Year-End-Review of Ministry of Tribal Affairs for Year 2012

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Pres Information BureauGovernment of I ndia

Ministry of Tribal Affairs31-December-2012 21:6 IST

Year-End-Review of Ministry of Tribal Affairs for Year 2012

Amending Forest Laws for Empowering Tribals

The Union Government took note of the fact that the forest dwellers had been precluded fromasserting their genuine claims to forest resources which traditionally belonged to them. The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 was enacted torecognize and vest the forest rights and occupation in forest land in forest dwelling Scheduled Tribesand other Traditional Forest Dwellers who have been residing in such forests for generations butwhose rights could not be recorded. The Forest rights Act has been in operation for more than fouryears and despite substantial progress made in the last four years certain lacuna and bottlenecks wereobserved which were impeding the intended flow of benefits to the forest dwelling communities.Appropriate changes in the Rules have been brought about on 06.09.2012. After the amendments in

the Rules, the Ministry organized five regional consultations on Forest Rights Act followed by aNational meeting at New Delhi. In the regional consultations and the National meetings, the StatesGovernments were directed to make special efforts to create awareness about community rights so thatmore claims are filed and recognized. The amendment in the Rules has now empowered the GramSabha to issue transit permit for minor forest produce either through a Committee constituted underRule 4(1)(e) or any other person authorized by it. The amended Rule also makes it amply clear that theownership of minor forest produce lies with the forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional ForestDwellers.

Guidelines for states on Forest Rights Act

A guidelines have been issued on 12.07.2012 to ease out the problems and hindrances encountered inthe implementation of the Act, and to provide unencumbered access to rights already conferred by theAct. The guidelines require the State Governments to ensure recognition of the forest rights relatingto minor forest produce and to bring the State policies in alignment with the provisions of theScheduled Tribes and Other Traditional forest Dwellers(Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, do awaythe monopoly of the Forest Corporations in the trade of minor forest produce in the States, play thefacilitating role in not only transferring unhindered absolute rights over minor forest produce to forestdwelling Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers but also in getting themremunerative prices for the minor forest produce collected and processed by them.

Implementation of Forest Rights Act

The Ministry of Tribal Affairs is obtaining information from the State/ UT Governments regarding thestatus of implementation of the Forest Rights Act, 2006, every month, and compiling a monthlyprogress report on the status of implementation of the Act in the country. As per the information

received from the State/ UT Governments, a total number of 32,37,579 claims (31,73,520 individualand 64,059 community) had been filed under the Forest Rights Act, 2006 till 30th November, 2012,out of which 27,91,168 claims (86.21% of the total claims filed) had been disposed off. Out of thetotal 27, 91,168 claims disposed off, 12,79,009 claims were approved and same number of titles weredistributed. As per the available data, against the total number of 64,059 claims filed for communityrights, 8,498 titles for community rights (13.26%) were distributed.

Development of Forest Villages

This Ministry is implementing a programme for development of Forest Villages since 2005-06 for

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the inhabitants of the Forest Villages and for providing basic facilities and services in 2,474 forestvillages/ habitations spread over 12 States. Under the programme, infrastructure work relating to basicservices and facilities viz. approach roads, healthcare, primary education, minor irrigation, rainwaterharvesting, drinking water, sanitation, community halls, etc. are taken up for implementation. So far,this Ministry has released Rs.65379.04 lakh for the development of these forest villages.

Signing of Agreement between NSTFDC and SBI Refinance

The National Scheduled Tribe Finance and Development Corporation (NSTFDC) and State Bank of India (SBI) signed a Refinance Agreement in New Delhi. By signing the agreement, State Bank of India, the largest Public Sector Bank in the country, entered into an arrangement with NSTFDC forchannelizing concessional loans to the Scheduled Tribes. This also reflects positively on the SBI thatthey not only cater to the large business houses and high net worth individuals and industrialists butare also committed to economic upliftment of the weaker sections of the society.Under the arrangements, NSTFD would provide refinance to SBI for loans extended to Self HelpGroup comprising all ST members. ST beneficiaries would pay concessional interest rate of 6% p.a.only. This arrangement would open doors of more than 14000 branches of SBI to the needy Scheduled Tribes Community for seeking loans upto RS. 5 lakh at the concessional rate.

National Tribal Awards

On ther Ocassion of "Prakriti", a National Festival of Tribal dance and music, the National TribalAwards for outstanding tribal achievers in sports, education, and culture and to outstandingcontributors towards tribal welfare was presented. Smt. BinnyYanaga (Maya) was given the award forExemplary Community Service rendered to the Scheduled Tribes, carrying a cash prize of Rs.5.00lakhs, a citation and a trophy. Smt. M.C. Mary Kom awarded the Best Tribal Achiever Award foroutstanding achievement in the field of sports, carrying a cash prize of Rs. 2.00 lakhs, a citation and atrophy and Shri Guru Rewben Mashangva was also awarded the Best Tribal Achiever Award foroutstanding contribution in the field of tribal art and culture.

Scheme for Pre-matric Scholarship

The Ministry has launched a Centrally-sponsored Scheme for Pre-matric Scholarship for needy STstudents studying in Classes IX and X w.e.f. 1.7.2012 which is being implemented through State

Governments and UT Administrations.

Development of Primitive Tribes There are 75 tribal groups identified as Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PTGs), earlier knownas Primitive Tribal Groups. List of the 75 PTGs identified in 17 States and the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The Government introduced a Central Sector Scheme known asDevelopment of PTGs and from the Eleventh Five Year Plan, the Conservation-cum-Development(CCD) Plan has been implemented under the scheme. The scheme provides for planning for theirsocio-economic development in a holistic manner by adopting habitat development approach andintervening in all spheres of their social and economic life so that the quality of life of PTGs isimproved and visible impact is made. Allocation during the Twelfth Five Year Plan under thisScheme has not been finalised. However, Rs.244.00 crore has been allocated during 2012-13.

Consultation with North Eastern States on Tribal Development

A consultation with North Eastern States was held here in New Delhi on the issues of tribaldevelopment. During the meeting the issues like, strengthening of cooperation between Ministry of Tribal Affairs and North Eastern States, perspective plans of North Eastern States for the 12th Planregarding development of STs including strategies for bridging development deficits, sharing specificinitiatives/experience of North Eastern States for protection and empowerment of STs were discussed. The consultation was attended The Minister of Tribal Affairs, Minister of State (IC) of DONER,Minister of State for Tribal Affairs and Senior official of the Ministry and representatives of Statesincluding Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Tripura, Nagaland and Sikkim.

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ver u ee ee ra on o

The Silver Jubilee celebration of the Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of IndiaLimited (TRIFED) was celebrated. The Silver Jubilee function of TRIFED’ provided an opportunityto take stock of the situation, ponder over the future challenges and redefine the role for theorganization in the rapidly changing environment. The TRIFED was started in August1987 with themain objective of providing marketing support for the tribal products so that remunerative prices canbe ensured to the tribals for the products collected/cultivated by them. TRIFED’s effort to build

“TRIBES INDIA” as a brand needs special mention as it provided tribal handicrafts and textileproducts a distinct identity in the market. The TRIFED has been consistently growing in terms of salesand from a single store in 1999 at Delhi now TRIBES India network has covered 16 States with 26stores and still expanding. The Minister expressed his support to TRIFED and expressed the hope that TRIFED would emerge as a big and successful organization.

PKM

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Documents

Year-End-Review of Ministry of Tribal Affairs for Year 2012