On Gandhi Jayanti yesterday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched ‘Dharti Aaba Janjati Gram Utkarsh Abhiyan’ in Hazaribagh, Jharkhand. In this campaign, schemes worth Rs 83,300 crores will be implemented for the upliftment of 5 crore tribal people in 63000 villages of the country. This scheme will be run in 2740 blocks of 549 districts of 30 states and union territories of the country. According to the 2011 census, 10.45 crore Scheduled Tribe people live in India and 705 tribal groups come under it. 25 targets have been set in this campaign and 17 ministries and departments will work together in this. These 17 ministries include Rural Development, Water Power, Energy, New Energy, Health and Family Welfare, Petroleum and Natural Gas, Women and Child Development, Education, AYUSH, Telecom, Skill Development, Electronics and Information Technology, Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Fisheries and Animal Husbandry Department, Panchayati Raj, Tourism and Tribal Welfare Department. In this, 1380 kms of road, 250 multipurpose centers, 500 Anganwadi centers, 10 hostels, 275 mobile medical units, 75800 houses are to be electrified. This target itself is very less compared to the announcement.
Anyway, this is the second form of the Pradhan Mantri Janjati Adivasi Naya Maha Abhiyan (PM Janman Yojana) started by Modi ji from Jharkhand last year on the birth anniversary of tribal hero Birsa Munda on 15 November. Earlier, the Modi government had run the Pradhan Mantri Vanbandhu Kalyan Yojana and Janjati Vikas Mission. Till date, the government has not evaluated to what extent the benefits of these schemes have reached the tribals. To attract the tribals before the Jharkhand elections, the BJP-RSS has launched this scheme in the name of ‘Dharti Aba’, the name given by the tribals who consider Birsa Munda as God. There is nothing new in this scheme, it is old wine in a new bottle. According to the press note issued by the Press Bureau of India on September 18, a proposal to implement this scheme has been passed in the cabinet meeting. If we look closely at the various targets given under this scheme, we will find that the government has reduced the budget of all of them in its budget. Earlier, the government had started the Pradhan Mantri Van Bandhu Kalyan Yojana in the name of development of tribals, in the budget of 2023-24, Rs 4295.40 crore was allocated for this, which has been reduced to Rs 4241.47 crore this time. Similarly, in the PM Janman Yojana started last year, a very small amount of only Rs 240 crores has been allocated. The budget of Janjati Vikas Mission (PMJVM) has been reduced from Rs 288.49 crores to Rs 152.32 crores. Similarly, the total budget of all welfare programs for tribes has been reduced from Rs 600 crores to Rs 560 crores in comparison to 2023-24. A very marginal increase of only Rs 550 crores has been made in the budget of the Ministry of Tribal Welfare. There has been a very little increase in the scholarship of tribal children. Post Matric Scholarship has been increased to Rs 2374.5 crore in comparison to Rs 2371.01 crore in 202-24, Pre-Matric Scholarship has been increased to Rs 440.36 crores this time in comparison to Rs 411.63 crores and the scholarship for higher education has been reduced to Rs 165 crores from Rs 230 crores in 2023-24. The budget of the Adi Adarsh Gram Drinking Water Scheme, which the government talks about a lot, has been reduced from Rs 1485 crores allocated in 2023-24 to Rs 1000 crores this time. The budget of Eklavya Vidyalaya has been increased very less as compared to inflation, just Rs 300 crores. Its condition is such that Rs 5943 crores was allocated in the budget of 2023-24, out of which only Rs 2471.81 crores was spent. If we look closely at the ST Sub Plan which is recorded in the 10B Expenditure Profile of the budget, then most of the money in the welfare fund of Rs 124908.95 crores has been kept for the benefit of corporate houses. Cuts have been made in items like social security and education, health, employment etc. of tribes. In the rural development budget, Rs 10355 crores was allocated in 23-24 for the tribals in MNREGA as compared to Rs 11291.99 crores allocated in 2022-23 and this time it has been increased to Rs 10000 crores. The budget was increased in the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana but the truth is that Rs 9536.26 crores was allocated in 23-24, out of which only Rs 6220.05 crores has been spent. No increase has been made this time in the budget of old age pension, family benefit, widow and disabled pension. Rs 1041.73 crores was allocated in this social assistance program in the last financial year and is lying as it was. In the tourism department, the budget has been kept at Rs 103 crores in the name of Swadesh Darshan in which rural houses etc. are to be built for the stay of foreign tourists in tribal villages.
