New Delhi
In line with its focus on tribals, the Union Budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has seen a massive jump in the budgetary allocation for the Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA), the nodal Ministry for the overall policy, planning and coordination of programs for the development of the Scheduled Tribes.
The overall outlay for MoTA for FY 2023-24 is Rs. 12461.88 crore, which is an increase of 70.69% over the previous year’s Revised Estimate (RE) of Rs.7301.00 crore. In fact, the budget allocation for 2023-24 of MoTA is a 190.01 percent jump from 2013-14 — from Rs 4295.94 crore to Rs.12461.88 crore.
Under the Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP), now known as Development Action Plan for Scheduled Tribes (DAPST), besides the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, as many as 41 Ministries/ Departments are allocating funds in the range of 4.3 to 17.5 percent of their total scheme allocation every year for tribal development projects relating to education, health, agriculture, irrigation, roads, housing, electrification, employment generation, and skill development among others.
The DAPST fund allocation too has increased about five and half times since 2013-14 — from Rs 21,525.36 crore (Actual Expenditure) in 2013-14 to Rs 1,17,943.73 crore in Budget Estimate 2023-24.
Congratulating the Finance Minister for declaring a comprehensive Budget that focuses on tribal affairs and related concerns, Union Tribal Affairs Minister, Arjun Munda, said, “This budget emphasises on the provision of various benefits and equal opportunities for tribals in remote regions of our country, reaching the last mile.”
Considering this vision, our Ministry has prepared a roadmap for the upliftment, empowerment, and welfare of tribals and will collaborate with other central Ministries for building a strong and progressive India, Munda stressed.
In a statement, the MoTA said the focus of Government has been overall development of STs and bringing them at par with the other communities in the country.
There have been considerable improvements in socio-economic conditions of the Scheduled Tribes, for example, literacy rate for STs has improved from 59% (Census) in 2011 to 71.6% (as per Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS)) report (July 2020 – June 2021), bringing down the gap between overall and ST literacy from 14 percent between 2001-2011 to 7.5 percent between 2011-2021, the Ministry maintained.
The Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRS) will be provided Rs.5943 Crore for accelerated construction. It is targeted to establish 740 Eklavya Model Residential Schools in blocks with 50% or more and 20,000 ST population.
Already about 400 EMRSs have become functional with over 1,13,000 students, of whom over 57,000 are girls. These EMRSs will have facilities for nurturing the natural sports talent of the tribal students. There will be provisions of science and computer labs, skill development, art, craft and music, the MoTA stated.
In line with the priorities announced in the Budget, special focus will be given for providing remunerative livelihood to tribal families. A provision of Rs.288 crore has been made to be implemented through TRIFED, through formation of Self Help Groups and producer enterprises.
Special attention will be given to form more Van Dhan Vikas Kendras, to function in cooperative mode. Organic farming, medicinal plants, millets and food processing will be the important areas, to be done through these tribal self help groups, apart from skill-development and craft-training, with appropriate credit and marketing facilities.
An amount of Rs.2531 crore has been provided for giving scholarship to ST students studying from class IX up to Ph.D levels while Rs.1485 crore has been provided for comprehensive development of villages with significant tribal population.
An amount of Rs.1472 crore has been provided for giving grants to States with ST population for development of Scheduled Areas and Scheduled Tribes.
