Tribal Ministry urges separate Census enumeration for PVTGs

New Delhi, Aug 25 (PTI) The Tribal Affairs Ministry has written to the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, urging that particularly vulnerable tribal groups (PVTGs) be separately enumerated in the upcoming census.

In a letter dated July 17, Ajeet Kumar Srivastava, Joint Secretary in the Tribal Affairs Ministry, said that doing so is essential for the formulation and implementation of targeted welfare schemes like the Pradhan Mantri Janjati Adivasi Nyaya Maha Abhiyan (PM-JANMAN).

Out of more than 700 tribal communities, there are 75 tribal communities identified as PVTGs residing in 18 states and the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

The letter said that PVTGs are among the "most marginalised and socio‑economically backward vulnerable section of our population" and stressed that "precise enumeration will certainly be of great support towards the formulation and implementation of targeted schemes for PVTGs".

The ministry said that while data on Scheduled Tribes was collected during the 2011 Census, "data separately for PVTGs was not collected", and called for its inclusion in the upcoming enumeration.

The letter requested "suitable arrangements to capture the number of the PVTGs households and individuals and their distinctive demographic, cultural and socio‑economic features", and proposed a meeting between Census officials and the ministry to discuss the process.

PM-JANMAN, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 15, 2023, is a scheme to improve the living conditions of the 75 PVTGs.

The programme focuses on providing basic facilities such as housing, safe drinking water, education, healthcare and nutrition, along with better road and telecom connectivity, electricity for households that are still unelectrified and livelihood opportunities. The target is to cover these needs within three years.

The scheme is being implemented through 11 specific interventions carried out jointly by nine central ministries. PVTGs face deep-rooted challenges.

A peer-reviewed review of 13 PVTGs in Odisha, analysing studies published between 2000 and 2023, found that these communities suffer from higher health burdens, low literacy, poor maternal and child outcomes and inadequate access to basic services.

Sociological research highlights that PVTGs often inhabit remote, inaccessible regions, rely on subsistence economies, face stagnating or declining populations and have extremely low literacy rates, all factors that reinforce their marginalisation.

The Dhebar Commission of the early 1960s had first identified PVTGs (then called 'Primitive Tribal Groups') as especially disadvantaged among Scheduled Tribes, due to pre-agricultural economies, stagnant populations and low literacy. This classification now includes 75 groups. PTI GVS GVS RT RT