Scheduled castes (SCs) and scheduled tribes (STs, Adivasi) are Indian communities that are accorded special status by the Constitution of India.
These communities were considered "outcastes", and were excluded from the Chaturvarna system that was the descriptive social superstructure of Hindu society in the Indian subcontinent for thousands of years. These communities had traditionally been relegated to the most menial labour with no possibility of upward mobility, and subject to extensive social disadvantage and exclusion, in comparison to the wider community. Lacking opportunities for educational, social and economic growth, they could not integrate with rest of the society. The scheduled-caste peoples are also known as Dalits; scheduled-tribe people are also referred to as Adivasis.

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