With the introduction of 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments in 1992-1994 relating to Panchayati Raj and Urban local governance respectively, there was a hope that planning will be initiated by the people themselves at the lowest level of governance. It is yet to be realized on account of many hurdles. Many tribal areas and states are yet to accept the system on various grounds. Notified tribal areas have their own systems but suffer malfunctioning resulting in our dreams unfulfilled. Interference from the top continues – centre plays politics through its plans and schemes in its own way and states in their own ways to safeguard their parties’ interest. Third tier of governance is intentionally kept weak amidst big announcements.

The status of tribal affair in India can be guessed by the simple fact that the country took almost 60 years after independence to recognize the rights of forest dwellers for the first time under The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2006. It took another two years to frame rules which were in place only in 2008, according to which states/UTs were made responsible for its implementation. It was to be translated in regional languages and distributed to the Gram Sabhas, Forest Rights Committees and all departments of the government including Panchayati Raj, Rural development, Tribal and Social Welfare and Forest Departments, representatives of civil societies and non-government organisations in the states etc. Prime Minister Office, Planning Commission and Cabinet secretariat are monitoring its implementation and Ministry of Tribal Affair makes monthly report.

India now recognizes not only the tribal rights but vests the forest rights and occupation in forest land. However, pace of implementation is very slow. Even Union Minister of Tribal Affairs had written a letter at the fag end of 2010 to all Chief Ministers of the country urging them to formulate a strategy of implementation of the Act in a time bound manner ensuring that title deeds were distributed to all eligible claimants without delay.

The Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs has finally formulated a draft National Tribal Policy in 2006 covering all important issues that concerns tribals. The policy derives strength from the principles enshrined in the Constitution and the Provisions of the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996. The major issues covered in the draft Policy relate to – Alienation of Tribal Land ; Tribal-Forest Interface; Displacement, Resettlement and Rehabilitation; Enhancement of Human Development Index; Creation of Critical Infrastructure; Violent Manifestations; Conservation and Development of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (earlier known as Primitive Tribal Groups (PTGs); Adoption of Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP) Strategy; Empowerment; Gender Equity; Enlisting Support of Non-Governmental Organizations; Tribal Culture and Traditional Knowledge; Administration of Tribal Areas; the Regulatory and Protective Regime etc. The final draft of the Policy was even placed before Union Cabinet for approval and then to the ministry related Parliamentary Standing Committee. However, the final policy is yet to be accepted for implementation.

What is going on in the state level can be guessed on the basis of a communication from Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs to States/UTs, which stated that some states were not earmarking the fund for the Tribal Sub-Plan in proportion to the ST population in respective states. Moreover, the Union Ministry has been advocating for some time now that the fund should be put in a separate budget head and implemented properly to avoid spreading of resources too thinly. However, it is yet to be done. The Planning Commission, on recommendation of the task force chaired by Dr Narendra Jadhav, is trying to do that with limited success.

Presently, the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs is the nodal Ministry for overall policy, planning and coordination of programmes for the development of the Scheduled Tribes (STs). It supports and supplements other central ministries, state governments, and non-government organizations through financial assistance to fill-up the gaps between their efforts and needs of STs. As a result, even after creation of this ministry, functioning of various union ministries and States/UTs are as usual, as it was prior to 1999. Because, the mandate to the union tribal welfare ministry clearly says that the primary responsibility for promoting the interests of Scheduled Tribes rests with all the Central Ministries, and the tribal welfare ministry will only complement their efforts by way of various developmental interventions in critical sectors through specially tailored schemes.

Needless to say that this new mechanism is only delaying the process of planning and implementation, the evil which had already taken all the ministries and states/UTs in its grip much before creation of this so called nodal ministry itself. Movement of even files are painfully slow what to talk about the actual work of tribal welfare!

How pathetic is the functioning of the Union Ministry of Tribal Affair is clear from the statement of the Ministry itself which is contained in the Annual Report 2010-11. It said that the Ministry of Tribal Affairs had been facing severe crunch of space since its inception. Offices are scattered in many areas in New Delhi that makes co-ordination very difficult.

According to the report budget allocation for various schemes and programmes of the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs for last year was Rs 3206.50 crore but total releases made by the Ministry during the year upto December was only Rs 2229.31, which was only 69.52 percent of the downwardly revised estimate of Rs 3205.70 crore. It is then anybody’s guess, what would have been the result of the rest amount intended to be spent in last three months of the year. In India, everybody knows the ‘March Loot’ syndrome and the suffering quality of the works being done.

Even in the previous year (2009-10) budget estimate was Rs 3205.5 crore but only Rs 1996.7 crore were spent by the ministry.

Eventually, in real terms and the current prices, neither the efforts are sufficient to meet the challenge nor the amount required.

