, Maram Naga and Reang occur in Uttar Pradesh-Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Manipur and Tripura.
  • Andaman and Nicobar Islands: Great Andamanese, Jarawa, Onge, Sentinelese and Shompen require highly differentiated policies; contact itself poses serious health and ethical risks for some groups. COVID-19 infections among members of the numerically small Great Andamanese in 2020 demonstrated that cautious contact, quarantine and epidemiological safeguards are biological imperatives, not merely cultural preferences.

Current status and policy concerns

  • Many habitations face gaps in roads, safe housing, health, education, drinking water, electricity and telecom, as recognised in the PM-JANMAN operational guidelines.
  • Land and habitat alienation, low nutrition, infectious disease, language barriers and weak demographic data remain serious concerns.
  • Population is not declining in every PVTG; some groups are growing or entering markets. A single “most primitive” image is therefore misleading.
  • Habitat rights under the Forest Rights Act and protection from unwanted contact are as important as welfare delivery.
  • PM-JANMAN, launched in 2023, seeks saturation of essential services for PVTG habitations, but success requires Gram Sabha consent, group-specific planning and monitoring beyond infrastructure counts.

Critical evaluation

“Pre-agricultural technology” is increasingly inaccurate for communities undergoing livelihood change, and very low literacy may be partly caused by inappropriate schooling. Identification and planning should therefore use updated demographic data, habitat security, food systems, health risk and community-defined priorities.

Conclusion

PVTG is a policy category for exceptional vulnerability, not a label of cultural inferiority. Effective policy must combine basic services with habitat rights, cautious contact, linguistic respect and community control, recognising the radically different situations of all 75 groups.

 

2026 Discuss the impact of democratic institutions on the tribal populations of India. 2026 Write an account on Development Action Plan for Scheduled Tribes (DAPST). 2026 What are the provisions given in the Constitution of India for the safeguard of the Scheduled Caste populations? 2026 Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) of the islands.

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