The State Government has made several innovative efforts in a period of one year for the all-round development of the tribal community of the State and to give them full respect and rights.
Pre-existing schemes and programmes were rapidly implemented in this period. Along with this, new schemes like Aahar Anudan, Madad, Ashthan were implemented. Departmental schemes were computerised.
In order to demonstrate its commitment towards the interests of the tribal community, the state government declared the voluntary holiday of World Tribal Day on August 9 as a public holiday from this year.
Loans up to Rs one lakh given to people from Scheduled Tribes by Madhya Pradesh Scheduled Tribes Finance and Development Corporation and other corporations have been waived. A total amount of Rs 45 crore has been waived.
Under the special nutritional food scheme launched to rid the families of state’s tribes Sahariya, Bharia and Baiga of malnutrition, an amount of Rs 1,000 is being deposited every month in the account of the female head of each family. This year an amount of Rs 155 crores has been distributed to 2 lakh 21 thousand 519 women.
Community lunch on rituals like birth, death, etc is traditionally considered to be mandatory in the tribal community.
To provide financial assistance to tribal families in these works, MADAD scheme has been started in 89 tribal development blocks.
Till now, an amount of Rs 30 crores has been made available for purchasing utensils in 12,245 villages of 89 tribal development blocks.
Arrangements have also been made to provide 50 kg grains for birth celebration and 100 kg grains per family in the event of death from fair price shops.
A new Ashthan Yojana has been started for the preservation of the culture and places of worship of the tribals of the State.
Provision has been made in the budget for construction and renovation of Devgudi, Midhaya and Devthan built in the places of the Kuldevta and village deities of tribal communities, construction of community buildings for the rest of the devotees visiting these places and arrangement of electricity in the auditorums, drinking water, bathrooms, etc under the scheme.
In the first phase this year, the work of conservation and expansion of religious centres like Hariyagarh in Chhindwara district, Chaugan in Mandla district, Karvematta and Ramepur in Dindori district, Narainala in Jabalpur district, Barahdev in Jhabua district and Bhanwargarh (Tantya Bhil) in Barwani district etc. This step of the state government has also received good response from the tribal communities.
The Tribal Welfare Department has received 3159 new claims under the Forest Rights Act from December 2018 to November 30, 2019.
This year 8683 claims have been resolved, including pending cases. 5,905 claims are valid and 2,778 claims are invalid.
In the last 11 months, 1,738 Forest Rights letters have been distributed.
To make the process of the Act transparent and revisit the revoked claims, MP Van Mitra portal has been prepared. So far claims of 24,509 claimants have been registered in the portal.