Socio-economic Status of Scheduled Tribes in Andhra Pradesh: A Study of Solabham Panchayat of Visakhapatnam District. D.

Socio-economic Status of Scheduled Tribes in Andhra Pradesh: A Study of Solabham Panchayat of Visakhapatnam District D. Pulla Rao* ABSTRACT The Constitution of India seeks to secure for all its citizens, among other things, social and economic justice, equality of status and opportunity and the dignity of the individual. Several provisions have been incorporated in the constitution for safeguarding and promoting the interests of the Scheduled Tribes in various spheres so as to enable them to the join the national mainstream. The areas of tribal concentration have been generally described as the forest and hilly areas of the country. This paper analyses the socio-economic status of Scheduled Tribes in the study area. In the sample, majority of the households are the tribes of Bhagatha. We find that cultivation is the primary occupation of all the sample households. About 51 percent of the households are earning up to Rs.20,000. Still 21 per cent of households are not having any land and about 74 per cent of sample households are having the land 1-2 acres. Most of the households are spending more amount on food items. About 58 per cent of the households are indebted in the range of Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 10,000 and 67 per cent depends on money lenders for their credit source. About 96 percent of the households expressed that they are not getting sufficient income for livelihood. The Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA) and the Girijan Cooperative Corporation are the two main institutions slated for the development of scheduled tribes. So, it is imperative to make the functioning of the ITDA / GCC more people oriented by adopting participatory approach. Keywords: Socio-economic status, Tribes, Households, Income. 1.0 Introduction The World Bank Country study on Poverty in India (1997) pointed out that an illiterate rural women, a member of scheduled tribe (ST), a person who lives in a landless household or is dependent on wage-earnings, all face a significantly higher than average risk of poverty. * Professor of Economics, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam.

116 PRAGATI: Journal of Indian Economy, Vol. 1, Issue 2 This phrase well suits the status of tribal people living in our country. The tribes when compared to other people are facing severe problems since the development of the scheduled tribes did not receive the necessary attention. Even today, widely pervasive reality in respect of tribal communities in India is that most of them are geographically isolated, economically weak, socially ignorant, politically indifferent, culturally rich, behaviourally simple, trustworthy and leading their life in the lap of nature. They are facing problems, which force them to lead a life at bare subsistence level. They are in the situation featured with poverty, deprivation, disadvantages which are difficult to be tackled effectively on their own and making the government in particular and society in general to intervene in a planned manner to solve the miseries of tribes and facilitate development process. A large number of tribal communities continue to be extremely backward and some of them are still in the primitive food gathering stage, where as some others have progressed a little in terms of economic and educational advancement. The greatest challenge that the Government of India has been facing since Independence is the proper provision of social justice to the Scheduled Tribes (STs), by ameliorating their socio-economic conditions. STs, Scheduled Castes (SCs) and denotified tribes constitute the weakest section of India's population, from the ecological, economic and educational angles. They constitute the matrix of India's poverty. Though the tribal are the sons of the same soil and the citizens of the same country, they are born and grown as the children of the nature. From the historical point of view, they have been subjected to the worst type of social exploitation. They are practically deprived of many civic facilities and isolated from modern and civilized way of living since so many centuries. The land is one of the factors of production and means of the sustainable economic growth and development of any section of the society. However, land occupied by tribal population constitutes about 20 percent of the country s geographical area. Because of availability of precious minerals in the different tribal regions, there has been exploitation of tribal land for commercial purpose leading to serious repercussions for socio- economic organization of tribal communities. The tribal population s right to basic resources and in fact, the entire environment, has been seriously infringed. The land hungry non-tribal, money lenders, liquor contractors, merchants who buy forest produce and sell domestically are exploiting the tribal and extract forced labour by paying low wages below the subsistence level. The access to means of livelihood is very limited in context wherein the tribal have no access to their land and land based resources. In India, there are 573 Scheduled Tribe communities and about 33 of them dwell in Andhra Pradesh. In India, the President is empowered by the Constitution to declare a

