Murmu made President, but Centre largely indifferent to tribals’ woes

After 75 years of Independence, the scheduled tribe (ST) community in India is plagued by identity crisis. They suffer due to lack of security and stagnant welfare measures despite the BJP government’s “master stroke” of giving India its first tribal President in Droupadi Murmu.

Fearing that the distinct indigenous religious identity of the community will be subsumed under larger religious groups, an influential apex tribal body has set a November 20 deadline for the Union government to recognise an ‘indigenous tribal faith’ as a separate religion different from Hinduism.

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About 50 lakh tribal people in the country – that is more than the total population of Jains in India — stated their religion as “Sarna” in the 2011 census, though there is no separate code for the faith, claim Adivasi bodies. Many other members of the community have either adopted other religions such as Christianity or Islam or consider themselves Hindus.

To prevent such a loss of identity, the Adivasi Sengel Abhiyan (ASA) has been repeatedly petitioning the Centre in vain to recognise Sarna as an exclusive religion. The ASA is one of the largest and most influential tribal outfits with a large following, particularly in the five states of Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Bihar and Assam.

To push its demand, tribal representatives of the five states under the aegis of the ASA held a peaceful dharna in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday (September 20). A similar demonstration will be held in Kolkata on September 30.

If the Centre does not fulfil its demand by November 20, the ASA said, it will intensify its agitation, starting with a rail-and-road blockade on November 30. The blockade can paralyse communication in at least 50 districts of the five states where the ASA has a strong presence.

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“We have been repeatedly urging the Centre to recognise Sarna as a separate religion because we Adivasis are mostly nature worshipers and are neither Hindus, nor Muslims and Christians,” said ASA president Salkhan Murmu.

“We are denied this recognition despite the fact that about 50 lakhs Adivasi people had made their choice known by declaring their religion as Sarna in the other religion column of the 2011 census,” he added.

Crimes against ST community

The identity crisis apart, recent data showed that crimes against the community are also steadily growing. As per the latest report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), there has been an over 6 per cent increase in the number of crimes committed against the ST community in 2021, from 8,272 cases in 2020 to 8,802 last year. In 2019, the number was 7,570.

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That is not all. The implementation record of most of the Narendra Modi-led government’s welfare schemes meant for the community is dismal.

Parliamentary panel’s concerns 

Even a parliamentary panel recently raised concern about the poor coverage of welfare schemes for the ST community.

For instance, as regards the pre-matric scholarship scheme, the parliamentary standing committee on social justice and empowerment noted that there has not been much variation in the number of beneficiaries and targets fixed under the scheme over the years.

In 2019-20, 14.51 lakh students got the scholarship. In 2020-21, it was 14.46 lakh, while the next fiscal it was 12.7 lakh students.

“After examination of these statistics, the committee feels that either the population of tribal students under pre-matric classes has remained stagnant or the ministry have not made enough efforts to ensure that the target fixed under the scheme are based on correct data regarding tribal population so that all the eligible students get the benefits of the scheme,” the parliamentary panel observed in a report submitted last month.

“The committee is further perturbed to note from the state-wise coverage that either the beneficiaries or the funds released in some states — such as Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Puducherry, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh — are shown as nil,” said the report.

Not enough scholarships 

The committee further noted that the Ministry of Tribal Affairs annually awards 20 National Overseas Scholarships, i.e., 17 for ST students and three for particularly vulnerable tribal groups (PVTG) students having an income ceiling of ₹6 lakh annually, for pursuing higher studies abroad.

“The committee is unhappy that during the last five years, only 45 students have been awarded the scholarship and that apparently no efforts have been made by the ministry to increase the number of beneficiaries,” the report said.

In 2021-22, out of the sanctioned amount of ₹5 crore, only ₹2.46 crore could be spent by the time the committee examined the demands for grants, said the report.

Further, as for the 750 national fellowships provided to the ST students each year for pursuing higher studies in Indian universities and other educational institutions, the panel was surprised to find that budgetary allocation/expenditure and target in 2020-21 and 2021-22 have remained the same i.e., ₹120 crore and the budgetary allocation for 2022-23 have marginally increased to ₹145 crore from ₹120 crore.

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Tribal dominated model village

The Pradhan Mantri Aadi Adarsh Gram Yojana (PMAAGY) is also among the centrally sponsored schemes whose coverage was not satisfactory, the committee found. The scheme is meant for integrated development of tribal dominated villages as ‘model villages’.

“The committee is surprised to note that the Ministry of Tribal Affairs was not able to spend budgetary allocation during 2020-21 and 2021-22 under their erstwhile Scheme Special Central Assistance to Tribal SubPlan (now merged under PMAAGY), which indicates that funds provided to state governments to bridge the gaps in sectors like education, health, agriculture, etc., remained unutilised,” the report said.

The parliamentary panel further noted that there are about 1,17,000 tribal villages with more or equal to 25 per cent tribal population where gaps exist in various sectors of development.

The panel also pointed out that there are several north-eastern states such as Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland where no fund was released by the Union government. Similarly, there are certain sectors such as drinking water, irrigation and watershed, road connectivity, etc., where the expenditure was very less during previous years.

Against this backdrop, the committee observed that the “revamped scheme of PMAAGY with identified objectives now needs to be closely monitored for effective implementation”. The committee also asked the tribal affairs ministry to inform it about the steps taken by the ministry “so that the goals set for the next five years can be achieved and the funds meant for the scheme judiciously spent”.

Reduction in welfare funds

That the tribal welfare is not getting due priority from the Centre is also evident from the fact that projection of requisite funds made by the tribal affairs ministry is invariably reduced by the finance ministry in the budget estimate as has been found by the parliamentary panel.

“In the year 2020-21, the allocation was reduced at the revised estimate stage from ₹ 7,355.76 crore to ₹ 5,472.50 and in 2021-22, it was reduced from ₹7,484.07 crore to ₹ 6,126.46 crore,” the report noted.

“The committee found that initially the budgetary allocations of ₹7,355.76 crore and ₹ 7,084.07 crore were made for the ministry of tribal affairs for the years 2020-21 and 2021-22 respectively, to administer their Central sector and Centrally sponsored schemes besides two official programmes viz., the Special Central Assistance to Tribal Sub- scheme and Grants-in-Aid under Article 275(1) of the Constitution.

However, the allocation was reduced to ₹5,472.50 crore in 2020-21 and ₹6,126.46 crore in 2021-22 at the Revised Estimate (RE) stage. Surprisingly, the ministry of tribal affairs could not even spend fully the RE allocation in 2020-21 and have been able to spend ₹4,070.04 crore in 2021-22 up to February, 15, 2022, leaving apart the cut in allocation made by the ministry of finance for all ministries due to COVID,” the report added.

Further, the budgetary allocation for 2022-23 has been substantially reduced by the ministry of finance, the report said pointing out that against the projection of ₹13,208.52 crore, the tribal affairs ministry was granted ₹8,406.92 crore only, a reduction of nearly ₹5,000 crore.

The parliamentary panel’s findings underscored the neglect of the community under the present regime, said ASA president. He further alleged that even allotted funds are often being diverted and that there is no “quality value assessment” to find out whether the benefits of the government schemes are actually reaching the targeted beneficiaries.

These findings and the impending protest negate the tribal-friendly image the ruling BJP tries to put up, as Droupadi Murmu moved from tribal-dominated Rairangpur village to Raisina Hill.