TRIBAL WELFARE SCHEMES IN ASSAM
TRIBAL WELFARE SCHEMES IN ASSAM
Union Minister of State for Tribal Affairs Shri Durgadas Uikey informed Lok Sabha that government is implementing Development Action Plan for Scheduled Tribes (DAPST) as a strategy for the development of Scheduled Tribes and areas having tribal concentration in the country including the State of Assam. Besides Ministry of Tribal Affairs, 41 Ministries/Departments are allocating certain percentage of their total scheme budget every year for tribal development under DAPST to bridge the developmental gap between Scheduled Tribes (STs) and non-ST populations and for various tribal development projects relating to education, health, agriculture, irrigation, roads, housing, electrification, employment generation, skill development, etc. Schemes along-with funds allocated by the obligated Ministries/Departments for the welfare of Scheduled Tribes are given at Statement 10B of Expenditure Profile of Union Budget document in the link:
https://www.indiabudget.gov.in/doc/eb/stat10b.pdf.
State Governments are also supposed to earmark TSP funds with respect to the total Scheme allocation, in proportion to ST population (Census 2011) in the State. The details of allocation and expenditure for TSP by States/UTs out of their own funds are available at https://statetsp.tribal.gov.in.
The Ministry has undertaken for development of STs through convergence of funds available with different Ministries/Departments under DAPST through DhartiAabaJanjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyaan (DAJGUA). The Abhiyan launched by Hon’ble PM on 2nd October, 2024 comprises of 25 interventions implemented by 17-line Ministries and aims to saturate infrastructural gaps in 63,843 villages, provide social infrastructure like hostels, Anganwadi facilities and mobile medical units etc benefiting more than 5 crore tribals in 549 districts and 2,911 blocks in 30 States/UTs in 5 years. The Abhiyan has a total budgetary outlay of Rs.79,156 Cr (Central share: ₹56,333 Cr and State share: ₹22,823 Cr).
Committees have been formulated at the State, District, and Block levels to ensure effective implementation, coordination, and monitoring of the DhartiAabaJanjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyan. At the State level, a State-Level Apex Committee (SLAC) chaired by the Chief Secretary has been constituted. At the District level, a District-Level Committee, chaired by the District Collector and at the Block level, a Block-Level Implementation Teams (BLITs) comprising officers from various departments have been set up to facilitate grassroots implementation of interventions.
An online monitoring system has been put in place by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs with web address: https://stcmis.gov.in for monitoring of DAPST funds. The framework captures data directly from Public Finance Management System (PFMS) and enables MoTA to see the real time expenditure vis-a-vis allocations of different Ministries/Departments under DAPST.
Additionally, interactive dashboards on the PM Gati Shakti portal provide ministry wise and intervention-wise progress monitoring using real-time data from various ministries, supporting targeted planning and gap analysis. Nodal officers are appointed within respective Ministries and Departments to facilitate smoother implementation and reporting of tribal-related schemes. MoTA maintains regular coordination and continuous engagement with obligated Ministries and Departments to review fund utilization and ensure effective implementation of guidelines.
Based on this, Scheme/programme-wise allocation by Ministries/Departments is available in Statement 10B of Union Budget which is a dedicated statement showing ministry-wise allocations for the welfare of Scheduled Tribes. Similarly, Statement 10BBB of Union Budget are dedicated statements showing allocations for DAJGUA scheme.
For proper accounting and monitoring and to ensure their non-divertibility to any other scheme, funds allocated under DAPST are shown by all the obligated Ministries/Depts under the minor head ‘796’ below the functional major Head/Sub Major Heads in their ‘Detailed Demands for Grants’.