Indian Council of Social Science Research

(Under its Special Research Programme)

Odisha Research Centre, Bhubaneswar

Guidelines for Multi-Disciplinary Studies on Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups

(PVTGs) of India (2024-25)

Introduction:
1. India's tribal communities occupy approximately 15% of the country’s land area, spread
across diverse ecological and climatic zones. These communities exhibit remarkable cultural
diversity, systems of self-governance, and traditional livelihoods. The Constitution of India
acknowledges their distinctiveness and specific needs, by extending special protections to them
under Schedules V and VI. While several tribal groups have integrated into mainstream society,
many, especially the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs), remain on the margins
of socio-economic development. India is home to 75 PVTGs residing in 18 States, and Union
Territory of Andaman & Nicobar Islands.

As one of the most marginalized and vulnerable sections of Indian society, PVTGs face unique
challenges that require targeted research. Despite numerous policy interventions, significant
gaps persist in understanding their socio-economic, cultural, and ecological realities. A focused
empirical research initiative can help bridge these gaps, leading to more effective policies and
programs.

In alignment with, India’s commitment to inclusive development and the Sustainable

Development Goals (SDGs) the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) invites
research project proposals under the theme "Multi-Disciplinary Studies on Particularly
Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) of India" with a goal to generate actionable insights that
support evidence-based policymaking for sustainable development. This call particularly
encourages extensive fieldwork-based ethnographic and insightful data collection and
interpretations on PVTGs.
1.1.Research proposals must focus on the priority areas identified by ICSSR, which include the
followings:

• Decolonising the Framework to study PVTGs in India

• PVTGs & the Problem of Nomenclature
• PVTGs in the Bharat’s Civilisational Tradition and Context
• PVTGs & Demographic Dynamics
• PVTGs & Cultural Heritage and Indigenous Knowledge Systems
• PVTGs & Art, Culture, and Folk/Oral Compositions
• PVTGs &Traditional Medicine and Healing Practices
• PVTGs & Indigenous Disaster Resilience and Weather Knowledge
• PVTGs & Environmental, Forest and Livelihood Dynamics
• PVTGs & Government Policies and Programs
• PVTGs & their Language
• PVTGs & the Impact of ‘Modernisation’
• PVTGs & Religious Conversion
• PVTGs & Educational Institutions

1.2. Researchers are encouraged to focus on a single PVTG to develop a comprehensive

database specific to that group. They may explore multiple themes within a single
project proposal.
1.3. Methodology: The proposed research on Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs)
of India (2024-25) requires a participatory framework that integrates both qualitative and
quantitative methods. Researchers are expected to design methodologies that holistically
explore the socio-economic, cultural, and ecological dimensions of PVTG communities.
Proposals should emphasize the collection of empirical data informed by real-life
experiences, personal narratives, and the living practices of individuals and communities.
Scholars shall adopt a sensitive and culturally contextualised comprehensive understanding
of PVTGs, effectively addressing the diverse themes outlined in the research call.

2. ELIGIBILITY
2.1 Researchers who are permanently employed or retired as faculty from UGC Recognized
Indian Universities/Deemed to be Universities/ Affiliated Colleges/Institutions under
(2) F or 12(B), ICSSR Research Institutes, ICSSR Recognised Institutes and Institutes
 of National Importance as defined by the Ministry of Education (MoE) are eligible to
apply. Applicants from these institutions should have substantial research experience
demonstrable through publications of books / research papers / reports. The Project
Director and Co-Project Directors must also hold a Ph.D. Degree and belong to the field
of Social and Human Sciences.
2.2 In exceptional cases, Independent researchers with PhD degrees in Social and Human
Sciences, who are not affiliated permanently with any institution mentioned in Clause
2.1 but have produced at least two sole-author books published by reputed publishers
and/or 05 articles in peer-reviewed journals can also be considered as Co-Project
Directors. Such scholars will be required to collaborate with a faculty from institutions
given in 2.1 above.
2.3 Further, those researchers with PhD degrees who are in contractual appointment in
academic/research institutions mentioned in Clause 2.1 and have produced at least two
sole-author books published by reputed publishers and/or 05 articles in peer-reviewed
journals may also apply as Co-Project Directors. In the event of their contract expiry,
they may continue as Co-Project Directors until the completion of the project.
2.4 Senior and retired government and defence officers (having not less than 05 years of
regular service) possessing a Ph. D. degree in any social science discipline and having
produced at least two sole-author books published by reputed publishers and/or 05
articles in peer-reviewed journals can also apply as Co-Project Directors, in
collaboration with a faculty from institutions given in 2.1 above.
2.5 Non-academic participants/stakeholders/local community may also be part of the
research team in the capacity of Key Informant.

