The changes which are taking place in the tribal society directly affect the life and livelihoods of tribal people. It highlights the shift from traditional livelihoods to the new changing pattern of livelihoods while situating the life of tribal people in Indian society. The first section of the paper deals with the introduction followed by the police and government initiatives that have been taken towards tribal development and a brief description of the Sahariya community; the further paper describes the traditional tribal livelihood pattern of the community and analyzes the changing pattern of tribal livelihoods in general and Sahariya livelihoods in particular.
The collection of data is embodied in both primary and secondary sources. Methodologically, the paper uses a mixed approach while using both descriptive and exploratory research designs as per the requirement of objectives. Though, analysis and data collection has been done through observation and statistical packages. To analyze the changes in the pattern of tribal livelihood, the paper employs some variables like landholdings, education, access to forest resources, and adoption of government and private services. It is argued empirical constraints while accessing their traditional livelihoods and new livelihood pattern at present. The development initiatives have taken place and led to changes in tribal livelihoods and pose serious challenges like the nature of landholdings, low rate of literacy rate, and marginal representation of tribal in government and private services. These problems and negative impacts are due to a lack of awareness, a low literacy rate, lack of freedom to access forest resources. Further, it is argued that how the development process is negatively and positively impacting tribal life and livelihoods. At last, the paper suggests what should be the role of government and civil society to balance the overall development of tribal people.
