Union minister for Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Shri Jual Oram said here today that the Ministry of Tribal Affairs is committed to make a comprehensive and all-encompassing development program for Scheduled Tribes. The present focus is to create an enabling ecosystem of equal opportunity for education, health and livelihood, and to ensure the sustainable development of the tribal community while preserving the unique identities and culture of these communities. Minister of State, Shri Mansukhbhai Dhanjibhai Vasava and Secretary, Dr. Hrusikesh Panda was also present.

Minister highlighted the following initiatives of Ministry of Tribal Affairs that have led to change in work culture for improved delivery of services to common people.

Strengthening of Institutions:

While a number of focused efforts have been undertaken for the development of tribals over the years, there remains a big gap in human development indices between Scheduled Tribes and other social groups. The capacity of tribal people to harness the fruits of development and the access of institutions which were mandated to facilitate the delivery of public goods and services to these people has remained limited. The Integrated Tribal Development Agencies were the institutions assigned with the role to facilitate such access. But over the years, several scheme-specific bodies at District level became stronger whereas ITDAs/ITDPs have become weak or non-existent in most of the states. Similarly, Tribal Research Institutes have become defunct in many states which were mandated to provide knowledge support to the institutions of tribal development for the policy planners. Urban areas have seen increasing number of tribal people but there is no agency to look after their special problems. During the current year, the Ministry has taken up strengthening of these institutions on priority and also to create new ones so that they can deliver goods and services more effectively. Under the existing scheme of SCA to TSP.

 Grants under Article 275(1) of the Constitution and the scheme of ‘Grant-in-Aid to Tribal Research Institutes’, the guidelines have been revised so that these institutions may be equipped with proper infrastructure and well-capacitated manpower to gear up process of implementation of activities commensurate with the agreed objectives as enshrined in the guidelines translated into the tangible outlines.

Umbrella scheme for Education of ST Children:

Educating the tribal children has been a challenge for the Government due to various socio-cultural, economic, ecological and administrative reasons. Our Ministry with its mandate to fill critical gap to tribal people envisaged a holistic scheme to cover all aspects of education by subsuming and re-engineering following schemes for educational development.

(a)    Establishing and strengthening of Ashram Schools.

(b)   Establishing and strengthening of Hostels.

(c)    Vocational training in tribal areas.

(d)   Post-Matric Scholarship.

(e)    Pre-Matric Scholarship.

The umbrella scheme would provide an opportunity to Ministry as well as States to consolidate their funds available for education. State would have flexibility to pick up the required components to fill up the critical gaps identified. The umbrella scheme would also help in better administration of these interventions.

Common portal for scholarship for higher studies

Our Ministry implements the scholarship schemes of Top Class Education to encourage meritorious students for pursuing studies at degree and post-degree level in any of the selected list of premier institutions. Another scheme namely ‘Rajiv Gandhi National Fellowship’ intended to provide fellowship in the form of financial assistance to students belonging to Scheduled Tribes to pursue higher studies such as MPhil and PhD. By simplifying the processes faster scholarship entitlements have been planned. A scholarship portal to provide a single window for applying, examining the cases by the authorities and final sanction and disbursement directly into the bank accounts of eligible students is being developed to implement the plan.This is expected to come into operation by beginning of November, 2014.

Scheduling of Tribes and change of guidelines:

There are several communities which are not included in the list of Scheduled Tribes and who claimthe status of Scheduled Tribe on grounds of similarities with those in the list. The present process for inclusion of a community under Scheduled Tribe is very cumbersome mainly because the Constitution has not explicitly prescribed any criteria for scheduling of communities as Scheduled Tribes. Some of these claiming communities were left out because of some historical mistakes like wrongly spelling them or due to phonetic variations mainly because of writing of vernacular names in Roman script. A task force constituted under the chairmanship of Secretary, Ministry of Tribal Affairs examined these issues in detail and submitted their recommendations to the Ministry of Tribal Affair. All the recommendations of the Task Force have been accepted by the Ministry. The broad principles and proposed revised guidelines are presently under the process of the Cabinet, which will be, in turn, sent to the Parliament for amendment in relevant law. One of the key recommendations of the Task Force is writing of the names of communities in Devnagri script so that the phonetic variation does not lead to confusion has cleared the test of legal validity by Law & Justice Department.

‘Mechanism for marketing of Minor Forest Produce (MFP) through Minimum Support Price (MSP) and Development of Value Chain for MFP’ as a measure of social safety for MFP gatherers.

An estimated 100 million forest dwellers, majority of whom are tribals, depend on the MFPs for food, shelter, medicine, cash income etc. Theprice of MFP is very often determined by the traders than by demand and supply. The scheme is initially implemented in States having areas under Schedule V of the Constitution for 12 MFPs namely (i) Tendu Leaves (ii) Bamboo (iii) Mahuwa seed (iv) Sal Leaf (v) Sal Seed (vi) Lac (vii) Chironjee (viii) Wild Honey (ix) Myrobalan (x) Tamarind (xi) Gums (Gum Karaya) and (xii) Karanj. The Ministry’s agency, TRIFED has hosted ‘MFPNET’, a web-based portal through which current price of MFPs can be known on real time basis across different Mandis of the different States.

