Tribal Affairs Minister highlights achievements in 11 years of NDA government
Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram on Monday (May 26, 2025) launched a booklet on the 'major achievements' of the initiatives of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs in the past 11 years of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre (2014-2025), leading with the government's declaration of the 150th birth anniversary of tribal icon Birsa Munda as the 'Janjatiya Gaurav Varsh', and recently launched programmes for the saturation of basic schemes in villages inhabited by Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs).
At the event to launch the booklet, Mr. Oram responded to questions on the ₹72,000 crore Great Nicobar Island infrastructure project, saying that complaints about the alleged violation of forest rights, and the controversy over the process of procuring the gram sabha's consent for forest diversion was 'under examination'.
'Whatever documents have been submitted are under examination. It cannot be said what stage it is at right now,' Mr. Oram said, responding to questions.
It was not immediately clear which aspects were under examination. 'There are multiple aspects on these issues — one is whether gram sabha was held, whether their recommendation was received, and whether process was followed. Another aspect is the Environmental Impact Assessment. Our Ministry's purview deals with just the process of gram sabha, and other aspects are dealt with by other Ministries,' Mr. Oram said.
The infrastructure project on the Great Nicobar island has been mired in controversy since it received preliminary clearances in 2022. Soon after the project was said to have secured the consent of local tribespeople, the Tribal Council of Little and Great Nicobar withdrew the consent it was said to have granted. The National Green Tribunal, and the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes had subsequently also raised concerns over due process for the consent procedure and the environmental impact of the project.
Speaking on the achievements of the Tribal Affairs Ministry in the past 11 years, Mr. Oram said that the booklet was 'thorough' but 'it is important for me to mention this progress'. He added that a lot of the Ministry's initiatives, especially in planning health interventions, were initiated when he became the first Union Tribal Affairs Minister in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and later when he took the position again in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's first term. 'This work has been continued through the years by my fellow colleagues as well,' Mr. Oram said.
In the booklet on the achievements, the government begins with the declaration of Janjatiya Gaurav Varsh from November 15, 2024 to November 15, 2025, which is being marked with national and State-level events. This was a top promise in the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) manifesto for marginalised sections ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
Going through the booklet, the Minister then proceeded to speak on the PM JANMAN programme, which is a basic scheme saturation package that brings housing, healthcare, nutrition, road connectivity, power, and drinking water interventions to 75 PVTG communities across 19 States and Union Territories across the country. The Ministry added that, under the package, 4.35 lakh houses had been sanctioned, of which 1.04 lakh houses had been completed.
Electrification of over 1.4 lakh households had been sanctioned, of which electrification of 1.05 lakh had been completed. The Ministry said that other interventions, including setting up the Van Dhan Vikas Kendras, business training sessions, mobile medical units, and multipurpose centres, had also been initiated. Further, '596 villages saturated with interventions', the Ministry said.
The Minister also spoke about the Dharti Aba Janjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyan, a scheme saturation package designed on the lines of the PM JANMAN package to saturate ST villages with 25 interventions by involving 17 line Ministries. The Ministry also went on to highlight the Eklavya Model Residential School scheme, which has been revamped and centralised in the past half-a-dozen years.
The Ministry's booklet also spoke of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act or FRA. It spoke of having 'achieved a remarkable 412.71% increase in the distribution of Community Forest Rights titles, thereby strengthening tribal self-governance'. According to the text of the Act, the burden of implementing the legislation falls on the respective State and Union Territory governments.
Apart from this, the booklet outlines other schemes of the Ministry, including scholarships it administers for ST students, the Pradhan Mantri Adi Adarsh Gram Yojana, promotion of tribal-made products through the National Scheduled Tribes Finance and Development Corporation, a mission for 'Tribal Health Enhancement', support to Tribal Research Institutes, and special attention given to tribal freedom fighter museums.
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