UPSC Mains 2025 GS1 Q20: model answer

Scheduled Tribes are 8.6% of India's population (Census 2011), yet they are estimated to make up a much larger share of people displaced by dams, mines and industry since independence.

Why the two axes have dominated

• Mineral-rich, forested tribal regions (Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh) host mining and big dams (Sardar Sarovar, Polavaram).
• Much policy energy goes into land acquisition and compensation: the RFCTLARR Act, 2013 requires social impact assessment and consent in Scheduled Areas.
• Rehabilitation has often failed: cash without land, loss of community and livelihoods.

My view: development has been framed this way, but it should not be. Other axes matter as much:

• Rights and self-rule: the Fifth and Sixth Schedules, PESA 1996, and the Forest Rights Act 2006 (Niyamgiri: Gram Sabhas rejected bauxite mining, 2013).
• Human development: Eklavya Model Residential Schools, sickle-cell mission, PM-JANMAN for PVTGs.
• Livelihoods: minor forest produce with MSP, Van Dhan Kendras.
• Culture and identity: language, customary law, Jan Jatiya Gaurav Divas.
• Planning: the Tribal Sub-Plan (now DAPST) and the Dharti Aaba Janjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyan.

Tribal development should begin with what communities want, not with what projects need. Displacement should be the last resort, and rehabilitation the minimum, not the whole story.