Socio-economic Status of Scheduled Tribes in Andhra Pradesh 117 community as a Scheduled Tribe community. The growth rates of STs in Andhra Pradesh are 5.47, 2.24, 6.50, 2.79, 1.81 and 1.78 for the years 1951, 1961, 1971, 1981, 1991, 2001 and 2011 census years respectively. Except 1971 and 1991, the decadal growth rate of tribal population was more than the growth rate of general population. From 1951 to 2011 the STs has increased by seven times but for the general population it is only 2 times. The percentages of ST population to the total population in Andhra Pradesh are 3.68, 3.81, 5.92, 6.31, 6.59 and 7-00 for the years 1961, 1971, 1981, 1991, 2001 and 2011 census years respectively. There is an increased trend in the percentage of scheduled tribe population to the total population of Andhra Pradesh. 2.0 Data and Methodology The primary data comprise of collecting information from the selected sample tribal households by way of canvassing a structured schedule among them. In addition, the secondary data are also taken from the Chief Planning Officer of Visakhapatnam District. The primary data has been collected during the months of June and July of 2011. A multi-stage random sampling technique is employed to select the sample households. In the first stage, one district viz., Visakhapatnam of Andhra Pradesh has been purposively selected for the study. Then, randomly one mandal was selected from the district, viz., G. Madugula. In the third stage, one village from the mandal was selected i.e., Solabham village. In the fourth stage a sample of 100 tribal households in the sample village were randomly selected and interviewed with a pre-prepared schedule. The schedule contains all range of aspects of socio-economic status. 3.0 Results and Analysis This paper is addressed to analyse the social and economic background of the STs in the study area. We examined the Tribe, sex composition, age composition, and economic characteristics to know the economic status by taking variables into consideration are occupation, land ownership, different sources of income, different levels of income, distribution of land holdings, cost of cultivation on seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and labour, cropping pattern, saving behaviour, expenditure pattern, and sources of credit along with the trends of loans taken and so on. Table 1 furnishes the distribution of total sample households according their tribe. For this there are five major tribal groups in the study area, viz., Bhagatha, Konda Dora, Valmiki, Kammara and Kondhu. Their percentage distributions are as follows. Bhagatha 25 per cent followed by Kammara 21 per cent, Kondhu 19 per cent, Valmiki

118 PRAGATI: Journal of Indian Economy, Vol. 1, Issue 2 18 per cent and Konda Dora with 17 per cent. The distribution of sample households according to their religion has been presented in Table 2. It is found that there are no other religions except Hindu in the sample area. The people in the study area are very much concerned to their traditions and customs. The gender-wise distribution of head of the households has been presented in the Table 3. It is clearly observed that 89 per cent of the households are male headed and only 11 per cent households are female headed. Most of the households are male headed and where there are no males, only those households are female headed. Table 1: Tribe-wise distribution of sample households S. No Specific Tribe Number of households Per cent 1 Bhagatha 25 25.00 2 Konda Dora 17 17.00 3 Valmiki 18 18.00 4 Kammara 21 21.00 5 Kondhu 19 19.00 Table 2: Religion of the sample households S. No Religion Number of households Per cent 1 Hindu 100 100.00 2 Others 00 00.00 Table 3: Gender wise distribution of Head of the sample households S. No Gender Number of persons Per cent 1 Male 89 89.00 2 Female 11 11.00 The age- wise distribution of the head of the households has been presented in Table 4. Most of the heads of the households are in the age group of 30 to 50 years (75 per cent), which means that almost all head of the households they are in the productive age group.