The MSME sector in which tribals work the most, budget of Rs 2446.8 crores allocated in 2022 has been reduced to Rs 1881.42 crores this time. If we look at labour and employment, the budget for the database of unorganized labourers has been reduced to Rs 17.85 crores, the budget for coaching of tribal children has been reduced from Rs 7.5 crores to Rs 1.7 crores, the budget of Rs 30.10 crores in Shram Yogi Maan Dhan Yojana has been reduced to Rs 15.24 crores, the workers’ welfare schemes have been reduced from Rs 8.57 crores to Rs 4.35 crores, the Rs 1.12 crores allocated for the rehabilitation of child labour has been reduced to Rs 52 lakh. The scheme which the Modi government praises a lot, Atmanirbhar Bharat Rojgar Yojana, had an allocation of Rs 399.20 crores in 22-23, Rs 201.70 crores in 23-24, which has been reduced to just Rs 14.90 crores. Ayushman Bharat, which the Prime Minister was praising even yesterday, had an allocation of Rs 726.20 crores in the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana in 2022-23. It has been reduced to Rs 688.97 crores in 23-24 and Rs 715.15 crores has been kept in the budget of 24-25 as well. There has been a big cut in the budget of medical education, Rs 5559 crores allocated in the last financial year has been reduced to Rs 112.22 crores. Similarly, the total budget of Health, which was Rs 4830.41 crores in the last financial year, has been reduced to Rs 4744.53 crores. There is also a lot of discussion about the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Yojana, but the government has not allocated any budget for it this year. If we look at the School Education and Literacy Mission in education, then in PM Poshan, which provides mid-day meal to children, only Rs 14 crores has been increased as compared to inflation. There has been an increase of Rs 6 crores in higher education and the budget in the PM Higher Education Protection Scheme has been reduced. Only Rs 10 lakh has been allocated for the PM Adivasi girl students’ hostel. The budget for tribal research fellowship has been reduced from Rs 34 crores to Rs 30 crores and the budget of Rs 326.89 crores allocated in the last financial year for the assistance of tribal children studying in IIT has also been reduced to Rs 306 crores. Similarly, if we look at the food grains and public distribution budget, it was Rs 12756.53 crores in 2022-23, which has been reduced to Rs 10169 crores this time. The subsidy for the free ration given to the poor tribal people has been allocated only Rs 6260.35 crores this time as compared to Rs 9231.92 crores in 2022-23. The Bharatiya Janata Party and RSS talk big about the cultural upliftment of the tribals, but its budget has been cut by Rs 13 crores. Not a single penny has been allocated to the budget of agricultural research and education, crop science, horticulture science, animal science, fishery science, agriculture extension, agricultural universities. In the agriculture budget, the budget given to the tribes under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana has been cut by Rs 35 crores. Rs 5260 crores was allocated in the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi in 23-24, the same has been allocated this time as well. There is a lot of talk about Farmer Producer Organization (FPO) by the central government, in which only Rs 49.36 crores has been allocated. Only Rs 4.8 crores has been allocated for market intervention and price support scheme. No money has been allocated this time in the budget of Rs 458.61 crores for food and nutrition security, organic change horticulture, development sites and planning material, digital agriculture marketing. No money has been allocated in this year’s budget for the Pradhan Mantri Annadata Aam Sanrakshan Yojana. The same budget that was given last time in the agriculture infrastructure fund has been given this time as well.
On the other hand, a huge amount of money has been given to corporate houses from the sub-plan of Scheduled Tribes. 582.65 crore rupees have been allocated for telecommunications for setting up telephone towers and lines, 365.50 crore rupees for Bharat Net, 1259.31 crore rupees for new and renewable energy, 905 crore rupees for solar power, 391 crore rupees for new gas cylinder connections, 16300 crore rupees for construction of highways and road transport and in the name of food subsidy, 5633.63 crore rupees have been allocated for urea and 2062.52 crore rupees for nutrient fertilizer and 462.50 crore rupees for semi-conductor manufacturing. These have no direct connection with the upliftment of tribals. Not just this, 7016.30 crore rupees have been allocated for Adani’s project Jal Jeevan Mission in the budget.
If you look at the above statistics, it will become clear to you that the intention of the Bharatiya Janata Party is not tribal welfare. Everyone knows that the RSS people work in tribal-dominated areas under different names with the financial help of corporates. They destroy their civilization, culture, language, customs and rituals and use them for Hindutva politics. There are large amounts of mineral wealth and natural resources in tribal areas, which the corporates want to exploit, and the RSS people help them in this task. The country has seen in the states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party attacks on any peaceful movement of tribals, murders in fake encounters and waging war against tribals by the state. After losing the tribal-dominated seats in Jharkhand in the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP is nervous and wants to win the upcoming assembly elections there with the dazzling announcement of schemes. Therefore, instead of getting trapped in the misleading announcements of the BJP and RSS, the tribals should stand with democratic politics and strengthen their strength. Dinkar Kapoor
Dinkar Kapoor,, State General Secretary,, All India People’s Front, Uttar Pradesh.