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In a study on traditional economic activities pursued by the tribes of India, Vidyarthi and Rai,40 _{have delineated the following categories:}

i) Hunting,

ii) Hill-cultivation, iii) Plain agriculture, iv) Simple artisan,

v) Pastoral and cattle-herding, vi) Folk-artists, and

vii) Agricultural and non-agricultural labour.

Traditional tribal economy was largely a combination of several types of activities. For example, hill cultivators and plain agriculturists, were also occasionally hunting and gathering to supplement their income. Similarly, pastoralists were engaged in agriculture to meet their basic food requirements. Therefore, the above typology of economy is only indicative of the main activities.

However, hunting and foraging have been the main sources of traditional livelihoods for several tribes, including the Birhor, the Hill Kharia, the Pahariya, the Birijia, the Korwa, the Chenchu, the Kurumba, the Paliyan, the Kadar, the Jarawa, the Onge andthe Sentinelese. With reduced forest cover and implementation of Wildlife Protection Act, hunting and foraging are on the decline among these tribes.

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Hill cultivation, variously known as shifting cultivation, slash-and-burn cultivation, is popularly known as podu or jhum among the Indian tribes. Tribal people inhabiting the hills of Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Tripura, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh engage in hill cultivation. The Garo, the Tripuri, the Chakma, the Mog, the Naga, the Maler, the Hill Kharia, the Juang, the Paudi Bhuyian, the Koya, the Konda Reddi, the Baiga, the Maria Gond and many other tribal communities continue to practice hill cultivation. However, this is also in decline, due to land shortage and increase in population. In addition, the Government policy, dissuades the tribes from practicing shifting cultivation.

Plain land agriculture is the means of livelihood for most of the tribes, even though it is not highly productive. The Khasi and Jaintia, the Khasa and Tharu, the Kinnaur, the Bhumij, the Kora, the Bhuyian, the Santal, the Munda, the Ho, the Oraon, the Baiga, the Gond, the Mina, the Garasia, the Bhil, the Warli and the Thakur are plain land agriculturists.

A number of tribes subsist on crafts and cottage industries like basket and rope making, tool making (iron and wooden), spinning and weaving, metal work, iron work, etc. The Gujjar and Kinnaur (wood work), the Irula, Thoti, Kanjar and Kolam (basket and rope making), the Lohar and Karmali (iron agricultural implements), the Chik-Barik (hand woven cloth), the Mahali (basket and bamboo products), the Godulia Lohar, Mahali, Asur and Agaria (iron smith) and many other artisan groups largely manage their livelihoods as crafts persons.

The Toda, the Gujjar, Bakarwal and Gaddi, the Golla, Kuruba and Lambada, the Kisan and Nagesia, the Rabari and Sansi, etc. are pastoralists and animal husbandry is their main occupation. Decrease in pastures and sedentarisation have resulted in loss of pastoralism and animal-breeding among these tribes.

There are certain tribes in India, which depend upon folk arts such as singing, barding and dancing, other activities such as tattoo-making, acrobatics and magic/trickery. Tribes namely Nat and Sapera, Kela, Pradhan and Ojha, Madaria, Pamula and Garadi are specialists in various folk arts.

Several landless and marginal tribal households are engaged as agricultural labour. With the opening of mines and industries in tribal inhabited regions, tribes in the surrounding areas have taken up non-agricultural labour as the primary source of livelihood. Some tribes from Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh have migrated to the tea estates in Northeast India and to Andaman and Nicobar Islands, in search of unskilled employment.

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In the pre-independence period, tribes from Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh, such as the Munda, the Oraon, the Santhal and others had migrated to the sprawling tea gardens of Assam as indentured labour. In post- independence era, they are not included in the list of Scheduled Tribes in Assam. They are among what are popularly called the “Tea Tribes”, numbering about 60 lakhs. They have been marginalised due to centuries of exploitation and denial of their basic rights.

Over the decades, the tribal economy and the livelihood strategies have undergone substantial changes. Since the tribes were traditionally dependent on natural resources, the change was all the more visible due to the depletion of resources. In post-independence period, the rapid phase of urbanization and industrialization alienated the tribes from their traditional natural resource base and forced them to search for newer livelihood options. Increase in population among some tribes, lower availability of food and alienation from natural habitats, made the tribes dependent on urban markets. Many of them left their homes and migrated to urban areas, in search of income and employment. As a result, the already vulnerable tribes were exposed to all kinds of exploitation and marginalization in the new, unfamiliar urban space. Those who continued to live in their original habitats diversified their occupations to ensure their sustenance.

The shift in tribal economy and diversification of occupations has been corroborated in the People of India report by the Anthropological Survey of India. The report maintains that “… the number of communities practicing hunting and gathering has declined by 24.08 percent, as forests have disappeared and wildlife has diminished. Ecological degradation has severely curtailed the related traditional occupations. For instance, trapping of birds and animals has declined by 36.84 percent, pastoral activities by 12.5 percent, and shifting cultivation by 18.14 percent. However, there is a rise in horticulture (34.4 percent), terrace cultivation (36.84 percent), settled cultivation (29.58 percent), animal husbandry (22.5 percent), sericulture (82.6 percent), and bee-keeping (60 percent). Many of the traditional crafts have disappeared and spinning, in particular, has suffered (25.58 percent). Related activities such as weaving (3.32 percent), dyeing (33.34 percent) and printing (100 percent) have similarly suffered. Skin and hide work as also stone carving has declined.”41

The report further states that, in tribal areas “...business has gone up by 77.46 percent, trade by 42.14 percent and industry by 100 percent. There is a sharp rise in the number of Scheduled Tribes employed in Government and private services, self- employment, etc. The number of Scheduled Tribes employed in mining and masonry (60 percent) has gone up steeply which suggests a new mobility.”42

41 _{Singh, K.S. 1997. The Scheduled Tribes. New Delhi: Anthropological Survey of India.}

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Figure 5.1: Change in Occupations among Scheduled Tribes

Source: Census of India, 1981

The national agencies entrusted with the responsibility of collecting and analyzing data on Scheduled Tribes of India, like the Census of India and the NSSO focused on categorizing occupations as cultivators, agricultural labourers and other non-farm workers (which includes workers of all kinds). Enumeration of Scheduled Tribe- specific occupations is not carried out and hence observing changes and shifts in the occupation patterns over time among tribes is difficult.