No native tribals in Delhi but govt gets funds for welfare

Delhi does not have native tribal population nor does it reserve jobs and admissions for them but the national Capital gets money for the welfare of tribals from the Central government. Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Aug 21, 2012, 24:24:31 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Delhi does not have native tribal population nor does it reserve jobs and admissions for them but the national Capital gets money for the welfare of tribals from the Central government.

In a reply to an RTI application by this correspondent, the Tribal Affairs ministry said that it was providing funds to the Delhi government for welfare of tribals.

Data provided by the ministry for the last three financial year show that funds worth Rs80 lakh were given to the city government under its scheme of coaching for Scheduled Tribes.

The Centre's reservation policy for Scheduled Tribes is not applicable in Delhi because the city does not have any native tribals like majority of the states in India. Also, tribals cannot claim reservation benefit outside the state of their nativity.

In 2004, the Delhi High Court had dismissed a petition seeking reservation for tribals in the Delhi government and its sub-ordinate offices saying there was no Presidential notification declaring any tribe in Delhi.

In 2010, the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes had asked the Delhi government to reserve seats for tribals outside their original place of nativity, stirring the debate whether tribals should get reservation benefit in the Capital.

This raises a pertinent question. Why is the Delhi government seeking funds for coaching of tribals, who cannot claim reservation benefit in the state? Officials say the money is for those tribals who come to Delhi for educational purposes.

The RTI reply says the Centre is funding two projects in Delhi which is more than states such as Odisha, which has substantial tribal population. The Delhi government's website for welfare of Scheduled castes, tribes and minorities, however, does not indicate how the money has been spent for welfare of tribals in the 11th plan (2007-12). It makes it clear that the city government has a plan only for welfare of scheduled caste and minorities, not tribals.

Along with Delhi, the ministry's reply shows that the Central government has spent around Rs7 crore for coaching of tribal students across 13 states in India.

The maximum amount of money has been received by Tamil Nadu followed by Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. Delhi falls in the fourth place.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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