Abstract

India is a multicultural country with rich diversity reflected in different cultures, religions, and languages. Tribal groups in India are considered to be the earliest inhabitants of India that experienced diverse waves of invaders and other settlers over thousands of years, making it difficult to identify the real origin of today's tribal peoples from a purist perspective. So the state and discourse in India reject the term indigenous peoples' and prefer instead to use the Constitutional term Scheduled Tribes because the term Adivasi is commonly stated as original inhabitants, and it means Adi or earliest time ', vasi resident. Social stratification in India is determined by the four types of varna system known as the caste system. So scheduled Tribes do not fall within the caste hierarchy because they have distinct (it means considered non-Hindu) cultural and religious practices and social practices. Over time geographic isolation of Scheduled Tribes has manifested in relative and often absolute deprivation, which has periodically surfaced in the starkest manner and reported widely in the press. In Kalahandi district of Orissa has become a metaphor for starvation, according to reports dating back to the 1980s. Similarly, the Maharashtra Melghat area has surfaced in the press, especially during the monsoon when migrant STs return for transplant rice on their subsistence land, household food stocks are depleted, and cash to purchase food is scarce. The Scheduled Tribes are one of the principal deprived sections of Indian society. Nowadays, They constitute 8.6 percent of the total population as per the 2011 census. Since the beginning of the Independence, the Government of India initiated several schemes & policies for the holistic development of Scheduled Tribes in the Country. Despite the efforts made by the central government for the development of Scheduled Tribes ever since Independence, their socio-economic status is gradually increasing trend, but as compared to the general population, they are suffering several sorts of problems such as malnutrition, hunger, poverty, housing, and pure drinking water facility. So my object of study is to focus on schedule tribe issues like education, health, employment, malnutrition, hunger, poverty, and population in the Indian scenario to analyse the status of STs in India.

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