New Delhi
Expressing her happiness in meeting the members of all 75 PVTGs together, President Droupadi Murmu has urged them to give utmost importance to education and briefed them about the different options they had on hand.
She said that for the students of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTG) community, special provision of seats has been made in Eklavya Model Residential Schools. Apart from this, seats are also reserved for them in the National Fellowship and Overseas Scholarship Scheme.
She urged the PVTG women to take advantage of various schemes, including Tribal Women Empowerment Scheme. Murmu was addressing the PVTG Meet in the Sports Ground of the Rashtrapati Bhawan, President’s Estate, on Monday.
As many as 1350 members from all the 75 PVTGs of the country visited the Rashtrapati Bhawan on the President’s invitation for an extensive interaction with. The members were apprised of the various schemes and initiatives of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and were also given a tour of the Amrit Udyan and the Rashtrapati Bhawan during the day.
The Mal Pahariya of Bihar, the Siddi of Gujarat, the Irula of Kerala, the Sahariya of Rajasthan, the Baiga Pardhauni of Madhya Pradesh, and the Budigali of Odisha gave scintillating performances at the venue, raising the spirits of the gathering.
The President noted that many of them have come out from their villages for the first time and that each one of them is a representative of their community. She urged them to share their experiences with their community-members and inform them about the welfare schemes of the Government.
Murmu said that under the Tribal Sub-Plan, 41 Ministries and Departments of the Government of India share part of their budget for the welfare of tribal communities, including PVTGs and she was happy to note that the ‘Pradhan Mantri PVTG Development Mission’ has been launched by the Government for the development of PVTGs.
The President said that the campaign announced in the current budget to eradicate Sickle Cell Anemia by the year 2047 is a very important step.
Murmu said for the past few years, talented people from the tribal community are being honoured with Padma Awards for their remarkable contributions in various fields and wished that more than 10 crore people of tribal society, including about 28 lakh people of PVTG society, should develop their talents and contribute their best for the society and country.
The President also felicitated two guests from each PVTG Community.
For his part, Arjun Munda, Union Minister of Tribal Affairs, stated that President Droupadi Murmu is a proud embodiment of the extraordinary potential of the Scheduled Tribes of the country
He said that our focus is to include PVTGs as beneficiaries as much as possible while implementing schemes for tribal development and welfare. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, not only provides the tribal communities with the opportunity to use the resources for their development through its various schemes, but also creates awareness about these schemes for their better tomorrow.
“In this endeavour, we are efficiently undertaking management of the schemes for this community’s holistic development,” he added.
Munda said the government has worked with the intention of reform, perform and transform in the last nine years and for the citizen standing at the margins of the society by forming citizen- centric policies and programmes to bring them to the forefront.
He said that today more than 400 EMRS schools have been opened in the tribal areas and more than 1,10,000 students from tribal society are getting quality education in these schools. Harsh Chauhan, Chairperson, NCST, Renuka Singh Saruta, Minister of State Tribal Affairs, Bishweswar Tudu, Minister of State for Jal Shakti and Tribal Affairs, and Ramsinh Rathwa, Chairman, TRIFED, also attended the special occasion.
