Tribal development in India: myth and reality

THE tribal peoples of India may add colour to the body politic of India but their problems remain as intractable as ever, despite the compensatory privileges guaranteed in the Constitution. Development plans pour millions of rupees-in an ever-increasing flow-to provide them with physical facilities and to eradicate their poverty, ignorance and ill-health. Yet, the very development process in their own habitat often spells doom for them, making them marginalized and culturally uprooted. And this is, unfortunately, a repetitive phenomenon.
The North-Eastern Regional Centre of the Indian Council of Social Science Research, Shillong planned-very discerningly-lectures on Tribal Development in India: Myth and Reality. The author delves into the problems plaguing the three important categories of tribal people in India: the more "primitive" tribal groups, the displaced people of the developmental projects, and the 'swidden' in the hills.
The book should prove useful for social scientists, planners and administrators in the field of tribal development.