Number Theory: Poverty and Scheduled Tribe identity in Jharkhand
This is the first of a two-part series on economic backwardness of STs in Jharkhand. The second part will look at the reason for economic backwardness of STs.
Jharkhand was carved out as a separate state in 2000, but the statehood movement is a much older demand fuelled by unfulfilled aspirations of Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities living in the region. The original Jharkhand movement was spread in areas beyond the geographical boundaries of the state as it exists today. A central fault-line runs between ST and non-ST communities, a divide that plays out in politics and will be among the key factors when the state hold its fifth assembly election on November 13 and 20. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led alliance that won a majority in the assembly elections held in 2014 did not pick a chief minister from an ST community and paid for it in the 2019 elections, when the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)-led alliance formed a government.
