A Study on Tribal Education And Development

India stands in terms of tribal population after Africa in the world. According to the 2001 Indian Census, the population of the tribal communities in the country stands at 84.3 million and accounts for 8.27 of the total population. There are about 689 scheduled tribes speaking about 105 languages and 225 speaking subsidiary languages. They have traditionally lived in about 15% of the nation’s geographical areas, mainly forests, hills, undulating inaccessible terrain in plateau areas, rich in natural resources. They have lived as isolates entities for centuries, largely untouched by the mainstream society. This isolation was largely responsible for their Politico-Socio-Economic backwardness. This article examines the tribal education and tribal development policy in India. The promotion of tribal education needs a fresh thinking and renewed efforts in new direction. The new policy and administrative initiatives should focus on the improvement of quantity as well as quality aspects for tribal education. The tribal people in India have their own culture, and are conditioned by the eco-system. Normal development process has by passed the tribal communities. Hence the government has been implementing special schemes for their upliftment.