Socio-economic Status of Scheduled Tribes in Andhra Pradesh 119 Table 4: Age wise distribution of Head of the sample households S. No Age Number of persons Per cent 1 Below 30 10 10.00 2 30-40 35 35.00 3 40-50 40 40.00 4 50 above 15 15.00 A distribution of the head of the households according to their occupation in the study area has been presented in the Table 5. It is very evident all the head of the households are engaged in agricultural sector as labours. There is no other occupation in the study area that means the dependency on agriculture is very predominant. Table 6 explains the distribution of the sample households according to their family size. It is very evident from the table 74 per cent of the families they are in ideal family size and remaining 26 per cent families are having the more than ideal size. This situation happens because of the immediate separation of families after their marriages in the study area. Table 5: Occupation of Head of the Households in the sample households S. No Occupation Number of persons Per cent 1 Agricultural labour 100 100.00 2 Non agricultural labour 00 00.00 Table 6: Distribution of the sample households according to their family size S. No Size of the family Number of families Per cent 1 Up to 3 23 23.00 2 4 28 28.00 3 5 23 23.00 4 6 16 16.00 5 7 10 10.00 The particulars pertaining to the distribution of sample population of the study area according to age, gender and sex ratio has been summarised in Table 7. It is clear

120 PRAGATI: Journal of Indian Economy, Vol. 1, Issue 2 from the study that nearly 72 per cent of the sample population are in the productive age group and remaining 28 per cent are not in the productive age group. The population in the age group of above 60 years is almost negligible. The sex ratio of the total sample area is 1017, 1186 for the age group of up to 14 years and 964 for the remaining age group of 15-60 people. Table 7: Age wise distribution of the sample population S. No Age group Male Per cent Female Per cent Total Per cent Sex ratio 1 Up to 14 59 25.76 70 30.04 129 27.92 1186 2 15-60 168 73.36 162 69.53 330 71.43 964 3 60 above 02 00.88 01 00.43 03 00.65 500 Total 229 100.00 233 100.00 462 100.00 1017 Distribution of the sample population according to their marital status has been presented in Table-8. It can be seen that 47 per cent of the sample population are married, 49 per cent are un married and remaining are widowed. Table 9 explains distribution of sample households according to their housing facilities. It is very clear from the table 94 per cent of the sample households are having the Semi-Pucca houses, 06 per cent are having the Kutcha houses and there is no Pucca houses in the study area. This shows that the governments are not taking proper attention in providing proper housing facilities in the study area. All the people are having the ownership rights on their houses. Table 8: Distribution of the sample population according to their marital status S. No Marital status Number of persons Per cent 1 Married 219 47.40 2 Un married 228 49.35 3 Widowed 15 03.25 4 Separated 00 00.00 Total 462 100.00

Socio-economic Status of Scheduled Tribes in Andhra Pradesh 121 Table 9: Distribution of sample households according to their housing facilities S. No Type of house Number of households Per cent 1 Pucca 00 00.00 2 Semi- Pucca 94 94.00 3 Kutcha 06 06.00 The availability of electrification to the sample households has been presented in the Table 10. It is proved that still 14 per cent of the sample households are not electrified and at rest they are using kerosene lamp at nights. Table 11 explains that the availability of ration cards in the study area. 72 per cent of the sample households are having the white ration cards followed by Anthyodaya card holders with 19 per cent and there is no pink card holder because there are no high level income people. Distribution of sample households according to their participation in public organizations like SHGs, Educational Committee, Panchayat, WUA, Health Committee, VSS, ITDA and GCC has been presented in Table 12. The majority sample households in the study are participated in SHGs, GCCs and ITDA with 95 per cent, 92 per cent and 87 per cent respectively. Their participation in other public organizations is almost negligible. Table 10: Availability of electrification to the sample households S. No Availability of electricity Number of households Per cent 1 Yes 86 86.00 2 No 14 14.00 Table 11: Availability of ration card to the sample households S. No Type of ration card Number of households Per cent 1 White 72 72.00 2 Anthyodaya 19 19.00 3 No card 09 09.00

