Question

Why have we started using another category of tribes called the particularly vulnerable tribal groups (pvtgs) ? why are they so called?

Answer 1

Particularly vulnerable tribal group (PVTG) (earlier: Primitive tribal group) is a government of India classification created with the purpose of enabling improvement in the conditions of certain communities with particularly low development indices.[1]

The Dhebar Commission (1960-1961)[2]stated that within Scheduled Tribes there existed an inequality in the rate of development. During the fourth Five Year Plana 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". The features of such a group include a pre-agricultural system of existence, that is practice of hunting and gathering, zero or negative population growth, extremely low level of literacy in comparison with other tribal groups.[3][4]

Groups that satisfied any one of the criterion were considered as PTG. At the conclusion of the Fifth Five year plan, 52 communities were identified as being a "primitive tribal group", these communities were identified on the basis of recommendations made by the respective state governments.[3][4] At the conclusion of the Sixth Five year plan 20 groups were added and 2 more in the Seventh Five year plan, one more group was added in the eighth five-year plan, making a total 75 groups were identified as PTG.[5] The 75th group recognised as PTG were the Maram inManipur in 1993-94. No new group was declared as PTG on the basis of the 2001 census.[6]

In 2006 the government of India proposed to rename "Primitive tribal group" as Particularly vulnerable tribal group".[7] PTG has since been renamed Particularly vulnerable tribal group by the government of India.