Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that he has seen the suffering and struggle of the tribals since childhood. Since childhood, he yearned to improve their condition. We have always ensured that the tribal brethren of the State do not have to suffer any loss. There should be no compromise with their respect. Our ideology is that one who is at the bottom of the society, are the poorest, they are our God and we will leave no stone unturned to bring them forward. The system of this Government is to met out justice to every poor and serve the people better.
The tribals have equal rights to all resources and development opportunities to live their lives. The State Government is committed to giving them this right. Chief Minister Shri Chouhan was addressing the Vanadhikar Utsav.
On this occasion, Chouhan distributed Van-Adhikar Patras and also released the Vandhikar Pustika. Chouhan also interacted with the beneficiaries. Tribal and Scheduled Castes Welfare Minister Meena Singh and Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and Science and Technology Om Prakash Sakhlecha were also present in this State-level programme organised at the Tribal Museum under Gareeb Kalyan Saptah. Forest Minister Vijay Shah, joined the meeting through video conferencing from the hospital where he is undergoing treatment for Corona.
Chouhan said that the state government is constantly active for the welfare and development of tribals. A network of roads has been laid down all over the State. Our effort is that every child and girl belonging to the Scheduled Tribes category should get all opportunities to pursue studies.
A large number of ashrams, schools, hostels, Eklavya schools have been established in the state. The tribal welfare budget was only Rs 635 crores in 2003-04, which has now increased to Rs 7,384 crores.
In the last 15 years, number of tribal high schools has risen by 112 percent, higher secondary schools by 81 percent, sports complex by 85 percent and an unprecedented rise in the number of pre and post matric hostels.
The State Government is making all possible arrangements for education. The scholarship process has been simplified. In order to ensure better and transparent arrangements in hostels, vigilance was increased by making children and parents participate in the hostel management.
The State Government will soon start senior hostels and college hostels as well. Fifty tribal high schools of the state will be upgraded to higher secondary schools. Our effort is to ensure that children of Scheduled Class also learn computers. For this, IT centres and video conferencing rooms are being built in 33 Eklavya schools at a cost of Rs 7.20 crore. Along with the construction of school buildings, construction of 25 new hostel buildings is in progress at a cost of Rs 50 crores.
Arrangements have also been made to provide rent to help students who go to cities to pursue further studies after school education and who are unable to find hostels. Scholarship is being provided to 50 students of the state every year to enable students of Scheduled Tribes to get education abroad. Every effort is being made to change the life of this class.
As many as 24 residential sports complexes have been set up to train and nurture the talents of tribal children.