Location, Livelihoods and Tribal People: Exploring the Linkages in India

Abstract

The intricate nuances shared between human beings and the land put forth a complex phenomenon in the context of geographical studies. Geographical location inhabited by a living person tends to impact the several socio-economic facets of one’s life, out of which livelihood opportunities available to an individual remain a prominent facet. This study investigates the impact of location on the livelihoods of tribal people in the Indian states. Spatial patterns of the livelihood opportunities available to people are severely impacted by the proximity to the urban conglomerates. Since antiquity, tribals have lived in consonance with the natural world, depending upon the natural resources even for their basic survival existence. However, since the onset of industrialisation began and economy started to revolve around service sector with the subjugation of the primary sector, tribals due to their geographical location have been at a disadvantageous position proportionately. In order to investigate the connections between location, livelihoods and tribal people the research provided here poses the following query: What impact does a tribe’s location have on its members’ livelihoods? This study adds to the corpus of work already mentioned by examining how location affects tribal livelihoods.

Keywords: Livelihoods, Location, Tribal People

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