122 PRAGATI: Journal of Indian Economy, Vol. 1, Issue 2 Table 12: Distribution of sample households according to their participation in public organisations S. No Organisation Yes Per cent No Per cent 1 SHG 95 95.00 05 05.00 2 Educational committee 02 02.00 98 98.00 3 Panchayat 05 05.00 95 95.00 4 WUA 08 08.00 92 92.00 5 Health committee 02 02.00 98 98.00 6 ITDA 87 87.00 13 13.00 7 GCC 92 92.00 08 08.00 Though there are seven programmes namely MGNREGS, VAMBAY, IAY, Rajeev Yuva Shakthi, Rajeev Gruha Kalpa, AAY and Adharana, MGNREGS that is meant for the development of the STs in the study area are not implemented in this village up to that level. It is clear from the Table 13, that only two programmes are implemented in this village. Table 13: Beneficiaries of government welfare programmes in the sample area S. No Welfare programme Yes Per cent No Per cent 1 MGNREGS 100 100.00 00 00.00 2 AAY 19 19.00 81 81.00 Table 14 explains that the expected facilities from the government by the sample households. It can be found that almost all households are expecting the facilities like Fair Price Shop, Housing, Roads and Transportation, Employment, Schools and Hospitals. Only 93 per cent and 87 per cent households are expecting banking and marketing facilities respectively. Distribution of sample households according to their dependency on different sectors for the employment has been presented in Table 15. It is clear that there is 100 per cent dependency on primary sector and there is no other alternative source in the study area. The distribution of the income to the sample households in the study area has been presented in Table16. It is observed that 49 per cent of the households are having the income in the range of below Rs.50,000, 40 per cent of the households are in the range of Rs.50,000 to Rs. 75,000 and only 11 per cent

Socio-economic Status of Scheduled Tribes in Andhra Pradesh 123 of the households are in the high range that is more than Rs. 75,000. It is concluded that because of the employment facilities provided by the government like MGNREGS, the income levels are raised in the study area. Table 14: Distribution of sample households according to their expected facilities from government to improve their quality of life S. No Name of the facility Yes Per cent No Per cent 1 Fair price shop 98 98.00 02 02.00 2 Housing 100 100.00 00 00.00 3 Roads and transportation 100 100.00 00 00.00 4 Employment 100 100.00 00 00.00 5 Schools 100 100.00 00 00.00 6 Hospitals 100 100.00 00 00.00 7 Bank 93 93.00 07 07.00 8 Marketing 85 85.00 15 15.00 Table 15: Distribution of sample households according to their dependency on different sectors for the employment S. No Name of the Male Per cent Female Per cent Total Per cent sector 1 Primary 118 47.97 128 52.03 246 100.00 2 Secondary 00 00.00 00 00.00 00 00.00 3 Service 00 00.00 00 00.00 00 00.00 Total 118 47.97 128 52.03 246 100.00 Table 16: Distribution of the income to the sample households in the study area S. No Income level Number of households Per cent 1 Below 25,000 08 08.00 2 25,000-50,000 41 41.00 3 50,000-75,000 40 40.00 4 75,000 above 11 11.00

124 PRAGATI: Journal of Indian Economy, Vol. 1, Issue 2 Occupational pattern of the sample households are presented in Table 17. It can found that from the table about 56 per cent of the sample population are engaged in agricultural sector as labours followed by 41 per cent of the students. There is no other occupation in the study area other than agricultural labours. Only 1.59 per cent of the sample population is unemployed and 1.36 per cent of the sample population are not able to work. Table 17: Occupational pattern in the sample area S. No Occupation Male Per cent Female Per cent Total Per cent 1 Farmer 00 00.00 00 00.00 00 00.00 2 Agricultural labour 118 47.97 128 52.03 246 55.78 3 Non agricultural labour 00 00.00 00 00.00 00 00.00 4 Student 93 51.10 89 48.90 182 41.27 5 Employees 00 00.00 00 00.00 00 00.00 6 Unemployed 04 57.14 03 42.86 07 01.59 7 Not able to work 03 50.00 03 50.00 06 01.36 Total 218 49.43 223 50.57 441 100.00 The availability of the livestock to the sample population has been presented in the Table 18. Among the 100 per cent households 33 per cent of the households are do not have the livestock facility. It may be the cause of the reduced income levels in the study area. Table 18: Availability of livestock to the sample households S. No Availability of live stock Number of households Per cent 1 Yes 67 67.00 2 No 33 33.00 Distribution of sample households according to their income levels from milch cattle are presented in Table 19. It is seen that 49 per cent of the sample households are having the income from their milch cattle up to Rs.10,000 per annum, 19 per cent are in

