Rs. 39,135 crore allocated under STC for the welfare of Scheduled Tribes for the year 2018-19

Government of India launched "Vanbandhu Kalyan Yojana (VKY)" during 2014-15 for holistic development of tribal people across the country. The VKY has been adopted as a strategic process. This process envisages to ensure delivery of goods and services to the tribal population across the country with outcome-oriented approach while striking at the critical gaps in the sectors of Housing, Livelihood, Health & Sanitation, Drinking Water, Agriculture & Irrigation, Electricity, Education, Skill development, Sports & Games and Preservation of Cultural Heritage etc. through appropriate convergence of resources and institutional mechanism. State Governments have been impressed upon to endeavour effecting convergence of resources under various Central as well as State Government schemes appropriately while formulating Annual Plan and long-term perspective plan for holistic development of tribalscommensurating the objectives of VKY.

In 2014-15, an amount of Rs. 100.00 crore was allocated under VKY, which was released to ten States having Scheduled Areas. During 2015-16, allocation of Rs. 200.00 crores was made for 21 States based on their perspective plan. The utilization reported was Rs. 87.1 crore in 2014-15 and Rs. 133.13 crore in 2015-16. In 2016-17, only a token provision of Rs. 1.00 crore was made that was released to State Government of Rajasthan.

Since 2016-17, separate allocation of funds under VKY has been discontinued and it has been envisaged that the fund requirement under the VKY strategy will be fulfilled out of the TSP [now called as Schedule Tribe Component(STC)] funds. The TSP caters to sectoral development by way of specific fund allocation under various schemes / programmes of concerned Central Ministries and the State Governments.

The total Revised Estimates of TSP Allocation by Central Ministries / Departments during 2014-15 to 2016-17 was Rs. 67710.77 crore, while the Actual Expenditure during this period was Rs. 62947.82 crore. The year wise break-up of the estimates and expenditure can be seen as under:

Year Revised Budgetary Estimate (Rs. in crore) Expenditure (Rs. in crore)2014-15 20535.52 19920.722015-16 20963.17 21216.542016-17 25602.08 21810.56Total 67710.77 62947.82

Further, as a part of rationalization of Schemes of the Ministry, convergence of following schemes/ interventions of the Ministry has been effected from 2016-17 as an Umbrella Programme of Van Bandhu Kalyan Yojana (VKY):

(i) Development of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups.

(ii) Minimum Support Price for Minor Forest Produce.

(iii) Aid to Voluntary Organisations working for the Welfare of Scheduled Tribes

(iv) Tribal Festivals, Research Information and Mass Education

(v) Monitoring and Evaluation

(vi) Development Programmes in the Tribal Areas (EAP)

(vii) Vanbandhu Kalyan Yojana

The total Revised Estimates of allocation under Umbrella Programme of VKY for the financial years 2016-17 and 2017-18 was Rs. 866.75 lakh, while the expenditure during this period was Rs. 735.25 lakh (up to 20.02.18). The year wise break-up of the estimates and expenditure can be seen as under:

Year Revised Budgetary Estimates (Rs. in lakh) Expenditure (Rs. in lakh)2016-17 472.40 469.292017-18 (up to 20.02.18) 394.35 265.96Total 866.75 735.25

The VKY strategy involves bringing synergy and effecting convergence in planning and allocation of funds lying with various Central Ministries / Departments and State Governments. There is multiplicity of schemes and agencies, coupled with multiple source of funds, multiple implementation guidelines. Among the States there is no uniform structure for control of TSP funds. Within each State, different Departments handle TSP funds, further complicating efforts at coordinating with the State. An online monitoring system has been put in place by the Ministry with web address https://bsmedia.business-standard.comstcmis.gov.in since 2017. The framework envisages monitoring of allocations for welfare of STs under the schemes, monitoring of expenditure vis-vis allocations, monitoring of physical performance and outcome monitoring. Further, nodal officer has been nominated in each of the line Ministries / Departments for coordination and monitoring. Ministry / Department-wise performance shall be reviewed jointly by MoTA and NITI Aayog.

Economic and social advancement of Scheduled Tribes (STs) has received core attention of Government. The allocation under Scheduled Tribe Component (STC) was increased from Rs. 21,811 crore in 2016-17 to Rs. 32,508 crore in Revised Estimate (RE) 2017-18. In the Budget Estimate (BE) of 2018-19, Rs. 39,135 crore has been allocated under STC for the welfare of Scheduled Tribes, which is 94% more than the allocation in 2012-13.

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