The puzzle of underreporting disability among tribal population in India: is it a statistical artifact or reality?

India is undergoing a demographic transition, and so is the tribal population of India. The outcome of this is ageing, and ageing is associated with disability. The tribals are the most vulnerable and marginalized section, despite being significant in numbers, there has not been much exploration of disability among tribals and non-tribals. We used secondary data from the nationally representative, Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (2017–2018). Our sample size consisted of 64,417 adults ages 45 years and older. We defined the disability as having functional limitations. Regression analysis was done to examine the association between disability and caste. Further, to eliminate selection bias, we employed the propensity score matching. Also, lifestyle factors that may have a positive and negative impact on the functional health were analyzed. The results of the study found that the prevalence of functional limitation is lower among the tribal population. After controlling other socio-economic variables, we found that scheduled tribes have lower likelihood of functional limitations. Further, the propensity score matching was done to control for the observable group differences with respect to socioeconomic characteristics; the results still held true. We also found that the positive lifestyle was more prevalent among the tribal groups, which may have impacted their healthy living. The study empirically found that tribal population have lower disability in comparison to the non-tribal population in India. The tribal are more active physically and socially, which may reduce the level of functional disability.