Sunita is a researcher studying a hilly, forested district in central India. Her records show that, over many generations, families from the plains have settled in its villages as traders and farmers. At the same time, many young people from the district's tribal communities have left to work on tea plantations, in coal mines and in factories in distant towns. Sunita now compares the settler and tribal households in the district on income, land, schooling and health, for a report on the district.
Taking the district as an area of tribal concentration, what would Sunita most likely find about its tribal households?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → Their economic and social conditions are usually much worse than those of other groups.
Option (1) Their economic and social conditions are usually much worse than those of other groups. — Correct. In areas of tribal concentration, the economic and social conditions of tribes are usually much worse than those of non-tribals. So Sunita is likely to find lower income, land, schooling and health among the tribal households than among the settler families.
Option (2) Their economic conditions are worse, but their social conditions are better. — Incorrect. Only half of this is right. Both economic and social conditions are worse, so better social conditions reverses the finding.
Option (3) Their conditions are close to those of the settled plains families. — Incorrect. The gap is large. In such areas tribal households usually lag far behind non-tribal settlers on both counts.
Option (4) Their conditions are worse where they are a minority, not where concentrated. — Incorrect. This turns the finding around. The much worse conditions are found in the very areas where tribal populations are concentrated.
NCERT (2026-27): “Adivasi Struggles … “In the areas where tribal populations are concentrated, their economic and social conditions are usually much worse than those of non-tribals. The impoverished and exploited circumstances under which adivasis live can be traced historically to the pattern of accelerated resource extraction started by the colonial British government and continued by the government of independent India. …” |