The Scheduled Tribes constitute nearly 1.45 percent of Kerala’s population. However, their human development indicators are significantly lower than those of the mainstream population. Their female literacy rate is nearly 36 percent lower than that of the state as a whole. Poverty among them is nearly 2.5 times higher than that of the rural population. This reflects their inadequate access to resources considering their spatial settlements in forests, their socio-cultural specificities, and historical deprivation.