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Abstract:
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The Paper unfolds the paradox that exists in the tribal community with respect to the development indicators and
hence tries to cull out the difference in the standard of living of the tribes in a dichotomous framework, forward
and backward. Four variables have been considered for ascertaining the standard of living and socio-economic
conditions of the tribes. The data for the study is obtained from a primary survey in the three tribal predominant
districts of Wayanad, Idukki and Palakkad. Wayanad was selected for studying six tribal communities (Paniya,
Adiya, Kuruma, Kurichya, Urali and Kattunaika), Idukki for two communities (Malayarayan and Muthuvan) and
Palakkad for one community (Irula). 500 samples from 9 prominent tribal communities of Kerala have been
collected according to multistage proportionate random sample framework. The analysis highlights the
disproportionate nature of socio-economic indicators within the tribes in Kerala owing to the failure of
governmental schemes and assistances meant for their empowerment. The socio-economic variables, such as
education, health, and livelihood have been augmented with SLI based on correlation analysis gives interesting
inference for policy options as high educated tribal communities are positively correlated with high SLI and
livelihood. Further, each of the SLI variable is decomposed using Correlation and Correspondence analysis for
understanding the relative standing of the nine tribal sub communities in the three dimensional framework of
high, medium and low SLI levels. Tribes with good education and employment (Malayarayan, Kuruma and
Kurichya) have a better living standard and hence they can generally be termed as forward tribes whereas those
with a low or poor education, employment and living standard indicators (Paniya, Adiya, Urali, Kattunaika,
Muthuvans and Irula) are categorized as backward tribes |