Indigeneity and Occupational Change by Birinder Pal Singh

Author:Birinder Pal Singh [Singh, Birinder Pal]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Indigenous Studies, Discrimination, Sociology, Rural, Urban, Human Geography, Social Classes & Economic Disparity, Emigration & Immigration, General
ISBN: 9781000699777
Google: M_6rDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2019-08-29T03:49:01+00:00

5 Socio-economic profile of the tribal communities in Punjab

The tribal people constitute the poorest of the poor in Punjab. These communities are designated as the Scheduled Castes and not as the Scheduled Tribes in the state, the status they have been contesting for over the last many decades. The socio-economic status of the regular Scheduled Castes entrenched in the mainstream society is superior to these people. They make a segment of the village or city society and have some regular occupation, howsoever menial but a regular one. They have a permanent settlement, of course, exclusive in a separate colony on the periphery of a village or in a city slum. They have own or rented accommodation, may be pucca (bricks/concrete), kacha (mud) or the mixed type. The government’s policy of reservation and social welfare for them has benefited them, though not to the desired levels. The project of modernisation and industrialisation has helped them positively to an extent. Xaxa writes: ‘Despite the attempts at absorption through administrative practices at both the central and state levels over the last fifty years, the attainment of constitutional objectives is still an elusive goal, and is going to become more elusive in the future’ (2008, 82). He notes that the Scheduled Castes have benefited from the government schemes more than the Scheduled Tribes.

The tribal communities have been adversely affected by the processes of modernisation and industrialisation since they not only lost their traditional occupations but could not equip themselves with new skills. Thus, they are incompetent to get new occupations due to lack of technical skills. Their nomadic habit also gets in the way of their adjustment in a modern society.1 Earlier they were nomadic by choice; now they have no choice. The owner of the plot or land forces them to displace. Earlier, nature’s plenty attracted them towards nomadism; now it is driven by scarcity. Anyhow, they remain on the move for one reason or another. Those people who have some permanent settlement do not remain there for lack of work opportunities. They keep their families there and themselves move out for livelihood. The senior generation is given to nomadism out of habit, but the younger ones do not wish for it. Everyone now looks forward to a permanent abode, but most of them are yet not able to afford one given the poverty. Such households are found camping temporarily at the government land or vacant plots. Thus, their sole property is the makeshift hutment (kulli) or a kacha-pucca house. But whatever accommodation they have made for them is not registered in their name since the land is not in their name. With the loss of traditional occupations, they have no alternative but to go for wage labour, peddling or begging. The children of majority tribes are given to scrap (kabad) collection since that does not require any skill. This, in fact, is the fate of tribal communities in the prosperous state of Punjab.

The present study is based on a sample of 763 respondents spread all over the state.

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