3. HOW TO APPLY
3.1 Applicants must submit an online application, including the research proposal,
annexures, and other required documents, in the prescribed format. Any deviations from
the application format will result in rejection. The application must be duly forwarded
by the competent authorities of the affiliating institution.
3.2 Research proposals should either be in English or Hindi. Arial/ Mangal Unicode
(Devanagari) font should be used to fill Application form in Hindi.
3.3 Researchers may apply for only one project at a time. Multiple applications by the
same applicant, including those submitted under modified names or with different titles,
 will result in rejection. For any ongoing or completed project with the ICSSR, the
cooling-off period for applying to another project will be one year for the Project
Director. The date of cooling period will be calculated from the date of submission of
the final report. However, this will not be applicable for minor projects/short-term
empirical research projects of duration equal to or less than 12 months. For ICSSR
Research Institutes, the cooling period will not be applicable.
3.4 The application form must include:
a) Research proposal
b) Forwarding letter from the institution
c) Institution recognition certificate (as per guidelines)
d) Employment certificate of the Principal Investigator (PI) and Co-Principal
Investigator (Co-PI)
e) Ph.D. certificates of the PI and Co-PI
f) Comprehensive CV of the PD
g) Bio-data of Co-PD

4. DURATION AND BUDGET

4.1 This call falls under the Major Project category, with a project duration of 24 months
and an allocated budget of ₹30.00 lakh.

5. PROCEDURE FOR AWARDS

5.1 The award process will proceed through multiple phases before final results are
declared. Applications submitted to ICSSR will undergo screening and evaluation by
an expert committee through a blind review process. Shortlisted applicants will be
invited for interaction or presentation at ICSSR, either in person or online.
5.2 The expert committee will recommend the studies to be awarded and suggest budgets
for the proposed projects after interactions with shortlisted applicants.
5.3 A merit list of selected candidates will be published on the ICSSR website.
5.4 Only selected candidates and their affiliating universities will receive individual
notifications via a provisional award letter, detailing the required formalities and
documents for joining the project.
5.5 The merit list of selected candidates of Projects will be published on the ICSSR website.
 5.6 Only the selected candidates and their affiliating universities shall be informed
individually through a provisional award letter clearly specifying the formalities and
documents required for joining the Project.
5.7 Incomplete applications in any respect will not be considered.
5.8 No queries will be entertained by the ICSSR Secretariat/Division until the final
declaration of results against the call. Any lobbying for award will lead to
disqualification.

6. BUDGET AND HEADS OF EXPENDITURE

6.1 The amount will be disbursed in instalments, depending on the funds, phases and
duration of the study, as indicated in the Award Letter/Sanction Order. The detailed
budget estimates along with the proportionate Heads of Expenditure for these proposals
are to be prepared by the Project Director.
6.2 Allocation of Heads of Expenditure
A. The remuneration for the Research Staff must be according to the ICSSR guidelines.
B. The proportionate allocation of expenditure for the budget heads such as Fieldwork
(Travel / Logistics / Boarding, Survey Preparation or Consultancy etc.); Equipment and
Study material (Computer, Printer, Source Material, Books, Journals, Software, Data
Sets etc.), Workshop/Seminar/Publication and Contingency charges etc. shall be as per
the ICSSR guidelines given below;

