Scheduled Tribes
Scheduled Tribes — PESA, Forest Rights Act 2006, TSP
Story hook
It is 13 December 2006. Parliament passes the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act — popularly the FRA 2006. The colonial Forest Acts of 1865, 1878, and 1927 had, for 141 years, treated tribal inhabitants of forests as encroachers. The FRA flips the script: forests are not state property to be guarded against tribals — they are shared landscapes where forest-dwelling communities hold legally enforceable, inheritable, non-transferable rights.
Two decades earlier, on 24 December 1996, the Provisions of the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act — PESA had done something equally radical: it extended the 73rd Amendment to Fifth Schedule areas but with a tribal twist — the Gram Sabha becomes the competent authority to safeguard customs, manage minor forest produce, control money-lending, and consent to land acquisition.
For UPSC, Scheduled Tribes is a 360-degree topic: constitutional provisions (Articles 342, 244, 244A, 275(1), 339, 338A, Fifth and Sixth Schedules), the Bhuria, Xaxa, Virginius Xaxa, and Sundar committee reports, FRA implementation gaps, the Tribal Sub-Plan budget mechanism (since 1974-75), and the PVTGs (Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups — 75 communities including Andamanese, Birhor, and Sahariya).
Why this matters for UPSC
Prelims: Articles 342, 244, 244A, 275(1), 338A; Fifth and Sixth Schedules; PESA 1996; FRA 2006; PVTGs; Niyamgiri 2013.
Mains GS-II: 2015 asked "Examine the role of Tribal Sub-Plan in welfare." 2018: "Effects of globalisation on tribal communities." 2022: "What are the major challenges of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs)?"
Interview: Niyamgiri, FRA backlog, Pathalgadi, Manipur tribal crisis, PVTG vulnerability.
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