The term tribe or tribal is not defined anywhere in the Indian Constitution. According to Article 342, Scheduled Tribes (ST) are ethnic communities that are notified by the President of India. India’s tribes are not part of the traditional Hindu caste structure. They are more similar to the “indigenous” or “native people” in other parts of the world.

Tribal communities in India aren’t the same everywhere. Some 574 individual groups make up India’s tribal population. Different tribal groups are at different levels of social and economic development.

Realizing that Scheduled Tribes are one of the most deprived and marginalized groups with respect to education, a host of programs and measures were initiated since independence. Despite these initiatives, tribal development – particularly tribal education has not reached the desired levels. The high dropout rate among tribal students is a glaring example of the challenges that need to be addressed urgently if we are not intent upon leaving this vast segment of the population to fend for itself.

The fact that India has the single-largest tribal population in the world, constituting 8.6% of the population makes for a solemn case of upliftment via education. Even today, a considerable proportion of tribal children remain outside the school system. Hence Sister Margaret Foundation is doing so many programmes for the Development & upliftment of the Tribals like Education, Health, Food, Shelter etc and more over we are giving much more emphasis on some special areas like Purulia in West Bengal, some parts of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh and Andaman & Nicobar Island.