Bharat Rural Livelihoods Foundation released the first Tribal Development Report 2022 on 11 October 2022, published by Routledge and CRC Press and written by prominent academics, thematic experts, and practitioners.

The first-of-its-kind Tribal Development Report is published in two volumes. It focuses on the status of tribal communities at an all-India level and central India concerning livelihoods, agriculture, natural resources, economy, migration, governance, human development, gender, health, education, art, and culture.  Central India is home to 80% of the tribal communities in the country.

Renowned academics and practitioners edit the volumes. Dr Mihir Shah is an Indian economist and former member of the erstwhile Planning Commission of India. PS Vijay Shankar, Director of Research, Samaj Pragati Sahayog (SPS). Contributors for both reports include academics and practitioners with years of experience working on themes of tribal lives and livelihoods.

This report combines data from government sources, case studies, archival research, and interviews on crucial dimensions of tribal lives and livelihoods. The goal is to inform stakeholders, including key policymakers, practitioners, activists, and academics, to help understand the scope of tribal issues.

The Tribal Development Report focuses on the overarching theme of Livelihoods for tribal communities from central India and presents a status report on the overall macroeconomic situation, agriculture, land, energy, and water use, especially groundwater management.

Key Themes of the Tribal Development Report – Volume One:

• Provides a broad overview of the contemporary macroeconomic situation of tribal communities, with a special focus on the challenges of agriculture, land, energy, and water use, especially groundwater management.
• Highlights the need to move into a new paradigm of agroecology-based, nature-positive farming and sustainable water use driven by local institutions.
• Examine the neglect faced by tribal areas in developing 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 tribal at grassroots levels.
• Discusses the tribal communities in the informal sector and migration.

The companion volume to the Tribal Development Report focuses on Human Development and Governance. This report presents the status of tribals from central India with regard to governance, gender, health, specific legislations relating to access to forests and forest resources, governance education, language, arts, and culture.

Key Themes of the Tribal Development Report – Volume Two:

• Discusses the human development challenges faced by the tribal communities focusing on the status of health, education, and nutrition in tribal regions
• Explores key issues related to gender and development in tribal context and the impact of the loss of traditional rights over land and forest resources
• Presents the progress made thus far in implementing Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act (or PESA), 1996, and Forest Rights Act (FRA)
• Examines the current state of “Denotified Tribes” in India, the policy response of the state post-independence, and their status in the current socio-economic context
• Presents an overview and remedial policy actions for upholding tribal arts, crafts, language and literature, and knowledge systems

The international edition of the two volumes is available on the Routledge and Amazon website. The subcontinental edition will be released in November 2022.

The Tribal Development Report is available on the Routledge website.

Volume 1: Tribal Development Report – Livelihoods [Link]

Volume 2: Tribal Development Report – Human Development and Governance [Link]

About:

Bharat Rural Livelihoods Foundation (BRLF) was set up by the Government of India as an independent society under the Ministry of Rural Development to scale up civil society action in partnership with the central and state governments.

Routledge and the CRC Press are the world’s leading academic publishers in Humanities, Social Sciences, and STEM. 

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