The News Minute | January 10, 2015 | 8.32 am ISTThe Kerala Police has created 200 posts of constables for tribals, a state minister said Friday.Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala said this is the first time that such a special recruitment drive for the tribal community is being carried out."This has been a long-standing demand of the tribal community in our state. Various representations to this effect have been made for this. The selection process would be done through the Public Service Commission and certain relaxations would be made in the educational qualifications for candidates to apply," Chennithala told IANS.According to the latest Economic Review published by the Kerala government, the scheduled tribe population in the state stands at 4,84,839 that constitutes around 1.45 per cent of the 32 million Kerala population.The hilly districts of Wayanad with 31.24 percent and Idukki with 11.51 percent are the two leading districts with the maximum population of the tribal community.The tribals have been demanding for long that they should also get government jobs. We felt that their demand was quite genuine. Hence we decided to go forward with this special recruitment drive in the police department, added Chennithala.A 2010 survey of 78 out of the 83 Kerala government departments showed that there were 320 gazetted officers, 3,377 non gazetted officers and 766 last grade employees from the tribal community.The 200 tribals recruits will join the Kerala Police this year itself, said Chennithala.IANS