Dynamics of residential concentration, segregation and social diversity of scheduled tribes in Manbazar block-I of Purulia district, West Bengal (1991-2011)

This study examines changes in the residential distribution of Scheduled Tribes (ST) in Manbazar Block-I, West Bengal, using village-level Census of India data for 1991, 2001, and 2011. The analysis covers 244 settlement units and combines settlement composition with measures of population concentration, dissimilarity, isolation, exposure, and social diversity. The ST population increased from 27,188 to 33,942, although its share of the total population declined from 23.13% to 22.03%. Villages with ST populations increased from 150 to 158, while exclusively ST villages declined from 25 to 13, and multi-ethnic villages increased from 85 to 102. These changes were accompanied by a slight net reduction in residential segregation. The dissimilarity index declined from 0.6668 in 1991 to 0.6510 in 2001, before increasing to 0.6679 in 2011. Adjusted isolation also followed the same pattern. The 25 villages with the largest ST populations accounted for 46.49%, 44.85%, and 47.20% of the block ST population, respectively. The population-weighted social diversity index (SDI) changed slightly from 0.3466 to 0.3481. Among the 25 Exclusively ST villages in 1991, 13 retained that composition in 2011, while the others entered four different composition categories. Analyses excluding Manbazar Census Town (CT) and retaining only continuously inhabited villages confirmed the principal temporal pattern. The findings show that the expansion of socially mixed villages coexisted with a persistent concentration and uneven distribution of ST residents. Therefore, changes in settlement composition must be read alongside population proportions within villages and the distribution of residents across the block.