From Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi: Meghalaya is one of the three states in the country where tribals are in the majority but the Hill State also has the maximum number of landless ethnic population, according to official information here.
Meghalaya has about 20 lakh tribal population, but as many as 5.5 per cent of them have no land of their own, Ranee Narah, Minister of State for Tribal Affairs said. She was replying to a question in the Rajya Sabha.
Tripura has less than ten lakh tribals of which 4.2 per cent of them are landless, the Minister said.
But in case of Tripura landlessness of tribals is understood since the hill people have been displaced in large scale and reduced to minority following partition and subsequent developments.
“Land being a State subject, its management and related aspects are the responsibility of the respective state governments,” Narah, herself a tribal from Assam, said.
The all India tribal population as per the 2001 census stood at 8,43,26,240 and the landless tribals constitute 9.1 per cent of the population, she added.
Meghalaya and Tripura are followed by Arunachal Pradesh (2.6 per cent), Assam (2.3 per cent), Manipur (2.2 per cent) and Mizoram (2.1 per cent).
Nagaland, with a population of nearly 18 lakh, has the least percentage of landless tribals with only 1.3 per cent.