Socio-economic Status of Scheduled Tribes in Andhra Pradesh 125 the range of Rs. 10,000-20,000, 20 per cent are 20,001-30,000 and only 12 per cent are in the range of Rs. 30,001-40,000. Table 19: Distribution of sample households according to their income levels from milch cattle S. No Income level Number of households Per cent 1 1-10,000 49 49.00 2 10,001-20,000 19 19.00 3 20,001-30,000 20 20.00 4 30,001-40,000 12 12.00 The availability of household assets shows the living standards of the households. From Table 20, we clearly understand that, in the study area no households are having the assets like sewing machine, refrigerator, bicycle, bullock cart and tractor. Only the households having the nominal assets like wall clock / wrist watch with 71 per cent, radio with 49 per cent, television and cable connection with 51 and 36 per cent respectively. There are few households having the assets like fan with 8 per cent and motor vehicles which means motor bikes with 4 per cent. Table 20: Availability of household assets to the sample households S. No Type of asset Yes Per cent No Per cent 1 Sewing machine 00 00.00 100 100.00 2 Clock watch 71 71.00 29 29.00 3 Sofa set 01 01.00 99 99.00 4 Fan 08 08.00 92 92.00 5 Radio 49 49.00 51 51.00 6 Refrigerator 00 00.00 100 100.00 7 Television 51 51.00 49 49.00 8 Cable connection 36 36.00 64 64.00 9 Bicycle 00 00.00 100 100.00 10 Motor vehicle 04 04.00 96 96.00 11 Bullock cart 00 00.00 100 100.00 12 Tractor 00 00.00 100 100.00

126 PRAGATI: Journal of Indian Economy, Vol. 1, Issue 2 It is observed that from Table 21, there is no acquisition of the land by the 21 per cent of the households. The acquisition size in the study area is very small, 56 per cent of the households having the one acre land, 18 per cent are having the two acres and only 05 per cent people had the more than 3 acres. Table 21: Acquisition of the land in the sample area S. No Land size (in acres) No of households Per cent 1 Nil 21 21.00 2 01 56 56.00 3 02 18 18.00 4 03 and above 05 05.00 The ownership on the land improves the economic stability. It can see from the Table 22. About 79 per cent of the households having the ownership right on their land and there is no tenant in the study area and there is no land for 21 per cent households. Table 23 explains the cropping pattern in the study area. Among the 79 per cent of the land holders, 60 per cent are cultivating the paddy and 19 per cent are cultivating maize. Therefore, paddy and maize are the major crops in the study area. Though there are some people are cultivating vegetables and coffee as secondary crops, their per cent is all most negligible. Looking at income levels, it can be found that from Table 24 that about 21 per cent of the households do not have any income from the agriculture, 51 per cent of the households are earning up to Rs. 20,000 and only 28 per cent are getting more than Rs. 20,000. It means the income levels from the agriculture are very small. Table 22: Distribution of sample households according to their rights on land S. No Type of ownership No of households Per cent 1 Own 79 79.00 2 Tenant 00 00.00 3 NA 21 21.00 4

