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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | NDA follows UPA in starving dalits, tribals of funds -Subodh Varma

NDA follows UPA in starving dalits, tribals of funds -Subodh Varma

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published Published on Mar 6, 2015   modified Modified on Mar 6, 2015
-The Times of India

The Narendra Modi government appears to have continued where the Congress regime left off as far as welfare of Dalits and adivasis is concerned.

Plan allocation for schemes under various ministries and departments that serve dalits and adivasis remains much below the targeted levels in the Union Budget for 2015-16.

Total Plan allocation in the recently presented Union Budget is Rs 4.65 lakh crore. To ensure that Plan funds reach Dalits and adivasis, an executive policy of allocating 16.6% of this for Dalits under the Schedule Caste Sub Plan (SCSP) and 8.6% for tribals under the Tribal Sub Plan (TSP) has been in place since the mid-1970s.

However, the budget for 2015-16 has allocated only 6.6% for the welfare of Dalits and only 4.3% for tribals. Various Dalit and tribal advocacy groups have expressed shock over this.

While the practice of under-allocation to these two most vulnerable sections of Indian society has been going on for many years over successive governments, this time round the allocations are particularly low.

The Union government is explaining this by saying that some of the slack will have to be picked up by the state governments because more funds have been given to them than before, guided by the 14th Finance Commission.

Allocations made under the two schemes or sub-plans are meant to be used for economic development, community development through basic infrastructure and social development by attending to educational, health and other basic needs.

In the budget for 2015-16 presented to the Parliament by finance minister Arun Jaitley on 28 February, allocations for Dalits are pegged at Rs 30,850 crore, while the allocation for adivasis is only Rs 19,980 crore.

If the guidelines for these schemes were to be followed, the allocations should have been Rs 77,236 crore towards SCSP and Rs 40,014 crore towards TSP. So, Dalits have lost out on about Rs 46,386 crore and adivasis about Rs 20,034 crore.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised to whip the budget into shape and make the economy fairer for Dalits, adivasis and other marginalized sections. Unfortunately, his words have not translated into action," says Paul Divakar of the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR).

"Allocations in the education sector have also declined to Rs 10,194.7 crore under the SCSP and Rs 5,486.44 crore under TSP. Allocation in the critical Post Matric Scholarship Scheme for SC/STs has been reduced from Rs 1,904.78 crore to Rs 1,599 crore. Retrogressive allocations are also seen in the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, midday meal scheme and in higher education for SCs and STs," he added.

Earlier analysis done by the NCDHR had shown that in the last eight years, Dalits have been deprived of Rs 198539.10 crore while adivasis have lost Rs 84916.42 crore through under-allocation of funds in SCSP and TSP. Even the truncated allocation is not spent completely as shown by a comparison of budget allocation and revised estimates for last year presented in this year's Union Budget.

Last year, Rs 50,548 crore was allocated unde the SCSP but only Rs 33,638 crore is provisionally estimated to have been spent. That means about a third of the funds were not spent. Similarly, Rs 32,387 crore was allocated for tribals under TSP but only Rs 20,536 crore was spent according to revised estimates. So, about 37% was unspent.


The Times of India, 6 March, 2015, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/NDA-follows-UPA-in-starving-dalits-tribals-of-funds/articleshow/46473251.cms


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