Key Pointers

• Particularly vulnerable tribal group (PVTG) is a government of India classification created with the purpose of enabling improvement in the conditions of certain communities with particularly low development indices.
• The Dhebar Commission (1960-1961) stated that within Scheduled Tribes there existed an inequality in the rate of development.
• During the fourth Five Year Plan a sub-category was created within Scheduled Tribes to identify groups that considered to be at a lower level of development.
• This was created based on the Dhebar Commission report and other studies. This sub-category was named "Primitive tribal group".
• In 2006 the government of India proposed to rename "Primitive tribal group" as Particularly vulnerable tribal group"
• Presently, there are 75 PVTGs in 18 States and UT of Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
• Among the 75 listed PVTG's the highest number are found in Odisha (13), followed by Andhra Pradesh (12), Bihar including Jharkhand (9) Madhya Pradesh including Chhattisgarh (7) Tamil Nadu (6) Kerala and Gujarat having five groups each.
• The criteria followed for determination of PVTGs are as under:
• A pre-agriculture level of technology;
• A stagnant or declining population;
• Extremely low literacy; and
• A subsistence level of the economy.
• Government of India designed a procedure to identify PVTGs.
• According to the procedure, the state governments or UT governments submit proposals to the Central Ministry of Tribal Welfare for identification of PVTGs.
• After ensuring the criteria is fulfilled, the Central Ministry selects those groups as PVTGs.

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