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18-464: The Shompen are designated as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group within the list of Scheduled Tribe . "Shompen" is possibly an English mispronunciation of "Shamhap", the Nicobarese name for the tribe. The Shompens living on the western side of the island call themselves Kalay , and those on the eastern side Keyet , with both groups referring to each other as Buavela . A suggestion from 1886 that

36-413: A "Hong Kong India" with airport, an international port and industrial park. This may impact 1,700 people including many Shompens. Also this project will increase non-local population on the island which will affect the ethnicity of Shompens. Particularly vulnerable tribal group A particularly vulnerable tribal group or PVTG (previously known as a primitive tribal group), in the context of India,

54-446: A child is grown enough, he makes his own hut. The lowland Shompen build their huts on stilts and the walls are made of woven material on a wood frame and the roof of thatched palm fronds, and the structure is raised on stilts. The highland Shompen build their houses on the ground, and the houses are made of the same materials as the raised houses. The interior is covered with mats, with sleeping mats on one end and tools and utensils hung on

72-634: A dozen closely related Austroasiatic languages , spoken by most of the inhabitants of the Nicobar Islands of India . They have a total of about 30,000 speakers (22,100 native). Most Nicobarese speakers speak the Car language . Paul Sidwell (2015:179) considers the Nicobarese languages to subgroup with Aslian . The Nicobarese languages appear to be related to the Shompen language of the indigenous inhabitants of

90-502: Is a short, thin loincloth made of bark cloth , covering only the genitals without a 'tail' of cloth in front. Decoration is limited for men, consisting of bead necklaces and armbands . Women wear a knee-length skirt of bark cloth, occasionally with a shawl of bark cloth covering the shoulders. Decorations include bamboo ear plugs ( ahav ), bead necklaces ( naigaak ) and armbands of bamboo ( geegap ). Both sexes are barefoot . The Shompen probably learned to make and use bows from

108-470: Is a sub-classification of Scheduled Tribe or section of a Scheduled Tribe, that is considered more vulnerable than a regular Scheduled Tribe . The PVTG list was created by the Indian Government with the purpose of better improving the living standards of endangered tribal groups based on priority. PVTGs reside in 18 states and one union territory. The Dhebar Commission (1960-1961) found that within

126-475: Is practice of hunting and gathering, zero or negative population growth, and extremely low levels of literacy in comparison with other tribal groups. Groups that satisfied any of the criteria were considered to be a Primitive Tribal Group. At the conclusion of the Fifth Five year plan, 52 communities were identified as being a "primitive tribal group" based on recommendations made by Indian state governments. At

144-411: The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami , the villages were home to 103 and 106 Shompens respectively. However, by the time of 2011 census, only 10 and 44 people were left in these villages respectively. They practice a hunter-gatherer subsistence economy. In keeping with the tropical climate of the islands, traditional attire includes only clothing below the waist. The traditional attire for men

162-469: The Scheduled Tribe classification an inequality existed in the rate of development of certain tribes over others. As a result in the fourth Five Year Plan the sub-category "Primitive tribal group" was created within the grouping of Scheduled Tribe to identify groups considered to be especially lacking in modern development. The features of such a group include a pre-agricultural system of existence, that

180-563: The Indian population. The Shompen languages , of which there are at least two, are very little known, but appear to be unrelated to Nicobarese , an isolated group of Austroasiatic languages , and perhaps even to each other. They may constitute a language isolate . Paul Sidwell (2017) classifies Shompen as a Southern Nicobaric language, rather than a separate branch of Austroasiatic. Due to proposed Great Nicobar Development Plan , hectares of land on Great Nicobar Island will be reclaimed to build

198-688: The Nicobaris. The main weapons are the bow and arrow . They do not use quivers but carry arrows by hand. Numerous types of spears , spear throwers , fire drills and a hatchet are the main tools. A man usually carried a bow and arrows, a spear and through his loincloth belt, a hatchet, knife and fire drill. The Shompen are a hunter-gatherer subsistence people, hunting wild game such as pigs, birds and small animals while foraging for fruits and forest foods. They also keep pigs and farm yams , roots, vegetables, and tobacco . Shompen huts are built to house 4 people, and villages are made up of 4 to 5 families. Once

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216-545: The Shompen call themselves Shab Daw'a has not been confirmed by modern research. Before the first outside contact with the Shompen in the 1840s, there is no reliable information about these people. Danish Admiral Steen Bille was the first to contact them in 1846 and Frederik Adolph de Roepstorff , a British officer who had already published works on the languages of Nicobar and Andaman, collected ethnographic and linguistic data in 1876. Since then very little has been added to

234-614: The conclusion of the Sixth Five year plan 20 additional groups were added and 2 more were added in the Seventh Five year plan and finally one more group was added in the eighth five-year plan, for a total 75 groups were identified as Primitive Tribal Group. 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

252-478: The government of India changed the name of "Primitive tribal group" to "Particularly vulnerable tribal group" PTG has since been renamed Particularly vulnerable tribal group by the government of India. Until 2018 Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups were not allowed contraceptive use by the Indian Government because of their often declining or stagnant population growth. Based on the assumption that allowing them to use contraception would hamper efforts to increase

270-490: The interior of Great Nicobar Island (Blench & Sidwell 2011), which is usually considered a separate branch of Austroasiatic. However, Paul Sidwell (2017) classifies Shompen as a Southern Nicobaric language rather than as a separate branch of Austroasiatic. The morphological similarities between Nicobarese and Austronesian languages have been used as evidence for the Austric hypothesis (Reid 1994). From north to south,

288-570: The size of their populations. However in 2018 the High Court of Chhattisgarh in a Public Interest Litigation found this to be a violation of their right to privacy and ruled that they had the right to contraceptives. The PVTG of Chhattisgarh got these rights amidst concerns of family planning amongst many of them particularly the Baigas. Nicobarese languages The Nicobarese languages or Nicobaric languages , form an isolated group of about half

306-502: The stock of reliable information on the Shompen, mainly because access to the Nicobar Islands has been restricted for foreign researchers since Indian independence. A polling station was set up in their area for election of 2014. Shompen people for the first time participated in the democratic process. In 2001, the population was estimated at approximately 300. Shompen Village-A and Shompen Village-B are home to most Shompens. Before

324-468: The walls and rafters. Cooking is done outside. In the late 1980s, the Shompens were living in ten groups, ranging in size from 2 to 22 individuals, scattered across the interior of the island. Because of their isolated way of life in the interior of the island, the Shompens were largely protected from the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami that devastated the coastal regions inhabited by Nicobaris and

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