Detailed budget breakup for the proposed allocation

S. Heads of Expenditure Value (Rs.)

No.
1. Research Staff: Full time/part time/ Not exceeding 45% of the total
Hired services budget
2. Field work Not exceeding 35%

3. Research Equipment and study Not exceeding 10%

material (Computer, Printer etc.)
4. Contingency Not exceeding 5%

5. Workshop/ Seminar/Publication Approx. 5%

 *This will be decided by the ICSSR
depending upon the requirements
of the project.
Grand Total 100%
*The project investigator may with the permission of the institution re-appropriate
expenditure from one sub-head to another subject to a maximum of 10% of the
particular budget heads. If the study necessitates re-appropriation beyond 10% it may
be done only after the approval of the ICSSR.
C. Affiliating Institutional Overhead Charges @ 10% over and above on the awarded grant
of the project, subject to a maximum limit of Rs.2, 00,000/- for the Project will be
released by the ICSSR after successful completion of the project.
6.3 Project Staff shall be engaged/appointed as per the rules by the affiliating institution
of the Project Director on a full/ part-time basis during the research work. The duration
may be decided by the project director. The consolidated monthly
remuneration/emoluments of the project staff must be according to the following
guidelines:
Project Monthly Qualifications
staff Remuneration
/ Emoluments
Research Rs. 47, 000/- Post graduate in social science discipline
Associate (55% minimum) with NET /M.Phil. / Ph.D.
and 2 years research experience as a
Research Assistant in any Project.
Research Rs. 37, 000/- Post graduate in social science
Assistant discipline (55% minimum) with NET
/M.Phil. / Ph.D.
Field Rs. 20, 000/- Post graduate in social science
Investigato discipline with minimum 55%
r marks.
6.4 Selection of Research Staff should be done through an advertisement published on
respective institute’s website and a selection committee, duly approved by the
Competent Authority of the institution, consisting of (1) Project Director; (2) One
external subject Expert (from outside the institute where the project is located); (3)
 Dean of the faculty in case of University /Principal in case of College and (4) Head
of the Department of the Project Director.

6.5 For all field work related expenses of Project Director, Co-Project Director(s) and
project personnel, rules of affiliating institutes/universities shall be applied.

6.6 All equipment and books purchased out of the project fund shall be the property of
the affiliating institution, and a detailed stock report duly signed by the Head of the
Institute / Registrar / Principal has to be submitted to the ICSSR. However, ICSSR
may ask for books and/ or equipment if it so requires.

7. JOINING AND RELEASE OF GRANTS

7.1 The Project Director has to join the project as per the date of commencement notified
by the ICSSR by submitting the requisite documents such as an ‘undertaking’ on an
Rs.100 stamp paper duly verified by a notary, declaration in prescribed format on a
Rs.100 stamp paper duly verified by a notary, Grant-in-Aid bill towards the first
instalment on or before the given deadline and Registration Mandate Form of PFMS
Account of those affiliating / administering institutions, which have not linked their
accounts to PFMS for ICSSR grant. The joining period can be extended only in
exceptional circumstances up to a maximum of three months by the ICSSR.
7.2 The total awarded grant for the Research Project will be released to the affiliating
institution in instalments as indicated in the Award Letter/Sanction Order.
7.3 The Overhead Charges to the affiliating institution will be released after the acceptance
of Final Report along with the receipt of the final audited Statement of Accounts and
Utilisation Certificate in prescribed formats, which shall be verified by the ICSSR.
7.4 The Project Director will ensure that the expenditure incurred by him/her conforms to
the approved budget heads and relevant rules. The Audited Statement of accounts with
Utilization Certificate in form 12A of GFR is mandatory for the entire approved amount
for the project.

