Key Contributing Factors to the Migration of Tribes of Tamil Nadu, India

Tribes are indigenous with a distinctive culture, geographically isolated and are low in socio-economic indicators like literacy rate, per capita income, infant mortality rate etc. For centuries, the tribal groups have remained outside the realm of the general development process due to their habitation in forests and hilly tracts. This lead to poor infrastructure and development facilities in tribal areas for education, roads, healthcare, communication, drinking water, sanitation etc. and has resulted in further widening the gaps of development between the tribals and the general population for a long time. The natural resources are being exploited in a way, which leads to gradual displacement and denying the basic right of livelihood to the tribes. This paper intends to analyse the factors behind this displacement of tribes from their forest settings. Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu was selected for the study with 100 migrant tribes as respondents by following Proportionate random sampling technique. Ex post facto research design was adopted with multinomial logistic regression for analysis. Totally, ten m-logit equations were derived from analysis and the results are interpreted. The chance of being a permanent migrant was 4.23 and 3.11 times lesser for married and large family migrants respectively. The encouragement to stay in the workplace by the family members of migrants was 0.59, 0.94 and 0.80 times lesser for migrants in the order of higher educational status, joint families and greater achievement motivation in life. Migrants with better educational status were likely to remigrate 0.91 times longer than 10 years. Also, the old aged migrants, migrants with higher occupational status, higher risk orientation and greater comfort expectancies possibly remigrate 2.50, 1.59, 1.24 and 1.43 times earlier than 10 years respectively. These identified facts are crucial for developing policies related to tribal development and hence can be considered as an input for Tribal policy formulation.