Government Is Initiating Action Plan To Enhance Tribal Welfare Across The Country

With a substantial increase in its budgetary allocations for the fiscal 2022-23, Ministry of Tribal Affairs is ready with a ‘result-oriented action plan’ for the welfare and upliftment of tribal people across the country.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the budget outlay for the financial year 2022-2023 has earmarked an enhanced fund of Rs 8,451.92 crore for the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, which is a substantial increase from the previous total budget outlay of 2021-2022 that stood at Rs 7,524.87 crore.

We have firmed up a result-oriented action plan in coordination with other ministries and state governments to build 36,428 model villages with significant tribal population in five years, starting with 7,500 such villages this year, said Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda.

There is a substantial increase of 12.32 per cent in the budget outlay of Rs 8,451 crore for the Ministry of Tribal Affairs for 2022-22.

Besides, over Rs 87,000 crore has been allocated under the scheduled tribe component for 2022-23 as against Rs 78,256 crore in the last fiscal. A total of 41 Union ministries are required to incur this expenditure for the welfare of the scheduled tribes and development of the tribal areas.

"The targets have been set under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the coming days for implementation of development and welfare for the scheduled tribes and the areas dominated by them," he said.

Our aim is to improve the living conditions of these villages, providing them better education healthcare facilities and facilitating their products to be linked directly with markets, Munda added.

Steps would be taken for comprehensive development of 36,428 villages in convergence with other ministries to develop these villages as Adarsh Gram, under ‘Pradhan Mantri Aadi Adarsh Gram Yojana’. These villages have a tribal population of more than 500, and 50 per cent are tribal.

The Pradhan Mantri Adi Adarsh Gram Yojana, the flagship programme of the government, seeks to ensure comprehensive development of the villages, based on the identified gaps. Villages with at least 50 per cent tribal population have been selected under the programme.

“While working in coordination with other ministries for the development of the villages, we will ensure that members of the scheduled tribes, including children, youth and elderly, avail benefits of all the schemes, including that of the tribal affairs ministry,” Munda said.

He said his ministry will also keep up its focus on implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Jatiye Vikas Mission, which seeks to achieve livelihood-driven tribal development in the next five years.

Besides, Munda said, his ministry will also implement a programme in coordination with the union health ministry for eradication of sickle cell disease prevalent among the tribal population due to certain genetic disorders.

The Union Cabinet had last month approved continuation of a total of 14 central sector and centrally sponsored schemes till 31 March 2026, with total financial outlay of Rs 3,344 crore for the National Tribal Welfare Programme, Rs 28,920 crore for Eklavya Model Residential Schools and Rs 26,135 crore for the Pradhan Mantri Van Bandhu Kalyan Yojana.

An amount of Rs 50 crore has been sanctioned in the budget for the new scheme of ‘Venture Capital Fund for Scheduled Tribes’ (VCF-ST), which is aimed at promoting Entrepreneurship among the STs. The VCF-ST scheme would be a social sector initiative to promote ST entrepreneurship and to support and incubate the start-up ideas by ST youth.