8. MONITORING OF RESEARCH PROJECTS

8.1 Research undertaken by a Project Director will be monitored through the submission of
periodic progress reports in the prescribed format. The project may be
discontinued/terminated if research progress is found unsatisfactory or if any ICSSR
 rules are violated. In such cases, the entire amount must be refunded with a 10% penal
interest.
8.2 The scholar/awardee must acknowledge the support of ICSSR in all their publications
resulting from the project output such as Research Papers, Journal Articles, and Articles
in edited Books etc., and they must submit a copy of the same to the ICSSR during the
course of or after completion of the project. In case of absence of acknowledgement by
the scholars, they will be blacklisted and they will not be able to apply for any schemes
of ICSSR in the future. Papers published in Conference/Seminar proceedings will not
be considered as they are not peer reviewed. However, proceedings published by
Scopus indexed / UGC care listed journals can be considered.
8.3 All project related queries will be addressed to the Project Director/ Affiliating
Institution for their timely reply.
8.4 The ICSSR may, at any time, ask for verification of accounts and other relevant
documents related to the Project.
8.5 The ICSSR reserves the right to change the affiliating institute if it is found that the
affiliating institute is not co-operating with the scholar and it is not facilitating timely
completion of the study.
8.6 Final report submitted by the Project Director is mandatorily evaluated by an Expert
appointed by the ICSSR before considering the release of the final instalment.
8.7 The Project Director shall be personally responsible for the timely completion of the
Project. The project proposal/final report cannot be submitted for the award of any
University degree/diploma or funding by any institution by any member of the project
staff, including the Project Director. However, ICSSR will have no objection if any
member of the project staff utilizes the project data for research purpose, provided there
are due acknowledgements to ICSSR.
8.8 If the researchers do not submit the requisite documents and the final report in time or
the project is not completed in the stipulated period, the scholars will be blacklisted and
the legal recourse will be initiated for recovery of released grant.
8.9 As per the directions of the Ministry of Education (MoE), the amount of grant
sanctioned is to be utilized within the stipulated duration of the project. Any amount of
the grant remaining unspent shall be refunded to the ICSSR immediately on expiry of
the duration of the project. If the Project Director fails to utilize the grant for the purpose
for which the same has been sanctioned/or fails to submit the audited statement of
 expenditure within the stipulated period, the he/she will be required to refund the
amount of the grant with interest thereon @ 10% per annum.
9. COMPLETION OF THE STUDY
9.1.On completion of the study, the Project Director should submit:
a) Two hard copies of the Final report along with softcopy in both PDF and word
formats;
b) Two hard copies of abstract in 500 words along with softcopy in both PDF and
word formats;
c) Two hard copies of Executive Summary of the final report in 5000 words along
with softcopy in both PDF and word formats;
d) Similarity index sheet (Plagiarism check) for the final report.

9.2.If the expert suggests any changes in the reports at the time of evaluation, the Project
Director shall incorporate the changes within stipulated time and should submit the
following:

a) Soft copy of modified final report in both PDF and word formats along with two
hard copies;
b) Two hard copies of executive summary;
c) Softcopies of (if any) Data Sets, along with well-defined definition of data and
other important information for documentation.

