Tribal issues come to the fore as poll battle heats up in Jharkhand

All but one CM have been members of ST communities. Still two-thirds of tribal-dominated districts have high levels of multidimensional poverty

As Assembly polls draw closer in Jharkhand, constituencies reserved for scheduled tribes (STs) that comprise over one-third of the state’s total assembly seats hold the key for political parties.

  Of the total 81 constituencies in Jharkhand, 28 are reserved for STs. The importance of STs could be gauged from the fact that of the total 13 chief ministers, only one — Raghubar Das of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — has been a non-tribal. Interestingly, he was the only one to complete a full term from 2014-2019.   

The BJP is relying on the defection of prominent tribals from the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), including former chief minister Champai Soren, and other leaders like Babu Lal Marandi and Arjun Munda, besides leaders from its alliance partner All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) to improve its performance after facing drubbing from India Bloc in the 2019 assembly polls.

The BJP also lost all five ST seats in Jharkhand in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls against winning three each in the 2014 and 2019 elections.

 

 

On the other hand, the INDIA bloc – the JMM and the Congress along with other alliance partners — is trying to retain its stronghold in the tribal constituencies. 

In a bid to woo tribal voters, Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month announced the Dharti Aaba Jantatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyan, a Rs 79,150 crore welfare initiative, expected to benefit 50 million tribals in the country. 

Modi and other BJP leaders have flagged the issue of the declining tribal population and their migration from Jharkhand due to a lack of job opportunities. 

The state government has modified a comprehensive pension scheme that provides universal coverage by lowering the qualifying age for old-age pensions from 60 to 50 years for marginalised groups, including dalits, tribals and women. 

However, it allocated only 3 per cent of its total expenditure towards the welfare of the Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Class (OBC) communities in the 2024-25 Budget which is lower than the average allocation by states at 3.5 per cent. 

While the parties are ramping up their campaigns and making bold promises to sway tribal voters, these people, who, according to a 2011 census, constitute 26.2 per cent of the total population of the state, are struggling to live decent lives. 

 

Most districts with 3-5 tribal seats had higher multidimensional poverty during 2019-21 than the average in the state, which had lower deprivation of this kind than only next to Bihar in the country. Ranchi is the only exception but the district has only three of seven seats reserved for STs, besides being the city capital of the state. 

Precisely, two-thirds of tribal districts had higher multidimensional poverty than average in the state during 2019-21. All these districts had more people living in such poverty than the national average during the period. 

At a time when experts are flagging the issue of high credit-deposit ratio at the national level, only three tribal districts have loans and advances at more than 50 per cent of deposits in the banking system. Districts that have 3-5 tribal seats have less than half of deposits as credit in the banking system. The C-D ratio stood at just 45 per cent in the entire state, speaking volumes about the demand for credit in the state. 

The socio-economic caste census of 2011 showed that Jharkhand, with the country’s 12th largest tribal population, had almost 7 per cent of tribal households with a member earning more than Rs 10,000 a month that year. 

Similarly, there were around 13 per cent of tribal households with members owning two, three, or four-wheelers, or fishing boats. Only around 5 per cent of households had members paying income tax in 2011, indicating the low earnings of the people or their dependence on agriculture or forestry for livelihood.   

Jharkhand will go to polls in two phases on November 13 and 20 to elect 81 members to the legislative assembly. Results will be declared on November 23.