We have a vigilance mechanism in the Ministry for the name sake. Nothing seems to be moving at required pace. We had even created the Office of the Commissioner for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in 1950 for effective implementation of various safeguards provided in the Constitution for SCs and STs and various other protective legislations. A multi-member Commission for SCs and STs was set up in 1978. When both the mechanism did not work, we replaced them in 1992 by a statutory multi-member National Commission for Scheduled Casts and Scheduled Tribes. It was also a mistake to club together the welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, since the needs and the problems of both the groups were quite different. Consequently, welfare of the Tribal community suffered and then after realising the fault the government concluded that a special approach for tribal development and independent machinery to safeguard the rights of Scheduled Tribes was necessary. As a result, a separate National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) was set up in 2004.

This commission is entrusted with the functions and duties in relation to protection, welfare, development and advancement of the Scheduled Tribes, as follows which reads well.

Commission shall also discharge

(a) Measures that need to be taken over conferring ownership rights in respect of minor forest produce to the Scheduled Tribes living in forest areas;
(b) Measures to be taken to safeguard rights of the tribal communities over mineral resources, water resources etc. as per law;
(c) Measures to be taken for the development of tribals and to work for more viable livelihood strategies;
(d) Measures to be taken to improve the efficacy of relief and rehabilitation measures for tribal groups displaced by development projects;
(e) Measures to be taken to prevent alienation of tribal people from land and to effectively rehabilitate such people in whose case alienation has already taken place;
(f) Measures to be taken to elicit maximum cooperation and involvement of tribal communities for protecting forests and undertaking social afforestation;
(g) Measures to be taken to ensure full implementation of the provisions of Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 (40 of 1996);
(h) Measures to be taken to reduce and ultimately eliminate the practice of shifting cultivation by tribals that lead to their continuous disempowerment and degradation of land and the environment.

The main duties of the Commission are to investigate and monitor all matters relating to the safeguards provided for the Scheduled Tribes and to evaluate the working of such safeguards; and to inquire into specific complaints with respect to the deprivation of rights and safeguards of the Scheduled Tribes. The Commission is vested with all the powers of a civil court trying a suit while investigating any matter or inquiring into any complaint relating to deprivation of rights and safeguards of the Scheduled Tribes and in particular in respect of the following matters, namely:-
(a) summoning and enforcing the attendance of any person from any part of India and examining him on oath;
(b) requiring the discovery and production of any documents;
(c) receiving evidence on affidavits;
(d) requisitioning any public record or copy thereof from any court or office;
(e) issuing commissions for the examination of witnesses and documents;
(f) Any other matter which the President may by rule, determine;

Clause (9) of 338A provides that the Union and every State Government shall consult the Commission on all major policy matters affecting Scheduled Tribes.

The record of tribal development strategy and programmes

The first Five Year Plan emphasized the provision of additional financial resources through a community development approach to address the problems of tribal people rather than evolving a clear-cut tribal development strategy. Towards the end of the plan (1954), 43 Special Multipurpose Tribal Development Projects (MTDPs) were created. These MTDPs could not fully serve the interests of the tribal people since the schemes were numerous and of a general nature.

This approach continued during the Second Five Year Plan.

In the Third Plan, a different strategy for tribal development was evolved by converting those Community Development Blocks where the concentration of tribal population was 66% and above into Tribal Development Blocks (TDBs).

By the end of the Fourth Five Year Plan, the number of TDBs in the country rose to 504. The strategy of development through TDBs had its limitations as well, as it failed to address the cause of the tribal population of the country living outside the TDBs, which comprised more than 60% of the total tribal population.

The present strategy – The Tribal Sub Plan (TSP)

The Tribal Sub Plan strategy was developed by an Expert Committee set up by the Ministry of Education and Social Welfare in 1972 under the Chairmanship of
Prof. S.C. Dube for the rapid socio-economic development of tribal people and was adopted for the first time in the Fifth Five Year Plan. The strategy adopted continues till this day. Its guidelines were under review by a task force in the Planning Commission. The recommendations of the task force has been accepted by the Planning Commission for its implementation in the current financial year 2011-12.

It may be mentioned here that TSP concept is not applicable to the tribal majority
States of Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland and in the UTs of Lakshadweep and Dadra & Nagar Haveli where tribals represent more than 60% of the population, since the Annual Plan in these States/ UTs is itself a Tribal Plan.

Though the States are expected to provide under the TSP funds which are at least equal to the percentage of the tribal population to the total population in the State, and though both the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and the Planning Commission had written to the States to do so, this was unfortunately not followed by all the States while preparing the Annual Plan for 2010-11.

The TSP strategy is expected to be followed in the Central Ministries/ Departments also so that an adequate flow of funds in the Central Ministries/Departments is ensured. Ministries/Departments had earlier been reporting difficulty in implementing TSP citing indivisibility of projects, projects being applicable to all communities, including SCs/ STs etc. The Ministry of Tribal Affair taking this into account had approached Planning Commission for devising a different strategy for Central Ministries on TSP.

The Planning Commission then constituted a Task Force under the Chairmanship of Dr. Narendra Jadhav to review the guidelines.