9.3.ICSSR gets every report checked for plagiarism and the similarity report is also
generated. As a policy, ICSSR does not accept reports having similarity beyond 10
per cent on similarity index. Scholars are required to get their final report checked
from their affiliating institutions for similarity index and attach a certified report of
the same at the time of submission.
9.4.The final report submitted by the scholar will be considered as satisfactory only after
final recommendation of acceptance by the expert appointed by the ICSSR.
10. OBLIGATIONS OF THE AFFILIATING INSTITUTION
10.1. The affiliating institution is required to give an undertaking in the prescribed
format contained in the Application Form to administer and manage the ICSSR grant.
10.2. It is also required to provide the requisite research infrastructure to the scholar
and maintain proper accounts.
 10.3. The affiliating institution shall open / maintain a dedicated bank account
for ICSSR grant (Scheme Code-0877) that is duly registered at EAT Module of
PFMS portal for release of the grant without any delay. This account should be
retained for all projects awarded by ICSSR.
10.4. The affiliating institution will be under obligation to ensure submission of the
final report and an Audited Statement of Accounts and Utilization Certificate, (in the
prescribed Proforma GFR 12-A) duly certified by the competent authority of the
institution including the refund of any unspent balance.
10.5. The affiliating institution shall make suitable arrangements for preservation of
data such as filled-in schedules, tabulation sheets, manuscripts, reports, etc. relating to
the study. The ICSSR reserves the right to demand raw data, or such parts of the study
as it deems fit.
10.6. In case a Project Director leaves / discontinues the project before completion of
the tenure, the affiliating institution shall inform ICSSR immediately and refund the
entire amount with a penal interest @ 10% per annum. The unutilised funds pending
with the institutions for all projects must be returned to the ICSSR immediately. In case
the universities/ institutions do not abide by the rules of the ICSSR, they shall be
blacklisted for applying in schemes of ICSSR in the future.
10.7. In case a Project Director dies before the completion of the project, the
affiliating institution shall immediately inform ICSSR by submitting a copy of the death
certificate and settle the accounts immediately by expediting refund of any unspent
balance.
11. OTHER CONDITIONS
11.1 The duration of the project includes the time for Final Report writing. In
exceptional circumstances, if the ICSSR is satisfied with the progress of the work,
including quality publications, an extension may be granted (up to three months for
Minor Projects & up to six months for Major Projects) without any additional grant. In
case, the extension is needed beyond the above-mentioned period, the matter will be
put up to the competent authority of ICSSR for a decision. If the extension is required,
the Project Director needs to request at least three months prior to the end of stipulated
tenure for no-cost extension with a copy of the progress report and reasons for the delay
with documentary evidence. Retrospective extension will not be permitted.
11.2 The contingency grant may be utilized for stationery, computer typing related
costs, specialised assistance such as data analysis and consultation for field trip etc.,
related to the research work.
11.3 Defaulters of any previous fellowship/project/programme/grant of the ICSSR
will not be eligible for consideration. No scholar will be allowed to take up a research
project along with any ICSSR fellowship.
11.4 Foreign trip is not permissible within the awarded budget of a project. However,
the Project Director may undertake data collection outside India in exceptional cases
and if warranted by the needs of the proposal. For this he/she is required to apply
separately for consideration under the Data Collection Scheme of the ICSSR
International Collaboration Division. However, ICSSR will not be bound to support
such data collection from abroad and the decision of the ICSSR will be final. In either
case, the completion of study should not be consequent upon such data collection
support.
11.5 Any request for additional grant in excess of the sanctioned budget will not be
considered.
11.6 The procurement of equipment/assets for the research project is allowed only if
it was originally proposed, does not surpass the permissible amount, and adheres to
the regulations of the affiliating institution.
11.7 The project director cannot make any changes in the research design at any
stage.
11.8 Regarding Transfer of a Project/Appointment of substitute Project Director:
a) On the request from a university/institute, the ICSSR may permit the appointment
of a Substitute Project Director in exceptional circumstances.
b) The ICSSR may also appoint a Substitute Project Director if it is convinced that
the original awardee of the Project will not be in a position to carry out the study
successfully.
c) The ICSSR may transfer the place of the Project from one affiliating institution to
another subject to submission of the following:
i. Satisfactory progress report (s);
ii. No objection certificate from both previous and the new university/institute;
iii. Audited statement of account and utilization certificate along with unspent
balance, if any.
 iv. However, no transfer of project / Project director should be requested in the
last six months of the study.
d) Overhead charges will be apportioned proportionally among the institutes as per
the grant released or as may be finally decided by the ICSSR.
e) In case of superannuation of Project Director and if the rules of the institution so
require, the transfer of the project to a serving faculty member may be done with
prior approval of the ICSSR. The credit of Project shall belong to the original
Project Director.
11.9 The Council reserves the right to reject any application without assigning any
reason. It will not be responsible for any postal delays/loss.
11.10 The final authority related to the interpretation of the guidelines or any issue left
is vested with the ICSSR.
11.11 The ICSSR retains all rights to publish any project funded by it, contingent upon
the recommendation by expert(s) appointed by ICSSR for publication. Copyright for
the final report and outcomes of the project shall be held by ICSSR. Any publication
or dissemination of research findings shall solely be at the discretion of ICSSR.
**********