By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, SEP 18, 2024: THE Union Cabinet approved Pradhan Mantri Janjatiya Unnat Gram Abhiyan with total outlay of Rs.79,156 crore (Central Share: Rs.56,333 crore and State Share: Rs. 22,823 crore) for improving the socio-economic condition of tribal communities, by adopting saturation coverage for tribal families in tribal-majority villages and aspirational districts.

This will cover around 63,000 villages benefitting more than 5 crore tribal people as announced in the Budget Speech 2024-25. It will cover 549 districts and 2,740 blocks spread across all tribal majority villages across 30 States / UTs.

India has ST population of 10.45 crore as per 2011 census and there are more than 705 tribal communities, spread across the country, living in remote and hard-to-reach areas. The Pradhan Mantri Janjatiya Unnat Gram Abhiyan envisions  saturation of critical gaps in social infrastructure, health, education, livelihood,  through different schemes of Govt of India by convergence and outreach and ensure holistic and sustainable development of tribal areas and communities based on learnings and success of PMJANMAN (Pradhan Mantri Janjati Adivasi Nyaya Maha Abhiyan).

The Mission comprises of  25 interventions which will be implemented by 17-line ministries. Each Ministry/Department would be responsible for implementation of scheme related to it in a time bound manner through funds allocated to them under Development Action Plan for Scheduled Tribes (DAPST) in next 5 years to achieve following goals:

Goal-I:  Developing Enabling Infrastructure:

(i) Pucca house for eligible Households with other entitlements:  Eligible ST household shall have access to pucca housing under the PMAY (Gramin) with availability of tapped water (Jal Jeevan Mission) and electricity supply (RDSS). Eligible ST household shall also have access to Ayushman Bharat Card (PMJAY).

(ii) Improving Village infrastructure: Ensuring all weather road connectivity to ST majority villages (PMGSY), provide access to mobile connectivity  (Bharat Net) and internet, infrastructure for improving health, nutrition, and education (NHM, Samagra Shiksha and Poshan).

Goal-2: Promotion of Economic Empowerment:

(iii) Skill Development Entrepreneurship promotion and enhanced livelihood(self-employment)  - Providing access to training (Skill India Mission/ JSS) and ensuring that ST boys/girls get access to long-term skill courses after 10th/12th standard every year. Further, Marketing support through Tribal Multipurpose Marketing Centre (TMMC), Tourist Home Stays and Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fishery support for FRA Patta holders

Goal-3:  Universalization of Access to Good Education:

(iv)  Education  - To increase GER to the national levels in school and higher education and to make quality education affordable and accessible to ST students (Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan) by setting up tribal hostels in schools at district/block level.

Goal-4:  Healthy lives and Dignified Ageing:

(v) Health -  To ensure enhanced access to quality health facilities to ST households, reach towards the national standards in IMR, MMR and coverage of immunisation through Mobile Medical Units in areas where sub centre is more than 10 km in plain areas and 5 kms in Hilly areas (National Health Mission).

The tribal villages covered under the  Abhiyan  would be  mapped on PM Gati Shakti Portal  with the gaps identified by concerned department for its scheme specific requirements. The physical and financial progress will be monitored PM Gati Shakti platform and the best performing districts will be awarded.   

The Mission targets in respect of 17 Ministries are as under:

Based on the specific needs and requirement of tribal areas and after deliberation with the States and other stakeholders, the Abhiyan has conceived some innovative schemes to promote livelihood and generate income amongst tribals and forest dwelling communities.  

Tribal Home Stay:   To tap the tourist potential of tribal areas and to provide an alternate livelihood to the tribal community, 1000 Home stays will be promoted under Swadesh Darshan through Ministry of Tourism.  In villages which have tourist potential, funding will be provided to the tribal Household and the village for construction of 5-10 Homestays in one village.  Each household will be eligible for Rs. 5.00 lakhs for the construction of two new rooms and upto Rs. 3.00 lakhs for renovation of existing rooms and Rs 5 lakh for village community requirement.

Sustainable Livelihood Forest Right Holders (FRA):   The Mission has special focus on 22 lakh FRA patta holders residing in forest areas and in convergence with Ministry of Tribal Affairs,  Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer Welfare (MoAFW),Department of Animal Husbandry, Department of Fisheries and Ministry of Panchayati Raj, the benefits of different schemes will be converged & provided. The interventions are  aimed to expedite the process of recognizing and securing forest rights, empowering tribal communities to enable them for maintenance and conservation of forest and also providing them sustainable livelihood through support of government scheme. The Abhiyan will also catalyse that the pending FRA claims are expedited and training of all stake holders and officers at Block, District and State level will be given by Ministry of Tribal Affairs and Ministry of Panchayati Raj.

Improving infrastructure of Govt residential Schools and Hostels:   The tribal residential schools and Hostels target remote tribal areas and aim to develop local educational resources and promote enrolment and retention. The Abhiyan aims to Improve infrastructure of Ashram schools/hostels/Tribal schools /Govt residential schools for upgradation on the lines of PM-Shri Schools. 

Advance facilities for diagnosis of Sickle Cell Disease:   To provide affordable and accessible diagnostic and SCD management facilities with special emphasis on pre-natal diagnosis and to reduce the prevalence of the disease by preventing future births with SCD,  Centre of Competence (CoC) would be  set up in AIIMS and premier Institutes in the States where the Sickle disease is prevalent and where expertise of conducting these procedures is available.    A Centre of Competence (CoC) shall be equipped with the facilities, technology, personnel and research capabilities for pre-natal diagnosis as per guidelines issued by Ministry of Health and have latest facilities, technology, personnel and research capabilities for pre-natal diagnosis, at a cost of Rs 6 crore/CoC.

Tribal Multipurpose Marketing Centre:   For Effective marketing of tribal products and for improving marketing infrastructure, awareness, branding, packaging, and transportation facilities 100 TMMCs will be set up to enable the tribal producers to get right price for their produce/ products and facilitate the consumers in buying tribal produce / products at right price directly from the tribals. Moreover, the designing of these TMMC as an aggregation and value addition platform will also help in minimizing post-harvest and post-production losses and retention of product value.

The Abhiyan has been planned based on learning and Success of Pradhan Mantri Janjati Adivasi Nyaya Maha Abhiyan (PM-JANMAN), which was launched by Hon'ble PM on Janjatiya Gaurav Divas on 15th  November, 2023 with budget of Rs. 24104 crore focusing on the PVTG population.

The PM Janjatiya Unnat Gram  is a unique example of cooperative Federalism, whole of Government approach  for welfare of the people  saturation through convergence and  - outreach.