ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the experiences of decentralisation under successive political regimes in Kerala in the context of neoliberal policies and an eroding Kerala model, with reference to the impact on the lives of adivasi communities. It analyses recent trends in decentralised planning in the changing political context with reference to adivasi communities. Contestational politics and conflicts of values and ideologies are essential elements of democracy. While controversies over the decentralised planning approach abound, people task is to analyse the ways in which decentralised planning contributed to the socioeconomic and political empowerment of the adivasis. The chapter examines the emerging trends in decentralisation and neoliberal policies and their implications for indigenous communities in Kerala. The changing politics and their consequences for the indigenous people take everyone to the question of how compatible the neoliberal policy of increasing state withdrawal from social and economic sectors is with India's constitutional provisions.
