Which one of the following states has the lowest percentage of Scheduled Tribes population as the percentage of its total population according to Census 2011?

Uttar Pradesh is the correct answer. In Census 2011, Scheduled Tribes made up about 0.6 per cent of UP's population, roughly 11.3 lakh people in a state of nearly 20 crore. That is the lowest share among the four options.

• Bihar: about 1.3 per cent ST population. Higher than UP, though still small.
• Tamil Nadu: about 1.1 per cent. Higher than UP, and its tribes (Irula, Kota, Toda and others) are concentrated in the Nilgiris and hill areas.
• Kerala: about 1.5 per cent, the highest of the four. Paniya, Kurichiya and Adiya are among its major tribes.

The core concept is the regional distribution of tribal population. Tribal shares are concentrated in central and western India (Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat), while the Gangetic plain has very low shares. For Mains, this links to Article 342 (notification of STs), Article 244 with the Fifth and Sixth Schedules, and PESA, which matter for tribal development policy.

Trap: aspirants often mix up Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, or assume that southern states, with their hill tribes in news, must have higher ST shares than UP.