Sustainable Pathways

The indigenous and sustainable knowledge possessed by the tribal people and communities plays an extremely important role in the conservation of the climate. As per the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), tribal communities play an important role in preserving traditional knowledge, culture, food practices and textiles. The remains of the Indus Valley civilisation highlight the importance of the culture and religion. Animism and the worship of nature to achieve success in routines and tasks have been practised by these tribes for centuries. India is a mosaic of more than 705 different colourful tribes, and each of these tribes has their own identity that differentiates it from the other tribes. With increasing ecological complexities, the knowledge owned by the tribes is extremely useful in the preservation of the climate. This chapter seeks to explore the various hues and colours that constitute the mosaic of Indian tribal culture.

Developing economies like India have adopted the Sustainable Development Goals of sustainable cities and communities and reduced inequalities to achieve inclusive development and growth. Globally, the indigenous communities or tribals seek reparation for conflicts between proclaiming indigenous rights and claiming natural resources. There is little literature on challenges to the social inclusion of the tribes or the indigenous people. This literature review study aimed to (a) introduce the problem of social exclusion of indigenous people, (b) discuss the most researched dimensions of social inclusion of the tribal or indigenous people using relevant theoretical frameworks and (c) to develop conceptual frameworks on the theory of social inclusion of the indigenous people. PRISMA protocol was followed, and various tools were used for bibliographic management and text mining with 58 articles selected from 944 journals indexed in Web of Sciences. The analysis of the literature underscores four pivotal themes namely (1) the cultural identity of indigenous people, (2) the debate on the legitimacy of the rights of indigenous people rights and sustainable development, (3) factors impacting the social inclusion of the indigenous people and (4) coping strategies for the social inclusion of the indigenous people. The literature review highlights urgent needs to socially include indigenous and tribal people. Various factors impact the financial inclusion of the poor, including cognitive and affective factors. It is essential to leverage the skills and expertise of the local indigenous people for forest management and land management to ensure the social inclusion of the poor and tribes.

Despite the Vedic texts and Puranas mentioning the emergence of Varnas and caste classification system, the origin of caste based on occupation and how they became powerful is not yet clearly known. However, the guild system that existed in the past did have a positive impact on the origination of the castes and tribes. This chapter aims to study the powerful guild system to understand the origins of Varnas and castes in the ancient India.

Indian tribes have existed for time immemorial, and the tribals and indigenous people are extremely important for saving and getting command over the natural resources. There are various cognitive and affective factors that impact the existence of the tribes and the tribal people. There is not much information about what factors impact the inclusion of these tribes in the mainstream. The indigenous people are extremely important for the existence of the human kind, and this paper aims to explore the factors impacting the inclusion of the tribes.

Financial inclusion implies providing the access to finance for the people at the bottom of the pyramid. The financial inclusion of the rural people remains the challenge because the poor people, especially the tribal people, do not have knowledge and are financially illiterate. They cannot also bank and require specialised support to access financial capabilities. The marginalised people do not have access to finance, and the social collateral or the social capital enables the marginalised members to get access to finance.

The marginalised people at the bottom of the pyramid are unable to access finance due to the lack of collateral and physical property. The self-help group linkage programme enables the people at the bottom of the pyramid to finance through their social capital and social relationship. In a group, the liability for each of the members is limited, and the group assumes joint liability for loans taken by the members of group.

Self-help groups (SHGs) are formed by the tribal people to access finance through SHG bank linkage programme. The efforts to govern self-help groups (SHGs) are challenged by the absence of adequate bookkeeping and regular meetings, hindering effective governance despite all endeavors. The members of the groups are tribal people from the marginalised sections of society, and they are unable to maintain the books of accounts and keep track of their money because of illiteracy and banks being at far distance from their place of abode. Digitisation of SHGs has a vast impact on the efficiency of the groups and their financial sustainability. This chapter wishes to look at the digitisation initiative to transition the records of SHGs from manual to electronic mode, where the accounts will be visible to all the members. However, digital literacy is a big challenge, and this chapter aims to look at the challenges in digitisation of group.

Tribal communities play an extremely important role in the conservation of the natural resources including water and natural resources like air. Indian tribes have an extremely important role to play in the protection of the environment and vital resources. Due to the possession of the heritage knowledge, the tribal people are playing an extremely important role in the management of the natural resources. This chapter discusses about the various traditional practices adopted by the tribal groups in water conservation practices.

This chapter discusses about the role of social capital in providing access to the microfinance for the tribal people at the bottom of the pyramid. Marginalised people at the bottom of the pyramid do not have access to finance due to the problem of information asymmetry, and the community groups use the social capital to gain access to the physical capital and financial services. Due to the presence of the lemons and agency problem, the people at the bottom of pyramid are unable to be financially included. The social contract is operationalised through the use of the peer mechanism, and this helps in financial inclusion of the marginalised tribal people at the bottom of the pyramid. Thus, financial intermediation and financial inclusion play an important role in mitigating the woes of the marginalised tribal people who have been financially excluded from the financial system.

This study explores the profound influence of social and cultural factors on the financial conduct of indigenous tribes and groups. Anchored in Vygotsky's sociocultural theory, the analysis delves into the intricate interplay between cultural elements, such as bricolage, and the immediate availability of financial resources, illuminating their collective impact on the tribes' financial behaviour. Typically residing in proximity, these communities exhibit homogeneity by forming groups exclusive to their clans, lacking access to conventional financial services and tangible assets that dissuade banks from extending loans. Crucially, the social capital embedded within the group dynamics, often referred to as the peer mechanism, emerges as a pivotal conduit for members to secure capital and bank credit. The synergy of bricolage, representing the adept use of available social capital, facilitates access to finance and credit. Despite the existence of social capital and financial literacy programmes, a stark reality persists – a significant proportion of indigenous people remain financially excluded. This chapter endeavours to scrutinise the ramifications of these factors on tribal financial behaviour, employing the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) method. Proposing a paradigm shift in financial attitudes, the research underscores the imperative of fostering financial inclusion within indigenous tribes and communities.