Assessment of tribal development by village level human poverty index (VHPI): A study of Purulia District, West Bengal

Human Poverty Index (HPI) is a widely used indicator of social attainment. The classical HPI highlights the national level human progression in spatio-temporal context with precision. In terms of micro level analysis of human advancement especially of scheduled society, living in villages requires slight modification of the classical HPI. In India, tribal population consists of nearly ten per cent of the total population and they require utmost attention for overall development. Unfortunately limited data sources have restricted to unfold the real scenario of tribal development in India. The present study attempts to compute a modified HPI known as Village Level Human Poverty Index (VHPI) to understand the rural tribal development of three important tribal communities of Purulia district of West Bengal namely Santal, Kheria Sabar and one of the particularly vulnerable tribal group of India the Birhor, living in the uni-ethnic and multi-ethnic villages.