Q. Consider the following statements about Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) in India:

PVTGs reside in 18 States and one Union Territory.
A stagnant or declining population is one of the criteria for determining PVTG status.
There are 95 PVTGs officially notified in the country so far.
Irular and Konda Reddi tribes are included in the list of PVTGs.

Which of the statements given above are correct?

Answer: (c) 1, 2 and 4

Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) are centrally recognized special category from among the Scheduled Tribe.
It was constituted during the 4th five year plan on the basis of the report of the Dhebar commission (1960-61).
Such groups were identified by one or more of the following features:
- Pre-agricultural level of technology,
- Low level of literacy,
- Economic backwardness,
- A declining or stagnant population.
There are total 75 tribal groups have been categorized categorized by Ministry of Home Affairs as Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTG)s.
PVTGs reside in 18 States and UT of A&N Islands. Hence, statement 1 is correct.
Konda reddy of Khammam district of Telangana and Irular of Tamil Nadu are in the list of PVTGs.
Besides a number of schemes of Government of India and the State Governments where PVTG population are also benefitted along with other population, Ministry of Tribal Affairs administers a scheme namely ‘Development of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTG)’ specifically for the PVTG population.
Under this scheme, financial assistance is provided to the State/UT Governments based on their proposals for development of tribal people under various sectors.
The projects taken up under this scheme are demand driven.