What do the home lands of India’s ST communities look like? | Explained

India’s 705 Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities – making up 8.6% of the country’s population – live in 26 States and six Union Territories.

Article 244, pertaining to the administration of Scheduled and Tribal Areas, is the single most important constitutional provision for STs. Articles 244(1) provides for the application of Fifth Schedule provisions to Scheduled Areas notified in any State other than Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, and Mizoram. The Sixth Schedule applies to these states as per Article 244(2).

A map showing Fifth Schedule and Sixth Schedule districts in India. (Source: Reprinted with adaptation from ‘The Legal Regime and Political Economy of Land Rights of Scheduled Tribes in The Scheduled Areas of India, Namita Wahi and Ankit Bhatia, Centre for Policy Research, 2018, p.27’ (URL: https://cprindia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/The-legal-regime-and-political-economy-full-200418.pdf))