Centres of Excellence

The Ministry supports strengthening active research in Universities and reputed institutions in order to involve them in a more focused, long term and policy-oriented work by recognizing them as Centres of Excellence and funding selective activities of theirs. Currently three institutions are functioning as COEs under the Ministry namely;

i) Tribal Research and Action Cell (TRAC) under National Institute of Rural Development, Hyderabad in the field of Local Governance and Rural Development relating to the Scheduled Tribes.

ii) Resource Center for Tribal Development (RCTD) under BAIF Development Research Foundation, Pune in the field of Rural Technologies for Improvement in Livelihood and Quality of Life, relating to the Scheduled Tribes.

iii) Bhasha Research and Publication Centre, Vadodra in the field of Information, Education and Communication, relating to the Scheduled Tribes.

The ministry has given in- principle approval for recognizing the Vishva Bharati, Shanti Niketan as the other Centre of Excellence in the field of Tribal Language and Literature.

Another proposal has been approved by the Ministry to establish a National Research Centre in the Tribal Research Institute, Bhubaneswar to promote research activities on subjects/ issues for socio-economicdevelopment and culture of STs.

Implementation of Forest Rights Act:

The Forest Rights Act is a landmark legislation to recognize the pre-existing rights of tribals and other traditional forest dwellers who are in occupation of forest land, but whose rights could not be recorded.  After more than six years of its implementation, by the end of June, 2014, more than 37.69 lakh claims have been filed.  Of these, 14.57 lakh Individual Rights titlesand more than 22,200 Community Forest Rights titles have been distributed covering a total area of 55.8 lakh acres of land. So far84 per cent of claim applications filed have been disposed of.

Partnering with NGOs for tribal development with special preference to Established Voluntary Agencies:

In remote tribal areas of different States and LWE affected areas where either the outreach of Government agencies is limited or the Government agencies are unable to function properly, the NGOs, with their local roots and sense of service, have joined hands with government to deliver public goods and services to the tribals living in those areas.  These days, with the mushrooming of NGOs in all sectors, it is difficult to recognize which are really committed towards their stated cause.  The Ministry has made an effort to identify some of the NGOs which have an all India character and are known for their selfless services and remarkable achievements in uplifting the deprived sections of society and place them in a separate category for processing of their projects and relaxation of certain terms and conditions relating to release of annual grants by categorizing them as Established Voluntary Agencies (EVAs).  Some of them are Ramakrishna Mission, Bharat Sewashram Sangh, Swami Vivekanand Youth Movement, etc.

Vanbandhu Kalyan Yojana:

In order to achieve comprehensive development of tribals, Vanbandhu Kalyan Yojana (VKY) is being implemented by our Ministry which focuses on convergence on different schemes of development.  This scheme mainly focuses on bridging infrastructural gaps and gap in human development indices (HDI) between Scheduled Tribes and other social groups.  VKY also envisages a shift in working character and rather than focusing merely on physical and financial achievements, it is outcome oriented.  This year in the pilot phase, VKY will be implemented in 10 blocks in 10 districts of 10 States.The scheme would be implemented through robust institutional mechanism in a mission mode.

The proposed intervention is aimed at adopting a holistic approach commensurate to the Gujarat Model for overall development of the tribal people with sustainability.

Inauguration of Call Centre and Toll Free Number:

In order to provide real time information, daily prices of Minor Forest Produce in various Mandis across the country can now be obtained through Toll Free Number 1800-180-1551which was inaugurated by the Hon’ble Minister for Tribal Affairs on 02.09.2014.

During 2014 – 15, Budgetary support of Rs.4479 Crores has been made for various plan schemes of the Ministry.

A Project Appraisal Committee, headed by Secretary, Tribal Affairs, with representatives of State Governments, Financial Advisor Planning Commission, etc. has been constituted to appraise and approve the proposals for allocation under various schemes of the Ministry. This has helped in ensuring consultation with the States, convergence of various schemes of the Ministry and other Centrally Sponsored Schemes, transparency in the process of appraisal and fund releases and ensuring optimal allocation of limited financial resources. The Committee has prioritised       on education especially that of girl child and low literacy tribes; health especially Sickle Cell Anemia, Malaria, Malnutrition and Livelihood. Facilities of Toilets with running water and electricity in residential schools have been emphasized. This process has helped in synchronizing national priorities with state ones.

Sickle Cell Anemia:

To eradicate Sickle Cell Anemia, health check-up followed by issue of Health cards of students of tribal department schools/ hostels to identify sickle cell trait [HbAS] (SCT) caseshas been undertaken. Parents are to be made aware of the problems and its prevention methods. Health ministry has been requested to include Sickle Cell test for all population as prevalence is high in all population groups in malaria-prone areas.

SS (achievement) 26-09-2014