New Delhi: From drinking water supply to providing 4G network connectivity, the central government is all set to launch its Rs 15,000-crore mission to provide basic infrastructure to an estimated 28 lakh vulnerable tribal population in 18 states and Union territories — including poll-bound Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan — ThePrint has learnt.
The Union ministry of tribal affairs is in the process of sending a proposal for the Pradhan Mantri Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups Mission to the Union Cabinet for approval, two senior tribal affairs ministry officials aware of the development told ThePrint.
Announced by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the budget this year, the mission aims at providing particularly vulnerable tribal groups (PVTGs) basic facilities. The ministry has identified 11 interventions, such as providing housing, healthcare facilities, water supply, road connectivity, 4G and mobile network, electrification of houses, education, anganwadi centres, multipurpose facility centres, livelihood options and focused development of 60 aspirational PVTG blocks (out of 500 Aspirational Blocks Programme) in PVTG villages or habitations in the country, according to ministry officials.
Significantly, PVGTs are the more vulnerable groups among India’s Scheduled Tribes. According to the central government, PVTGs “inhabit isolated, remote and difficult areas in small and scattered hamlets/ habitats”. There are 75 notified PVTGs currently.
“We got approval from the Expenditure Finance Committee (which is under the finance ministry) recently. We are in the process of preparing the note for Cabinet approval,” a senior ministry official told ThePrint.
Although the tribal affairs ministry allocates Rs 250 crore annually under the ‘Development of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups’, it is for the first time that welfare measures are being proposed on such a large scale for them, the official said.
The Rs 15,000 crore under the PM PVTGs Mission will be spent over a period of three years to provide essential services, said another official.
There are close to 22,000 PVTG habitation/villages spread across 18 states and UTs, including Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, and Jharkhand, according to a parliamentary standing committee report tabled in the Parliament in March 2023. Poll-bound Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have a PVTG population of around 4.1 lakh and 1.1 lakh respectively, according to the 2011 Census.
Five states — Rajasthan, MP, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram and Telangana — are due to hold assembly elections this year.
“For effective and timely implementation of various measures, the tribal affairs ministry has prepared a set of guidelines after consulting other ministries that will be instrumental in the implementation of the 11 interventions,” said the second ministry official.
The first official added that water supply, healthcare facilities, schools, road connectivity and housing are some of the key requirements in most of PVTG habitation.
“All the interventions will be carried out by various ministries through their ongoing welfare schemes,” the official said, adding that to ensure that these PVTG habitations are covered, some amendments are needed in the schemes.
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Gap analysis, tweaking norms — what’s in the works
Explaining the need for changes in the ongoing central government scheme, the officials said that a large number of PVTG habitations/villages don’t meet the criteria for implementation of most of the scheme.
The first official said most government schemes, such as for road development in rural areas, opening of medical centres or schools or anganwadi centres, rely on population or distance criteria.
“For instance, a village should have a population of 500 to be covered under the central government’s gram sadak yojana (the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, or PMGSY). But of the 22,000 PVTG villages, there are close to 15,000 villages that have a population of less than 100. Therefore, we will amend the norms so that central government schemes can be implemented in these villages,” the official said.
For housing, the tribal affairs and rural development ministries are carrying out gap analysis so that houses can be provided under the central government’s affordable housing scheme — Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY).
Gap analysis involves comparing the existing state of a business or, in this case, a government scheme, to a desired future state in order to help identify, and close, gaps.
The PMAY scheme will also have to be tweaked to include the PVTGs, officials said.
“The norm that the land should be owned by the person will also be changed in case of PVTGs, as most of them live in forest areas and have been provided land under Forest Rights Act. Though land has been provided to them, they don’t have land rights over it. So, an amendment will be made in PMAY to include PVTGs,” the second ministry official said.
There are 3,000 PVTG villages that don’t have any mobile network or 4G network. The department of telecommunications under the ministry of communications will provide mobile connectivity to these villages, officials said.
The tribal affairs ministry is in discussion with the power ministry to set up mini-grids in villages to electrify all households in PVTG habitations, they said.
“There are some households in PVTG villages which are not electrified. The two ministries are in the process of identifying such households and exploring the possibility of setting up mini grids. If it is not possible, then these households will be provided electricity connections through solar power through the ministry of new and renewable energy’s schemes,” the second official said.
Since PVTG population in most habitations is under 100, the ministry is planning to set up hostels near existing residential schools for children, deploy 10 mobile medical vans in each village or habitation, open multi-purpose centres where anganwadi centres are not feasible and provide a common drinking water tap or a well where piped water line is not possible, the officials said.
Dedicated mobile app to map PVTG villages
The tribal affairs ministry is getting social and other infrastructure in tribal areas mapped through the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan platform, officials said.
Launched in October 2021, the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan (PMGS-NMP) is a digital platform to bring 16 ministries — including the Indian Railways and Highways — for “integrated planning and coordinated implementation of infrastructure connectivity projects”, the central government says on its portal India.gov.in.
Sixteen social sector ministries have been “fully onboarded on PMGS-NMP”, according to a statement issued by the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry in August this year.
A dedicated mobile application has been developed, using which 22,000 PVTG villages are being mapped for social and other infrastructure, officials said.
The exercise to map villages started in June this year and is likely to be completed by mid-October.
“We have mapped close to 10,000 habitations so far. Information of various ministries have been collected on our mobile application by surveyors,” the second official said. “This will be useful in planning road and social infrastructure projects in villages. The respective ministries can also access the information.”
Officials said that a need for a dedicated scheme for PVTGs was felt due to inconsistent development work carried out by states in these areas despite dedicated funds.
“There was no uniformity in the demand for funds for various projects by the states and UT,” the first official said. “Housing, roads, etc. are covered under various central government schemes so many states wouldn’t ask for funds in these sectors despite this being the most important requirement in PVTGs.”
According to a 2023 parliamentary panel report on demand for grants for tribal affairs ministry, “a very meagre amount of Rs 6.48 crore could be spent by 31st January, 2023, out of the Budgetary Estimates of Rs 252 crore for the year 2022-23”. The committee report, tabled in Parliament in March 2023, said it expects “the Ministry to focus on the welfare of PVTGs under a well-conceived Action Plan”.
This is an updated version of the story.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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