Like Muslims, the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) will also be entitled to a 'fair share' from the government resources. About 23 per cent of the government's money would be allocated for their welfare from the next financial year.
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This comes in wake of opposition parties demanding 'fair share' for all weaker sections after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sought more allocation for government resources for the Muslims.
Acting on the PM's initiative on affirmative action for weaker sections, the Planning Commission recently issued directions to all state governments and ministries to allocate funds for SC and STs are per their share in population.
"The mid-term appraisal of the 10th plan has noted that several central ministries and departments have not earmarked adequate funds for SC and STs as per their share in population," the new guidelines noted.
The direction, in the next year budget, could mean that of the total of 2,10,000 crores at least Rs 40,000 crores would have to be earmarked only for welfare of SCs and STs. And, the amount will be non-divertible.
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The government had earlier announced that 15 per cent of resources would go for welfare of the Muslims.
The new guidelines have been issued with primarily five objectives - ensuring proper share of resources for SCs and STs, substantial reduction in poverty and unemployment, creating productive assets for them, their human resources development through better education and health services and provision of physical and financial security against all types of exploitation and oppression.
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The government had earlier announced that 15 per cent of resources would go for welfare of the Muslims.
The new guidelines have been issued with primarily five objectives - ensuring proper share of resources for SCs and STs, substantial reduction in poverty and unemployment, creating productive assets for them, their human resources development through better education and health services and provision of physical and financial security against all types of exploitation and oppression.
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To ensure that funds reach the deprived sections, the government has designated Social Justice Ministry as nodal agency for finalising and monitoring all government projects for SCs and Tribal Affairs Ministry for STs. "The two ministries will have to clear all projects for SC and STs and also ensure that the reserved category gets their share fairly," said a senior government official.
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Apart from this, each ministry will also have a 'dedicated unit' for preparation of SC and ST sub-plans for that ministry. The funds for them will have to be earmarked in a separate budget head.
"Only those schemes should be included in the sub plans which directly benefit the individuals or the families belonging to SCs or STs," the guidelines pointed out.
The government has also prioritised the sector like education, health, drinking water, nutrition, rural housing, rural electrification and rural link road for SCs and STs.
The ministries have been asked to draw schemes to encourage institutional finance for them in addition to the plan allocation. Various report have indicated that these basic facilities were lacking in areas populated by SCs and STs.
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.
