Rooted Identities: A Study on Tribal Human Development in Karnataka, South India

The Scheduled Tribal communities in India today face significant underdevelopment due to policies and practices initiated during British colonialism, which began their exclusion and marginalization. The aim of the current study is to frame the first ever Human Development Index (HDI) of the tribals from the Karnataka state exclusively using primary data from 50 Scheduled Tribals. The data collected data from 1,255 tribal households focused on three basic human development indices: health, education and livelihood. This is the second effort in India after the state of Kerala in 2010. The study has provided a human development ranking both tribal- and district-wise. In the case of education, tribals such as the Yarava, Nayaka, Panniya, Meda, Malai Kudi, Gonda, Raj Gonda, Kuruba and Marathi have achieved a high level of educational status in the state. In terms of health, the Yarava, Paradi, Malaikudi, Gonda, Harni Shikar, Rajgonda, Kuruba and Takri Koli tribals have shown good health achievements. For the standard of living index, the Nayaka, Paradi, Malaikudi, Gonda, Harni Shikari, Rajgonda, Takri Koli and Kuruba have achieved a good standard of living index in Karnataka. Regarding the HDI ranking, Bangalore Rural, Kolara and Chikkaballapura districts have secured the first three places, while Hassan district is in the last position. In terms of tribal-wise human development ranking, Kuruba, Nayaka and Meda have taken the first three positions, respectively. The study concludes that despite slightly better scores than the state average in health and education, forest-based tribals are highly backward compared to their counterparts and need more urgent policy attention.