OCCUPATIONAL STRUCTURE AND DEVELOPMENT PRIORITIES OF THE SCHEDULED TRIBES OF ANDHRA PRADESH

Abstract

The Community Development Programme have been executed in the rural and tribal areas of Andhra Pradesh launched by Government of India. The main aim of these programmes of Directed change in the tribal areas is to bring about rapid transformation in the livelihood patterns of the tribals through diffusion of innovations and improving upon indigenous knowledge and skills. The main aim of this study is to assess the occupational shift and the programme preferences of the tribals of Andhra Pradesh in order to prepare guide lines for planning in fixing the development priorities. For this purpose, five major tribes have been selected for the present study. accordingly, Chenchus of Amarabad plateau and Nallamali forests of Mahaboobnagar and Kurnool Districts, Banjaras of Achampet Taluk of Mahaboobnagar District, Valmiki of Chintapalli Taluk of Visakhapatnam District, Konda Reddis of Polavaram Taluk of West Godavari District and Raj Gonds of Utnoor Taluk of Adilabad District were chosen to represent the traditional occupations of food gathering, pastoralism, trading, shifting cultivation, and settled cultivation respectively. The study reveals that among Gonds living in sample villages joint families with a percentage of 49.98 dominated other types. Majority of Chenchu, Valmiki, Konda Reddy families retained their nuclear family. The percentage of joint families in Banjaras is also high. Except among Gonds, the traditional occupations of other tribes are no more the main occupations. For these other groups, their respective traditional occupation however continued to be an important subsidiary occupation. Though agro-forest based occupations have replaced the traditional occupations in four out of five tribal groups, changes have come even within the agro-forest based occupations between 1961 census period and 1972 survey period. Among Gonds, the shift in occupation during this period is a almost non-existing. In Valmikis, the shift in primary sector occupation is not pronounced but for the three-fold increase in public and private sector employment. A perceptible shift in occupations has been noticed among Chenchus and Konda Reddis between 1961 and 1972. Under other heads of development such as education, health and other facilities, communications and transport and cooperation. Certain programmes are comparatively preferred by certain groups due to prevailing local social and economic condition.