Particularly vulnerable tribal group (PVTG) (earlier: Primitive tribal group) is a government of India classification created with the purpose of enabling improvement in the conditions of certain communities with particularly low development indices.
The Dhebar Commission (1960-1961) stated that within Scheduled Tribes there existed an inequality in the rate of development. During the fourth Five Year Plan a sub-category was created within Scheduled Tribes to identify groups that considered to be at a lower level of development. This was created based on the Dhebar Commission report and other studies. This sub-category was named "Primitive tribal group". The features of such a group include a pre-agricultural system of existence, that is practice of hunting and gathering, zero or negative population growth, extremely low level of literacy in comparison with other tribal groups.
Groups that satisfied any one of the criterion were considered as PTG. At the conclusion of the Fifth Five year plan, 52 communities were identified as being a "primitive tribal group", these communities were identified on the basis of recommendations made by the respective state governments. At the conclusion of the Sixth Five year plan 20 groups were added and 2 more in the Seventh Five year plan, one more group was added in the eighth five-year plan, making a total 75 groups were identified as PTG. The 75th group recognised as PTG were the Maram in Manipur in 1993-94. No new group was declared as PTG on the basis of the 2001 census.
In 2006 the government of India proposed to rename "Primitive tribal group" as Particularly vulnerable tribal group". PTG has since been renamed Particularly vulnerable tribal group by the government of India.
NAME OF THE PARTICULARLY VULNERABLE TRIBAL GROUPS (PTGs) (EARLIER CALLED AS PRIMITIVE TRIBAL GROUPS) - STATES / UT WISE.