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Abstract The Scheduled tribes, since ages, have been victims of socio-economic exploitation and have been relegated to low income generating occupations, inferior trades, unhealthy environment and unclean unskilled occupations. Although clear untouchable practices may be declining in many parts of the country, caste rigidities continue to confine many Schedule Tribe workers in demeaning occupations, which put them at a disadvantage when compared to other communities. The forces of urbanization, social and protective legislations, positive discrimination and other measures taken by the Government, have led to gradual improvement in occupational mobility and living standards over the years, but the living conditions of the majority of Scheduled Tribes continue to show socio-economic backwardness. The introduction of money economy has left them to the tender mercies of money-lenders leading to their chronic indebtedness. However, these broad generalisations may not be applicable to all the tribes of a vast country like India. Therefore, a study of the impact of institutional finance on the economic development of tribals at a micro level, confined to a district, seem to be most appropriate. The micro study can mark out areas of success as well as failure and also point out the deficiencies in the formulation of policy and in the implementation of the programme. The present study attempts to examine the distribution of borrowers of the tribals of the Visakhapatnam district in Andhra Pradesh.