Socio-economic Status of Scheduled Tribes in Andhra Pradesh 127 Table 23: Cropping pattern in the sample area S. No Type of Crop No of households Per cent 1 Paddy 60 60.00 2 Maize 19 19.00 3 NA 21 21.00 Table 24: Distribution of households according to their income levels from agriculture S. No Levels of income No of households Per cent 1 NA 21 21.00 2 Below 10,000 02 02.00 3 10,001-20,000 49 49.00 4 20,001-30,000 15 15.00 5 30,001 and above 13 13.00 Distribution of households according to their total cost of cultivation is presented in Table 25. It is observed that 18 per cent households cost of cultivation is below Rs. 10,000. Majority households cost of cultivation is in range of Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 30,000 with 57 per cent. Only 4 per cent of the households are spending more than Rs.30, 000 on agriculture. This situation exists because of small size of land holdings. Table 25: Distribution of households according to their total cost of cultivation S. No Levels of total cost of cultivation No of households Per cent 1 NA 21 21.00 2 Below 10,000 18 18.00 3 10,001-20,000 48 48.00 4 20,001-30,000 09 09.00 5 30,001 and above 04 04.00

Agriculture and allied activities MFP Labour works Horticulture Non-Agriculture Services Other sources Total 128 PRAGATI: Journal of Indian Economy, Vol. 1, Issue 2 Various income sources in the study area have been presented in Table 26. The major income sources in the study area such as agriculture and allied activities, labour works and minor forest products. 21 per cent of households do not get any income from agriculture and allied activities, 64 per cent are getting in the range of below Rs. 10,001 to Rs. 30,000 and only 15 per cent are earning above Rs. 30,000 from the agriculture and allied activities. The income sources from MFP are very negligible, about 10 per cent of the households are not getting anything while 90 per cent are getting below Rs.10, 000. Labour force is the important source of income to sample households, 88 per cent are earning income of Rs. 10,001 to Rs. 30,000, about 7 per cent are getting Rs. 30,001 to Rs. 40,000 and 5 per cent of the households are earning only below Rs. 10,000. Pan shops and other small business (other sources) also one of the income source and 51 per cent of the households earning below Rs. 10,000, 3 per cent are getting Rs. 10,001 to Rs. 20,000 and about 46 per cent of the households did not get income from other sources. There is no income from horticulture, non-agriculture and services in the study area. Table 26: Distribution of sample households according to their income sources (Income in rupees) Levels of income Nil 21 10 00 100 100 100 46 00 Below 10,000 02 90 05 00 00 00 51 00 10,001-20,000 44 00 47 00 00 00 03 00 20,001-30,000 18 00 41 00 00 00 00 11 30,001-40,000 15 00 07 00 00 00 00 19 40,001-50,000 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 17 50,001-60,000 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 29 60,00170,000 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 11 70,001-80,000 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 09 80,001 above 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 04 Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 The household expenditure pattern in the study area is presented in Table 27. It is clear from the table most of the house expenses are more on food. About 79 per cent are spending Rs. 20,001 to Rs. 40,000 on food, 9 per cent in the range of Rs. 10,001 to

Food Cloths Education Entertain ment Medical care Interest Liquor Electricity Others Total Socio-economic Status of Scheduled Tribes in Andhra Pradesh 129 Rs. 20,000 and only 12 per cent are spending Rs. 40,001 to Rs. 50,000 on their food. Almost all households are spending less than Rs. 10,000 on clothing, entertainment, medical care, interest, electricity and on liquor consumption. The expenditure on education is also very low in the study area. 67 per cent are spending less than Rs. 10,000 and only 33 per cent are spending Rs. 10,001 to Rs. 30,000. Almost all households are spending below Rs. 10,000 on the other things like festive and other functions. It is very interesting that the expenditure on liquor is below Rs. 10,000 and the expenditure on medical care is very less that shows their ignorance towards modern health facilities. Table 27: Distribution of sample households according to their expenditure pattern (Income in rupees) Level of expenditure Below 10000 00 100 67 100 100 100 100 100 96 00 10,001-20,000 09 00 26 00 00 00 00 00 04 00 20,001-30,000 39 00 07 00 00 00 00 00 00 04 30,001-40,000 40 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 15 40,001-50,000 12 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 17 50,001-60,000 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 21 60,001-70,000 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 10 70,001-80,000 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 18 80,001-90,000 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 09 90,001 and above 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 06 Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 Indebtedness reduces the living standards and keeps the people in the vicious circles of poverty. The distribution of sample households according to their indebtedness in the study area has been presented in Table 28. Nearly 60 per cent of the households are indebted in the range of Rs.5, 001 to Rs. 10,000 and 18 per cent households are indebted more than Rs. 10,000. 24 per cent of the households are indebted below Rs. 5,000. This happens because of their less sources of income. Table 29 explains the distribution of households according to their credit sources in the sample area. Majority of the households with 67 per cent depends on money lenders for their credit sources. 29 per cent of the households are depending on DWCRA

