South Asia has an area of approximately 5.221 million km. According to the United Nations, 1.6 billion inhabitants live in the region. South Asian population has a mixture of ethnic and tribal groups. They practice different religions and believe in different faiths. The tribal population are also called as the ‘tribes’ and have been noted as the ‘primitive’ or ‘savage’ and sometimes even ‘un-civilised’ groups of people. Majority of these groups of people in the South Asian region depend on agriculture as their main source of livelihoods. Contemporary societies of South Asia have witnessed plethora of issues in terms of its social, economic and political frames or discourses. The discourse on rural and tribal communities have further shown the way to mapping inherent identity questions, practices, and thus debates on sociological engagement of these social groups is necessitated. The engagement of social groups is necessary to understand its diverse social and economic issues and dynamics of development discourses of South Asia.
Further, quest for sustainability of livelihoods is an overarching phenomenon of the development agencies of the state and non-state actors. Keeping pace with the developmental challenges in the south Asian economies, there is a necessity to understand the livelihood experiences and hurdles faced by the tribal communities in the rural areas. The various sub-themes in the panel will be: Mapping the persistence and change in the Oral histories of Tribal people, rural communities and livelihood experiences in South Asia. Assessing the impact of technological changes and structural development in Indigenous art and culture; folk art, Rituals and other practices; Analysing and assessing critically the State laws, policies and government agencies; Educational and employment challenges faced by the tribal population; Government plans and programs and their implementation strategies for the development of tribal population and other issues.
