207 Chapter 10 Inclusions and Exclusions of Tribal Narratives in the Indian Education Policies of lIndia: Challenges and Prospects Lina Pegu Tata Instinute of Social Science, India ABSTRACT The COVID-19 siuation in India exposed the deep social and economic divide that exists within. Revealing these existing inequities and vulnerabilities, the pandemic situation critically questions what this difvde means for the already marginalized communities in India. Thefounding fathers of the Indian Constitution foresaw the profound challenge of creating social, political, and economic equity with huge diversity. They saw education with development as a solution to create a just sociery. Therefore, the structures of reservation and economic support were built into the Constitution. However, these government policies of development and education were intensely geared towards integration as a nation-building exercise. Meanwhile, access to education is still provisional, subject to factors like lack of infrastructure, and that access is not always enough for emancipation. Through this chapter, the nation-building exercise will be critically examined in the light of diversiry and the missing narratives of the consent of marginal citizens through the post-colonial lens. INTRODUCTION India is a multicultural society with profound social, economic, and political differences. These differ- ences grow complex, especially with immense diversity existing both within minority discourses and outside i.e., the national discourses on tribes as listed in the Scheduled Caste/ Scheduled Tribe (SC/ ST) list of the Indian Constitution. How the tribal groups are identified, categorized and then integrated nto the social, political, and economic structures is intensely embedded in the construction of the term and also in the national policies of development and education. These national programs of government DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-8025-7.ch010 OpyTight 2022, 1GI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without wrilen permission of lGI Global is prohibited.