DISPLACEMENT AMONG SCHEDULED TRIBES IN INDIA: A REVIEW (Pages 77-89) by Dr. P. Sailaja* and Prof. K. Visweswara Rao** in THE INTERNATIONAL MANAGER / ISSN: 2348-9413 (Online); 2348-9405 (Print)

India has the second largest concentration of tribal population, after that of the African continent. Tribals are generally called as ‘Adivasis’ implying ‘original Inhabitants’ of the land. There are about 360 tribal groups speaking more than 100 languages and dialects in India. They have been specified as Scheduled Tribes (STs) in accordance with the Presidential orders issued since 1950. The Scheduled tribes population of the country, according to 2001 Census, was 8,43,26,000 and constitutes 16.23% to the total Indian population. The tribals have been living in forest and mountainous regions, within the close proximity of nature. The economy of the tribals has been primarily hunting-foraging and shifting cultivation. More than 90% of the tribals, to a large extant depend on forests and forests resources for their livelihood. In recent times because of large scale industrialization and urbanization, relative isolation of the tribal areas is broken down. The tribals, and their lands and other resources are now exposed to the exploitative market forces, mostly due to the State and Multi National Companies (MNCs) sponsored developmental projects such as large scale irrigational projects, dams, reservoirs, mining, sanctuaries, industries and tourism projects and the acquisition of lands by the State in tribal areas is common phenomenon. Therefore, realizing their rights to be an important measure to be taken up for reducing their issues in India. The present paper critically analyses all these issues of displacement among scheduled tribes in India as well as in Andhra Pradesh and suggests suitable Keywords: tribal population, Adivasis, industrialization and urbanization, exploitative market forces, irrigational projects etc.