NEW DELHI: There is a relative difference of 32 per cent between the human development indices (HDI) at the national level and those of Scheduled Tribes, a preliminary study carried out by the Institute of Human Development has shown.

A difference of about 30 per cent puts the STs in a separate category in international comparisons - firmly in the low human development category, including sub-Saharan Africa, as against middle-human development all-India status. Also, the STs of Orissa, already a state with low human development in India, would fall at the bottom of the HDI of sub-Saharan Africa.

Attributing the loss of productive resources to the construction of dams and mining, the study says more survey is needed to define the magnitude of such loss by the STs in comparison to the rest of the population. Given the location of most dams and mines in hill/forest regions it would be reasonable to expect that the STs, proportionately more than the rest of the population, have lost their productive resources and have turned destitute due to the absence of proper rehabilitation.

The human development indicator is a composite representing three dimensions of human development including economy, education and health.

In a broad sense, the STs constitute a world within a world. With India being touted as an emerging global power, there is within India a social existence, that of the STs that is more akin to sub-Saharan Africa in HDI and human poverty index, the study points out.

In the second half of the 1990s, the poverty gap between the STs and the rest increased, while between the Scheduled Castes and the rest decreased. The STs not only started out at a higher poverty level than the rest of India, but they have also fallen further behind the rest, the report suggests.

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