ABSTRACT
Maharashtra incorporates, in the Bombay area, some of the greatest wealth of India and, in the countryside, some of its most severe poverty. This chapter outlines the development of tribal poverty in Dhule and Thane Districts. Among the poorest people in Maharashtra are the 2,954,000 members of the Scheduled Tribes, or "adivasis," as they are known in Maharashtra. Although the adivasis comprise only six percent of the total population of Maharasthra, their numbers are significantly higher in some districts. The tribals of Maharashtra, like the tribals in Srikakulam, have a long history of exploitation at the hands of outsiders who took advantage of their poverty and their naivete. Symington found the tribals to be "degraded, timid and exploited," "chronically victimized by moneylenders," and insufficiently fed and clothed. Government inadvertently aided the development of tribal poverty. According to the Marathi journal Magowa, in 1970-71 4,540 tribal families in Maharashtra lost 20,060 acres to government projects.