130 PRAGATI: Journal of Indian Economy, Vol. 1, Issue 2 and only 4 per cent are dependent on institutional sources like banks and cooperative societies. Table 28: Distribution of sample households according to their indebtedness S. No Levels of indebtedness No of households Per cent 1 Below 5,000 24 24.00 2 5,001-10,000 58 58.00 3 10,001 and above 18 18.00 Table 29: Distribution of sample households according to their credit sources S. No Name of the credit source No of households Per cent 1 DWCRA 29 29.00 2 Institutional 04 04.00 3 Money lenders 67 67.00 Distribution of sample households according to their opinion on getting sufficient income for their livelihood has been presented in Table 30. Among the 100 per cent households, 96 per cent of them expressed that they are not getting sufficient income for livelihood. But the households who are getting sufficient income for their livelihood is very small with 4 per cent. That means still all most all households in the study area are not getting sufficient income sources to meet their expenses. Table 30: Distribution of sample households according to their opinion on getting sufficient income for their livelihood S. No Opinion No of households Per cent 1 Yes 04 04.00 2 No 96 96.00 Total 100.00 100.00

Socio-economic Status of Scheduled Tribes in Andhra Pradesh 131 4.0 Summary and Conclusions In this paper, we have mainly discussed about the socio-economic characteristics like population, sex ratio, marital status and economic characteristics like availability of housing facility, land, different source of income, cost of cultivation and expenditure pattern. Most of the households are male headed families with 89 per cent, which means the male domination is more in the study area. In all households productive age group people are leading their families. Agriculture sector is their primary occupation. It is identified that more than 50 per cent of the households are having large size family. The sex ratio in the study area is pretty good; it is 1017 for total population, 1186 for below 15 years age group and 964 for the productive age group. It is observed that there are no pucca houses in the study area and 94 per cent of the households are having the semi-pucca houses. Further, there is no electricity facility for 14 per cent of the households. The availability of household assets are very poor; only 71 per cent having a clock/watch, 49 per cent having the radio, 51 per cent television sets. More number of the households in the study area is having the white and AAY ration cards with 72 per cent and 19 per cent respectively, still 9 per cent of the households don t have any ration card. Absence of pink ration cards shows that all the households of this village are living below the poverty line. The people s participation in public organization is very poor except in SHGs, ITDA and GCC with 95 per cent, 87 per cent and 92 per cent respectively and in remaining organizations like Educational committee, Panchayat, WUA, VSS and Health committee is almost negligible. The performance of government welfare programmes is not good in the study area except MGNREGS programme. All the sample households are expecting facilities like pucca housing, road and transportation, employment, schools and hospitals. Nearly 90 per cent of the households are expecting banking and marketing facilities from the government. About 50 per cent of the households are not getting even Rs. 50,000 as their income per annum. That indicates still there is no proper income source in the study area. The occupation structure in the study area is very interesting; 56 per cent of this sample population is engaged in agricultural sector as labourers which means the dependence on primary sector is very predominant. The student community is occupied next to the agriculture labour with 41per cent. There are no government employees in the study area. The major source of income is from the agriculture sector followed by minor forest products, milch cattle and other labour works. Due to poor land holding size nearly 62 per cent of the people are getting only Rs. 10,001 to Rs. 30,000 from the agriculture. There is no land for 21 per cent of the sample population. The income from the minor forest products is also very low. About 10 per cent of the sample population

