During the election campaign in the year 2014, Modi had shed tears on the pathetic conditions of the tribal people of the country, accusing the UPA government of neglecting the development of tribals and their well being. He promised better days if voted to power. His sugar coated words tempted them to vote in his favour, and he came to power with overwhelming majority. He even launched Vanbandhu Kalyan Yojna (VKY) in 2014-15, the performance of which since then is dismal.

While launching the VKY, it was officially stated that the scheme was meant to ensure that funds and resources available under the Tribal Sub-Plan and other sources will be utilized with an outcome-based approach towards holistic development of the tribal people. An amount of Rs 100 crore was allocated and released under the scheme to ten states having Scheduled Areas. It was the first year of the scheme and Rs 87 crore was utilized. However, the year following witnessed a sharp reduction in actual utilization, which was Rs 113.86 crore as against the released amount of 200 crore. It is obvious that the government by doubling the amount tried to extract praise for their so called commitment towards tribal development.

Out of the ten states – Andhra Pradesh, Chhatisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan and Telangana – where there are scheduled areas, Himachal Pradesh used Rs 7 crores, and Maharashtra utilized nothing out of the 10 crore released in 2014-15. The other states fully utilized the amount given.

However, in 2015-16, an allocation of Rs 200 crore was made for 21 states. Minister of State for Tribal Affair Jaswantsinh Sumanbhai Bhabhor claimed in a Parliament that VKY is a ‘strategic process’, but the claim proved to be completely hollow. The performance in 2015-16 speaks for itself. A total of Rs 8.52 crore was released to Assam but the reported utilization was zero; the same was the case with Rs 7.60 crore released for Bihar. Chhattisgarh utilized Rs 12.73 crore out of Rs 13. 84 crore while Gujarat did not utilize a paise out of the Rs 17.23 crore allocation. So was the case with Jammu and Kashmir, which let the entire Rs 5 crore go unutilized. The case with Maharashtra, Tamilnadu, Uttar Pradesh was also similar. Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Kerala, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Rajasthan, Telangana and Tripura utilized the entire allocation.

Scheduled Tribes (STs) account for 8.6% of the total population of the country (Census, 2011) constituting 10.45 crore people. Nearly 705 communities, including 75 tribal groups, have been classified as vulnerable and called Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs). Nearly 75% of the Scheduled Tribes communities live in Central India, their highest concentration being in Madhya Pradesh, followed by Maharashtra. North Eastern states account for about 10% of the total Scheduled Tribes population. The allocation of Rs 200 crore is too meagre an amount for this huge population.

The main reasons for the underperformance of Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP) funds have been identified as lack of unified planning, implementation and monitoring mechanism; absence of institutions in the field to access funds; scattered financial resources thinly spread; lack of location specific perspective plan; weakening of institutions specifically meant for delivery of goods and services to tribal population etc. Ritualistic utilization of funds, rather than outcome-based initiatives based on gap analysis in Human Development Indexes (HDI) and inadequate administrative and financial powers for the Tribal Welfare are also leading to poor implementation of the schemes. (IPA Service)