Ministry of Tribal Affairs: Government Schemes | Indian Economy for UPSC CSE PDF Download

EMRS

• The proposed EMR School aims to make quality education accessible to tribal students in remote tribal hinterlands of Nashik.

What are EMRS?

• About:
  • EMRS is a scheme for making model residential schools for Indian tribals (ST- Scheduled Tribes) across India. It started in the year 1997-98.
  • The Eklavya Model Residential School in Shinde (Nashik) has been planned by the Ministry Tribal Affairs to give impetus to quality education in nearby tribal areas.
  • The EMR School follows the CBSE curriculum.
  • Eklavya Model Residential Schools are being developed to impart quality education to tribal students, with an emphasis on not only academic education but all-round development of tribal students.
  • At present, there are 384 functional schools spanned across the country established at par with Navodaya Vidyalaya with focus on special state-of-the-art facilities for preserving local art and culture besides providing training in sports and skill development.
• Coverage:
  • As per existing EMRS Guidelines of 2010, at least one EMRS is to be set up in each Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA) / Integrated Tribal Development Project (ITDP) having 50% ST population in the area.
  • As per the budget 2018-19, every block with more than 50% ST population and at least 20,000 tribal persons, will have an Eklavya Model Residential School by the year 2022.

What are the Objectives EMRS?

• Comprehensive physical, mental and socially relevant development of all students enrolled in each and every EMRS.
• Seek to empower students to be change agents, beginning in their school, in their homes, in their village and finally in a larger context.
• Focus differentially on the educational support to be made available to those in Standards XI and XII, and those in standards VI to X, so that their distinctive needs can be met.
• Support the annual running expenses in a manner that offers reasonable remuneration to the staff and upkeep of the facilities.
• Support the construction of infrastructure that provides education, physical, environmental and cultural needs of student life.

What are the Legal Provisions for STs?

• Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955 against Untouchability
• Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989
• Provisions of the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996
• Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006

PM Van Dhan Yojana

TRIFED

• The Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India (TRIFED) came into existence in 1987.
• It is a national-level apex organization functioning under the administrative control of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.
• The ultimate objective of TRIFED is socio-economic development of tribal people in the country by way of marketing development of the tribal products such as metal craft, tribal textiles, pottery, tribal paintings and pottery on which the tribals depends heavily for a major portion of their income.

Key Points

• About 'Sankalp se Siddhi':
  • The ‘Sankalp Se Siddhi’ initiative, also known as 'Mission Van Dhan', was introduced by the central government in 2021, in line with the Prime Minister's aim to establish a sustainable livelihood for India's tribal population.
  • Through this mission, TRIFED aims to expand its operation through convergence of various schemes of different ministries and departments and launch various tribal development programmes in mission mode.
  • Through this mission, establishment of several Van Dhan Vikas Kendras (VDVKs), haat bazaars, mini TRIFOOD units, common facility centres, TRIFOOD parks, SFRUTI (Scheme of Fund for regeneration of traditional industries) clusters, tribes india retail store, e-commerce platform for trifood and tribes, India brands are being targeted.
  • TRIFED has been implementing several noteworthy programmes for the empowerment of the tribals.
    • Over the past two years, the ‘Mechanism for Marketing of Minor Forest Produce (MFP) through Minimum Support Price (MSP) & Development of Value Chain for MFP’ has impacted the tribal ecosystem in a major way.
    • TRIFED has also injected Rs. 3000 crores into the tribal economy, even during such difficult times, aided by government push.
    • The Van Dhan tribal start-ups, a component of the same scheme, have emerged as a source of employment generation for tribal gatherers and forest dwellers and the home-bound tribal artisans.
• TRIFED is involved in following initiatives:
  • Van Dhan Vikas Yojana:
    • Van Dhan Scheme, a component of ‘MSP for MFP’, was launched in 2018.
    • An initiative targeting livelihood generation for tribal gatherers and transforming them into entrepreneurs.
    • The idea is to set-up tribal community-owned Van Dhan Vikas Kendra Clusters (VDVKCs) in predominantly forested tribal districts.
    • VDVKs are for providing skill upgradation and capacity building training to tribals and setting up of primary processing and value addition facilities.
  • MSP for MFP:
    • Mechanism for Marketing of Minor Forest Produce (MFP) Through Minimum Support Price (MSP) and Development of Value Chain for MFP provide MSP to gatherers of forest produce.
    • The scheme acts as a measure of social safety for MFP gatherers who are primarily members of ST (Scheduled Tribe).
    • The scheme formed a system to ensure fair monetary returns of the gatherers for their endeavour in collection, primary processing, storage, packaging, transportation, etc.
    • MFP includes all non-timber forest produce of plant origin and includes bamboo, canes, fodder, leaves, gums, waxes, dyes, resins and many forms of food including nuts, wild fruits, honey, lac, tusser etc.
  • Tech for Tribals:
    • It aims to transform 5 crore Tribal Entrepreneurs by capacity building and imparting entrepreneurship skills to tribal forest produce gatherers enrolled under the Pradhan Mantri Van Dhan Yojana (PMVDY).
    • The program will ensure higher success rate of the Tribal Entrepreneurs by enabling and empowering them to run their business with marketable products with quality certifications.
  • TRIFOOD Scheme:
    • It was launched in August 2020 and promotes value addition to MFP.
    • TRIFOOD parks will produce processed foods from minor forest produce and also from the food gathered by the tribal people in that region.
  • Village and Digital Connect Initiative:
    • To ensure that existing schemes and initiatives reach the tribals, TRIFED’s regional officials across the country have been visiting identified villages with a significant tribal population.

Vanbandhu Kalyan Yojana

Objectives

• Improving the quality of life in tribal areas
• Improving the quality of education
• Qualitative and sustainable employment for tribal families
• Bridging infrastructure gaps with focus on quality
• Protection of tribal culture and heritage

Component of VKY

• Qualitative & Sustainable Employment.
• Quality Education & Higher Education.
• Accelerated Economic Development of tribal areas.
• Health for all.
• Housing for all.
• Safe Drinking Water for all at doorsteps.
• Irrigation facilities suited to the terrain.
• All Weather Roads with connectivity to the nearby town/cities.
• Universal Availability of Electricity.
• Urban Development.
• Robust institutional mechanism. (ITDAs/ITDPs)
• Promotion and conservation of Tribal Cultural Heritage
• Promotion of Sports in Tribal Areas.

Strategies

• Strengthening of institutions meant for delivery of goods and services with adequate administrative, technical and financial powers such as Tribal Welfare Departments as nodal Department, Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA), Integrated Tribal Development Projects (ITDPs) and creation of new ones where they do not exist etc.
• Convergence of scattered resources and activities being undertaken under various components.

Minor Forest Produce
Minor Forest Produce (MFP) is more often than not determined by the traders instead of self-sustained process of demand and supply. Implementing a scheme to ensure that such forest dwellers are not deprived of their due. Under the scheme maximum selling price for MFP is being implemented in schedule V States initially. Web based portal has also been developed which indicate current price of MFPs on real time basis across different mandis of the States.

Included Products
12 MFP products have been included in the programme namely

1. Tendu Leave
2. Bamboo
3. Mahuwa Seeds
4. Sal Leaf
5. Sal Seed
6. Lac
7. Chironjee
8. Wild Honey
9. Myrobalan
10. Tamarind
11. Gums (Gum Karaya) and
12. Karanji.

The Scheme also referred to the Forests Rights Act as landmark legislation to recognize the pre-existing rights of tribals and other traditional forest dwellers.