International Journal of Contemporary Research in Multidisciplinary

Tribal people are considered as the original inhabitants or Adivasis. In Kerala, they constitute nearly 1.5 percent of the total population of the state. There are 37 Scheduled tribal communities living in the state with greater concentration in Wayanad, Idukki, Palakkad, Kasaragod and Kannur districts. The livelihood status of the Kerala Tribes in general, are much higher than those of other Indian states. Yet, quite many of them suffer from several socio-economic and health issues in Kerala too. Even though both, the state and central governments have formulated several development programs and policies for the welfare of the tribal communities since Independence, there is still a vast gap between the tribal and the general population, though the extent of this gap is relatively low in Kerala as against the situation in the rest of India in varying degrees. Kerala has been in the forefront in taking progressive initiatives in several domains including the uplift of the tribal people. Aralam Tribal Rehabilitation Program is one of the largest such programmes in India to emerge as a model programme for the landless tribal people. The present paper is one of the outcomes of an ethnographic study, carried out as part of the Doctoral research carried out in Aralam Tribal Rehabilitation area, located in Kannur district, in the state of Kerala, India, with the aim to examine the major issues and challenges in the process of development efforts towards the tribal communities in the context of the Aralam Tribal Rehabilitation Programme.