UPLIFTING THE
SCHEDULED TRIBES
Jual
Oram*
Although the nature
of problems faced by the scheduled tribes was well recognized
by the authors of the Constitution of India, they had to wait
for more than half a century to get the real attention. A new
Ministry of Tribal Affairs was created in October 1999, headed
by a Cabinet Minister, for a focused attention on tribal issues
and to plan, administer and supervise the programmes, projects
and schemes for the development and welfare of the tribal communities.
Since then this Ministry has taken a number of steps to develop
a sense of belonging among the political and government executives
on one hand and the tribal community on the other.
The Constitution
of India has provided many safeguards to the tribal communities
for their political, educational, cultural, economic, and social
development. As they are considered a weaker section of the society,
there are quite a number of safeguards to protect them from social
injustices and exploitation. In order to avail constitutional
safeguards and government facilities, a number of communities
have been declared as Scheduled Tribes (STs) as per the Constitutional
provisions. Most of the communities were listed as STs in early
1950s. Till now only a few small amendments have been carried
out to modify the ST list to confer the ST status on the hitherto
left-out tribal communities. More than one thousand proposals
for inclusion in the list of STs were processed as per the procedure
established by the Cabinet and 140 cases were selected for inclusion,
exclusion or change of name. The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled
Tribes (Amendment) Act, 2002 received the assent of the President
on 7th January 2003. This exercise was done after a gap of nearly
five decades.
Clause(1) of
Article 339 of the Constitution provides for appointment of a
Commission to review the policies, programmes and constitutional
safeguards meant for the tribals and advises the Government to
frame future strategy for the tribals’ welfare. Although this
Commission is supposed to be set up after a gap of every ten years,
the only such Commission was constituted in 1960. A Scheduled
Areas and Scheduled Tribes Commission was constituted under the
aforesaid provisions of the Constitution in July 2002. The tenure
of the Commission is for one year. Its terms of reference are
to examine the constitutional provisions, review the functioning
of policies, programmes and schemes, scrutinize the tribal sub-plan,
examine the social-political and administrative set up and any
other matter connected with the administration of the Scheduled
Areas or the welfare of STs in the States and Union Territories.
With a view to
providing safeguards against the exploitation of the SCs and STs
and to promote and protect their social, educational, economic
and cultural interests, special provisions were made in the Constitution
and a statutory National Commission for SCs and STs came into
being in 1990. Keeping in view the distinct nature of the problems
faced by the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, the Cabinet
approved the establishment of a separate National Commission for
STs as per the Constitutional provisions under Article 338. A
bill was introduced in Parliament.
Schemes
All the Central
sector and Centrally-sponsored schemes were modified to make them
effective, efficient and pragmatic. Modifications have been carried
out in the scheme of grants-in-aid under Article 275(1) of the
Constitution. Unlike in the previous years, grants are now given
project-wise with the Centre’s approval for promoting the welfare
of the STs in the States or raising the level of administration
of the scheduled areas therein to that of the administration of
the rest of the areas of that State. In order to improve the institutional
set up for the implementation of the provisions of the Panchayat
(Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 (PESA), special incentive
is given under this scheme to the States implementing it properly.
Grants-in-aid
to the Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) are now given in
a transparent manner. However, for funding Established Voluntary
Agencies (EVAs), a liberal method is followed. The partnership
between the Ministry and the NGOs has been strengthened in implementing
projects in the field of education, health and economic uplift
of the tribals. Now more than eight hundred NGOs are implementing
thousands of projects in all corners of the country. The Ministry
is funding the EVAs for construction of infrastructure as a special
incentive for their services to the weaker sections of our society.
The National
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Finance Development Corporation
was bifurcated and a new corporation called National Scheduled
Tribes Finance Development Corporation (NSTDFC) was set up in
April, 2001 with an authorized share capital of Rs. 500 crore.
This apex organization has been created to provide financial assistance
on easy terms to the STs for schemes or projects to run income-generating
activities. It also provides grants through the State Channelising
Agencies (SCAs) for undertaking training programmes for entrepreneurial
development of eligible STs and to upgrade the skills of officials
of the SCAs through periodic training. In a short span of two
years, this Corporation has provided loans, working capital assistance
and special incentive to the SCAs for making 100 per cent timely
repayment to NSFDC. It has also introduced a new scheme for the
poor tribal women called Adivasi Mahila Sashaktikaran Yojana.
(PIB Features)
*Union
Minister for Tribal Affairs