132 PRAGATI: Journal of Indian Economy, Vol. 1, Issue 2 are not getting any income from MFP and remaining 90 per cent getting only below Rs. 10,000. Availability of livestock is one of the major income source, 33 per cent of households are not having any livestock. About 55 per cent of the households are getting incomes Rs. 10,001 to Rs. 30,000 and 12 per cent are getting 30,001 to Rs. 40.000 from milch cattle. The ownership right on the land is very less in the study area. Still 21 per cent of households are not having any land. Nearly 74 per cent of sample households are having the land 1-2 acres. The major crops which are cultivated by the sample population is paddy and maize with 60 per cent and 19 per cent respectively. Expenditure pattern in the study area shows that their backwardness. Still most of the households are spending more on food and very less only expending on education and other things like entertainment and health care. The indebtedness is more in the study area because their poor living conditions. Most of the people are depending on the money lenders for their credit sources, very less on SHGs and banks. 5.0 Policy Implications After studying the socio-economic status of Scheduled Tribes, the present study proposes some comprehensive strategies for the overall development of Scheduled Tribes of the study area in particular and in India in general. 1. This study brought out that STs are the most backward in the human development indicators. So, human development projects for STs are recommended particularly health, education, drinking water and hygienic living conditions. 2. The availability of infrastructural facilities like housing, protected drinking water, electrification, transportation, health and education are very low. It is suggested that the efforts should made for the development of those infrastructure facilities in the tribal areas. 3. Practicing traditional occupations is restraining their income levels. Scheduled Tribes are not lagging in hard work. It is suggested that efforts should be made for social mobility among ST work force, especially in the non-farm employment. 4. As per the above analysis, income plays a major role in the lives of Scheduled Tribes. Their conventional practices of cultivation keep them at the subsistence level. So, this study suggests for effective implementation of employment generation activities in the non-farm sector for their development. 5. Indebtedness is a cause for bonded labour and backwardness. Still most of the sample population is depended on money lenders for their credit. So, this study

Socio-economic Status of Scheduled Tribes in Andhra Pradesh 133 strongly recommends that government shall provide institutional facilities in the tribal areas. 6. The Integrated Tribal Development Agency and the Girijan Cooperative Corporation are the two main institutions slated for the development of scheduled tribes. So, it is imperative to make the functioning of the ITDA / GCC more people oriented by adopting participatory approach. 7. Good governance is the key factor in delivering goods and services to the needy. The delivery system must be made perfect without any leakages. The beneficiary must receive 100 per cent of the benefits targeted to him. References Jairth, MS. (1991). Tribal Economy and Society, Mittal Publishers: New Delhi. Khare, P.K. (1991). Social Change of Indian Tribes: Impact of Planning and Economic Development, Deep & Deep Publications: New Delhi. Mohana Rao, K. (1999). Tribal Development in Andhra Pradesh: Problems, Performance and Prospects. Book Links Corporation: Hyderabad. Pulla Rao, D. (2013). Demographic and economic status of Scheduled Tribes in Andhra Pradesh: A study of Jatapu Tribe in Seethammapeta Mandal in Srikakulam District, Journal of Social Welfare and management, 5(4): 43-50, Oct-Dec. Pulla Rao, D. (2013). Economic status of Scheduled Tribes in Andhra Pradesh: A study of Visakhapatnam and West Godavari Districts. View Point, 4(1): 4-18, Jan-June. Pulla Rao, D. (2012). Cultivation costs and revenues on tribal lands in Andhra Pradesh: A study of Visakhapatnam and Vizianagaram Districts. PIRJMs (Proficient), IV(VII): 62-79. Reddappa L. (2005). Agricultural development in tribal areas of Andhra Pradesh. In Tribal Developmental Studies, (Ed.) B.S Vasudeva Rao. Associated Publishers: Ambala. Sunder Raj, D and Venkat R. Ravi. (2005). Tribal Development in India: A Panoramic View. In Tribal Developmental Studies (Ed.) Dr. B.S Vasudeva Rao. Associated Publishers: Ambala.