Abstract
The Scheduled Tribe (ST) population in India is one of the most marginalised and deprived one in the country. The Constitution of India itself mandates exclusive approach, strategies and measures for their development. The Government of India and the state governments, along with other key stakeholders, have been taking very specific policy and programmatic interventions for reducing the disparities between the ST and other social groups for the past 74 years. The impact of these measures is clearly reflected through the improvement in vital development indicators. However, several gaps and challenges continue to persist, implying revisiting the fundamental approaches and planning processes which direct the interventions at policy and implementation level. In this article, an alternative, more focussed approach of ‘virtual region as planning unit’ takes the aspects related to geographical, cultural and developmental heterogeneity into consideration. Concrete strategies for implementation of various policies and programmes adopting the approach of virtual region planning in light of challenges have been presented.
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