Table 4

Percentage of People Living Below the Poverty Line

 (e) Status of STs in the Political Decision-making Process – There is affirmative discrimination through reservation for STs in Parliament and in the state legislative assemblies. In the 1996 elections, the representation of STs in the Lok Sabha accounted for 6.51 percent of the total members of this body which is less than.

On the basis of all these indicators, it can definitely be said that by and large, the fruits of development have bypassed the STs of Indian even after 50 years of freedom. Not only have they been denied access to the fruits of development, they have often becomes victims of development and have been adversely affected by it.

While this has been the fate of most scheduled tribes and households belonging to the Scheduled Tribes of India, because uneven development is a characteristic feature of the development is a characteristic feature of the development process in India, exceptions, through few and far between, are there which make the relative deprivation of the bulk of the STs even more painful.

Though the STs as a group have remained disadvantaged even today, a "creamy layer" has emerged among them mainly as fallout of the positive discrimination in their favour as a community in independent India. The dictum, "to those who have, more shall be given" seems to have become the prevailing pattern among those STs who have been able to capture the benefits of growth and the special provisions designed to upgrade the status of STs in general by virtue of the provileged position they enjoy in society because they command more productive assets and are more educated and enjoy more political power than the rest of their brethren.

The bulk of the STs then have to be prepared for a long and hard struggle for the upliftment of their status. The arduous and uphill task will be over only when the ST community as a whole becomes better educated, enjoys better health and has a higher social and economic status and these fruits of development are not cornered by a few taken STs only. Merely extending the period during which reservations for STs will continue by itself is not going to accomplish this unless steps are also taken to ensure that the benefits given to STs are not cornered by the privileged among them, leaving the really deserving among them high and dry. A battle will have to be fought with the powers that be both within the community and outside the community.