The Mandal Commission set three criteria for determining social and educational backwardness:
1. Social criteria, 2. Educational criteria and 3. Economic criteria.
1. Social criteria:
The following four criteria were defined to determine social backwardness:
Castes or classes that are considered socially backward.
Castes or classes that depend on manual labor for their livelihood.
Of those castes or classes, 25 per cent women and 10 per cent men living in rural areas and 10 per cent women and 5 per cent men living in urban areas are married at a lower age than the state average.
In those castes or classes, 25 per cent more women than the state average work for a living.
2. Educational Criteria:
The following three criteria were determined to determine educational backwardness:
25 per cent higher than the state average for children in the age group of 5 to 15 years who have never been to school.
25 per cent higher than the state average for children between the ages of 5 and 15 who have dropped out of school.
Only 25 per cent less than the state average have matriculation (SSC) in castes or classes.
3. Economic criteria:
The following three criteria were used to determine economic backwardness:
The value of family property in castes or classes is less than 25 per cent of the state average.
More than 25 per cent of the families of castes or classes living in mud houses are above the state average.
More than 25 per cent of the families belonging to castes or classes have to take loans for their daily needs.
Before setting the criteria for backwardness, the Mandal Commission had conducted a survey by appointing a committee of experts.
The survey used caste as a measure of social and educational backwardness and prepared a list of "Other Backward Classes" and submitted a report to the Government of India with its recommendations.
Classify the Scheduled Tribes.
Scheduled Tribes are classified on the basis of these six aspects:
1. In terms of geographical habitat,
2. In terms of population,
3. Culturally,
4. Economically,
5. Linguistically and
6. In terms of gender
1. In terms of geographical habitat: -
The Scheduled Tribes population is located in the following three areas in terms of geographical habitat:
(i) North and North East area:
The region includes the states of Ladakh (Jammu and Kashmir), Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand (northern Uttar Pradesh), Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Manipur and Tripura.
(ii) Intermediate or center area:
The area includes West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, South Uttar Pradesh, South Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.
The central region has the largest tribal population and the tribals here are better known than the tribals of other areas.
(iii) South area:
The area includes Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep.
2. In terms of population ratio:
Dr. Brijraj Chauhan divides the Scheduled Tribes into two sections in terms of population proportion:
(1) Very sparsely populated states and territories
(2) Very large inhabited states and territories.
3. Culturally:
Dr. From the cultural point of view of the Scheduled Tribes, Warrior Alvin, Professor Das and the 'Social Worker Council',Classified.
Dr. Varius Alvin has culturally identified the following four sections:
(i) First section:
The first section consists of people who share land.
They live a very backward life and are afraid of being exposed to strangers. E.g. T., Muria of Bastar, Bondo and Juang of Odisha '
(ii) Second section:
The second section consists of people living in forests and hills.
They live a communal life and have very little contact with outsiders.
(iii) Third section:
The third section has the highest number of Scheduled Tribes.
They are changing their original culture and some of them have left their original traditional culture and turned to deviant behavior.
(iv) Section IV:
The fourth division consists of landlords like Bhil, Sardars, Muria etc.
They are financially viable and prosperous.
4. Economically:
Some anthropologists have classified the aborigines economically.
In which classification has been done in terms of hunting, animal husbandry, agriculture, factories, industries etc.
5. Linguistically:
All the Scheduled Castes of India are classified with three important language families:
(1) Austronesian, (2) Dravidian language families and (3) Sino-Tibetan language families.
(1) Austrian language families:
The Austro-Asiatic (Austronesian) language families include the dialects 'Munda' and 'Kali'.
The Austrian tribes of Central and East India do not include the language of the tribes of our country.
(2) Dravidian language families:
Dravidian language families include Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam.
The Dravidian language families include the 'God' of Andhra, the 'Kadar', the 'Isla', the 'Chechu', the 'Toda' of South India.
(3) Sino-Tibetan language families:
The Sino-Tibetan language families include Tibetan, Burmese, and Siamese Chinese.
Darjeeling is a mountainous region of the Himalayas where the Sino-Tibetan language is spoken by the aboriginal tribes.
6. In terms of gender elements:
These include physical features of sex elements such as head, nose, skull density, size, etc.
Many scholars in India have included skin and eye color, hair texture, fur, lips, etc. in physical symptoms.