“Through love, tribes have been intermixing colors to reveal a new rainbow world. And as more time passes, this racial and cultural blending will make it harder for humans to side with one race, nation or religion over another.” The Indian constitution does not define Scheduled Tribes in that way. According to Article 36 (25) of the Constitution, all those communities are Scheduled Tribes who are scheduled under Article 342. It has been declared that they have become known as Scheduled Tribes. According to Article 342 of the Constitution, all the groups which the President has declared as tribes or tribal communities by issuing a notification to the public are Scheduled Tribes. According to the 1991 census, the indigenous population of the country is 7 crore 8 lakh 70 thousand or 8.06 percent of the total population. Indigenous people live mainly in the hilly and forested areas of the country.

According to the 1991 census, 42.02 percent of Scheduled Tribes work. Of these, 54.50 per cent are farmers and 32.89 per cent are farm laborers. So 8 percent of the people who work in this community are involved in basic types of work. The literacy rate among the Scheduled Tribes is 29.60 percent, while the overall literacy rate in the country is 52 percent. One third of Scheduled Tribe women are illiterate. Excessive dropout rates in traditional education have exacerbated this inequality. That is why their absence is especially noticeable in higher education. As a result, it is natural that the poverty rate of Scheduled Tribes will be much higher than the national rate.