Socio-Economic Profile of Toto Tribe

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Toto tribe is a smallest tribe of West Bengal. They belong to the Mangolian stock. They are living in the Totopara village, foothills of Bhutan Himalaya under Madanhat block of Alipurduar district of West Bengal. The existence of the people was first mentioned by Babu Kishen Kanta Bose in 1815. They become a popular topic for discussion both among the official and academic circle after independence They have their own distinct culture, lifestyle, livelihood activities, social customs, administration and economic activities. After independence various plans and programmes introduced for the development of the socio-economic status of the community. The book has analysis the impact of various developmental plans/programmes on the socio-economic status of the community. For this, the book gives us a brief profile of Totopara village and origin of the community. The book briefly discussed the traditional administrative pattern of the community, present administrative pattern of the community, population of Totopara, present population demography, religious belief and customs of the community, recent trends of their religious faith, belief and community customs, marriage system of the community, some changes in the marriage system of the community in recent time, houses of the community, recent changes in the housing pattern, food habits, changes in the food habits, language. recent trends of their language, educational status of the community, health status, changing health status of the community. The book also critically analysis the occupational dimension of the community, coverage of various livelihood security schemes, migration of the community members for searching job and overall impact of economic development on the community. The book is very useful to the researcher and students of social sciences especially for the researcher research on tribal communities.

Dr. Anil Kumar Biswas, MA (Specialization in Public Administration), PhD, is a Senior Assistant Professor in political Science having 14 years teaching and research experience in UG and PG level. He is a faculty member of the Department of Political Science, The University of Burdwan, Burdwan, West Bengal. His research interest is in the area of Tribal Empowerment, Rural Development, Rural Economy, Local Government, Public Policies, Women Empowerment and Educational Policies. He is pursuing his PhD degree from the University of North Bengal, West Bengal. He completed one major research project funded by ICSSR, New Delhi and one minor research project funded by UGC and also one ongoing major research project under ICSSR, New Delhi. He published 23 articles in various edited books from India and abroad and 21 articles in various National and International Journals from India and abroad. He participated and presented papers in 11 International Seminars/Conferences in India & aboard and also participated & presented in 24 National level Seminars/Conferences within India & 03 state level Seminars, chaired technical session in 03 National/International conferences, co-chaired for technical session in 03 National / International Conference and performing as discussant in 02 seminars. He is an editorial board member in two reputed journals published from India.

In West Bengal there are 40 Scheduled Tribe communities. Out of the 40 communities 3 communities namely Lodha, Birhor and Toto have been declared as primitive tribes by the government of India. The total population of these three communities is only 57,186. Out of them Totos are only 1575 as per 2016 data provided by the Block Development Office, Madarihat. The Toto tribe is a smallest tribe of West Bengal. They belong to the Mangolian stock. They living the Totopara village, foothills of Bhutan Himalaya under Madarihat block of Alipurduar district of West Bengal. The existence of the people was first mentioned by Babu Kishen Kanta Bose, a British government employee of Rangpur Collector in 1815. He found the people called Toto in a village called Lukepur, under the Falakata Tahashil of western duars, present Totopara village. D. Sunder also traced the village in 1895. Since then, they become a popular topic for discussion both among the official and academic circle. They have their distinct culture, lifestyle, livelihood activities, social customs, administration and economic activities. After independence, the community recognised as Scheduled Tribe on 29 October 1956, under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe list (modification) orders, 1956 by government of India. Since then, government has giving special attention for the development of the community and their locality. After independence various plans and programmes are taking by the government and non-government organisations for the development of the socio-economic status of the community. So the aim of the present study is to analysis the impacts of various developmental plans/programmes on the socio-economic status of the community. For this, the study is divided in to five chapters.

In chapter 1 brief the introduction, aim of the study, statement of the problem, objective of study, significance of the study, overview of the literature, conceptual framework of the study, research question or hypothesis, research methodology and implication of the study have discussed.

The second chapter gives the brief profile of Totopara village and origin of the community. Rivers/watercourses of Totopara, Climate of Totopara, Soil, corps and vegetation, flora and fauna, minerals are discussed briefly.

Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) are the most disadvantaged sections of our society due to their socio-economic exploitation and isolation over a long period of time. They lag behind the rest of the population of the country in terms of various developmental indicators such as social, economic and political. Backwardness of Scheduled Tribes (STS) is so deepest than Scheduled Castes (SCs) in all kinds of socio-economic indicators. There is no clear definition of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the Constitution itself. But the President is empowered to draw up a list in consultation with the Governor of each state, subject to revision by Parliament. The President has made orders, specifically the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the different states in India, which have since been amended by acts of Parliament (Basu, Reprint 2006).

A tribe is an anthropological concept. A tribe is generally defined as a social group usually living in a definite area, having a dialect, cultural homogeneity and unified social organization. Tribe is also defined as a 'social group'usually comprising a number of sibs, bands, villages or other special groups and is normally characterized by the possession of a definite territory a distinctive dialect, a homogeneous and distinctive culture; it is either a unified political organization or, at least, has some sense of common solidarity vis-à-vis outsiders. Thus a tribe is a territorial group with its own language, religion, culture and unified social organization (Mandal, 2015). A Scheduled Tribe is an administrative and Constitutional concept. It refers to the tribal community, those who are enlisted in Article 342 of the Indian Constitution. According to Article 342 of the Indian Constitution, "the President may, with respect to any State or Union Territory and where it is a state, after consultation with the Governor thereof, by public notification specify the tribes or tribal communities or parts of or groups within tribes or tribal communities, which shall for the purpose of this Constitution, be deemed to be Scheduled Tribes in relation to the state or Union Territory, as the case may be" (Mandal, 2015). According to Lokur Committee, those tribes has taken primitive traits, distinctive culture, geographical isolation, shyness of contact with the society at large and backwardness as the important criteria for testing the eligibility for a tribe as Scheduled Tribe. 8.2% population out of total population of the country is tribal. Out of them 75 such type of groups of primitive tribal people are found in India. Most of the people of these groups are have precarious existence as a result of ecological vulnerability of their habitants and the precariousness of their livelihoods. A specific strategy for their survival with dignity is yet to be charted out concretely though; there are some recent initiatives to work towards this.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages