Indian Tribal News Service
New Delhi
With its focus on the Scheduled Tribes (ST), the Modi Government has ensured that the increase in the budgetary allocation to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MTA) for the next fiscal is one of the highest among all Ministries.
The allocation to the MTA has been increased by 12.3% to Rs 8,451.92 crore over the budget estimate of Rs 7,524.85 crore for the previous fiscal. In fact, the jump is a whopping 36.7% if compared with the revised estimate of Rs 6,181.3 crore.
The impressive increase apart, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a Venture Capital Fund for Scheduled Tribes (STs) for entrepreneurs from the community who will create wealth and value for society and at the same time will promote profitable businesses.
The Ministry had last year while celebrating the annual Aadi Mahotsav also felicitated many tribal entrepreneurs from south India and among whom many were women.
Venture Capital Fund for Scheduled Tribes
- Aims to provide hand-holding support to new incubation & startup ideas by ST entrepreneurs
- Provides for concessional finance to ST entrepreneurs
The Finance Minister also announced the Pradhan Mantri Jan Jaatiya Vikas Mission for The Indian Tribal Health in Chhattisgarh. The Mission aims to bring about transformational changes in tribal livelihood with the prime objective being ensuring round-the-year income generating opportunities for tribals by undertaking non minor forest produce activities as well.
Pradhan Mantri Jan Jaatiya Vikas Mission
- Scheme to provide market linkage, without middlemen, to ST members
- Enable STs to sell their handicrafts, other items and boost their income
- To bring about transformational changes in tribal livelihood
The MTA has won the SKOCH Challenger Award- 2021 for ‘Best Performance in e-Governance’ for its various initiatives. The Ministry also received 3 Gold Awards for its initiatives namely ‘Eco-Rehabilitation of tribal villages through Innovative design in water management using Ice-stupa’, ‘Swasthya: Tribal Health and Nutritional Portal’, and the Performance Dashboard ‘Empowering Tribals Transforming India’.
The BJP and the Government have embarked on a massive tribal outreach mission with Prime Minister Narendra Modi declaring Jharkhand’s tribal icon Birsa Munda’s birth anniversary on November 15 to be observed every year as Janjatiya Gaurav Diwas.
The Centre and States even had weeklong Janjatiya Gaurav Diwas celebrations and the PM dedicated the country’s first tribal freedom fighter museum established in Ranchi and named after Birsa Munda.
The Government has gone ahead with establishing statues of tribal freedom fighters and renaming railway stations after tribal freedom fighters. Its focus is also Madhya Pradesh, which has the country’s largest tribal population (around 22 percent) and it has mostly been traditional Congress voters.Read more about The Indian Tribal Health in Chhattisgarh in our new blog on our website.
