Present socio-economic status of toto tribe of west Bengal /
Anil Kumar Biswas
- New Delhi : Indian Council of Social Science Research,
- vii, 69p
Introduction:- Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) are the most disadvantaged sections of our society due to their socio-economic exploitation and isolation over a long period of time. They lag behind the rest of the population of the country in terms of various developmental indicators such as social, economic and political. Backwardness of Scheduled Tribes (STs) is so deepest than Scheduled Castes (SCs) in all kinds of socio-economic indicators. There is no clear definition of Scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in the Constitution itself. But the President is empowered to draw up a list in consultation with the Governor of each state, subject to revision by Parliament. The President has made orders, specifically the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the differentstates in India, which have since been amended by acts of Parliament (D.D. Basu, Reprint 2006). A tribe is an anthropological concept. A tribe is generally defined as a social group usually living in a definite area, having a dialect, cultural homogeneity and unified social organization. Tribe is also defined as a ‘social group’ usually comprising a number of sibs, bands, villages or other special groups and is normally characterized by the possession of a definite territory a distinctive dialect, a homogeneous and distinctive culture; it is either a unified political organization or, at least, has some sense of common solidarity vis-à-vis outsiders. Thus a tribe isa territorial group with its own language, religion, culture and unified social organization (Archana Mandal, 2015). A Scheduled Tribe is an administrative and Constitutional concept. It refers to the tribal community, those who are enlisted in Article342 of the Indian Constitution. According to Article 342 of the Indian Constitution, “the President may, with respect to any State or Union Territory and where it is a state, after consultation with the Governor thereof, bypublic notification specify the tribes or tribal communities or parts of or groups within tribes or tribal communities, which shall for the purpose of this Constitution, be deemed to be Scheduled Tribes in relation to the state or Union Territory, as the case may be” (Archana Mandal, 2015). According to Lokur Committee, those tribes has taken primitive traits, distinctive culture, geographical isolation, shyness of contact with the society at large and backwardness as the important criteria for testing the eligibility for a tribe as Scheduled Tribe. 8.2% population out of total population of the country is tribal. Out of them 75 such type of groups of primitive tribal people are found in India. Most of the people of these groups are have precarious existence as a result of ecological vulnerability of their habitants and theprecariousness of their livelihoods. A specific strategy for their survival with dignity is yet to be charted out concretely though; there are some recent initiatives to work towards this.
Conclusion:- Totos are the most primitive tribal community of West Bengal. As a small tribe they have their own distinct feature. Previously they have ethnic purity; they have their own dialect, social organization, cultural homogeneity and their own life style. But after the implementation of the various programmes and projects by the government and various non-governmental organization for their development; there are so many changes are come in the Toto society. In the era of modernization they are now migrated outside Totopara for education and also better livelihood. They are now watching and listening western music and also habituated to wearing modern dresses. Many nonTotos such as Nepali, Bengali, Bihari, are residing there permanently for their livelihood. Nepali population is increasing in the village day to day. Due to this reason the purity of the Totos are now in underthreats. Land holding pattern of the Totosis affected due to thistype ofthe migrated people from outside. According to the Dhaniram Toto the strongest threats are comefrom the Nepali community. The population ofthe Nepali community rapidly increased in Totoparamainly from last decade of the last century. Nepali migration from Bhutan mainly increased since the last decade of the last century due to the policy of the Bhutan government to forced Nepalese to left the Bhutan; on that time most of them have taking shelters in Indian side. The gateway of Bhutan is very close to the Totopara so many Nepali people crossed the border by walking and taking shelter in surrounding Totopara. Due to this reason the population burden is toomuch increased at Totopara and the ethnic purity of the Totos is in under serious threats. Various modernization processes of the government and the NGOs has made impact on the socio- economic condition of the community. Now they are under the way of modernization. Under various projects some changes are seen in the area of the Totopara. Butthere are so many problems in the Totopara the inhabitants of the Totos. The main problem of the area is there is no proper road communication. Most of the time in a year, Totopara is disconnected from the other part of the country due to the lack of proper road communication.