Owing to the vibrant and diverse tribal culture of Madhya Pradesh, the State enjoys a distinct identity in the country. The comprehensive development of tribals has always been among the paramount priorities of the Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
For this reason, Chouhan is well known as a benefactor among the tribals. Chouhan has completed 100 days of his fourth term as the Chief Minister. During this period, he has transferred more than Rs 316 crores in the accounts of two and a half lakh beneficiaries of the tribal community for its welfare under 5 major schemes of the department through DBT. This amount has become a significant economic support in the lives of tribals during the times of corona pandemic.
Various tribal groups dwell in the Scheduled Tribe-dominated Madhya Pradesh, which constitute one-fifth of the total population of the State. Following the strategy of tribal sub-plan, economic, educational, cultural, social upliftment, activities are being conducted through various departments for comprehensive development of tribal community in the State. A provision is being made in the State budget for tribal welfare programmes in the state in proportion to the percentage of total tribal population.
An amount of more than Rs 45 crore was transferred in the last 3 months by the Chief Minister Chouhan in the accounts of over 2 lakh 28 thousand women in the State to protect the families of special backward tribes Sahriya, Baiga and Bharia from malnutrition. The amount was transferred to the accounts of the women heads of these caste groups in ratio of Rs 1,000 per month. In order to ensure that talented children of tribal communities can pursue studies by getting admission in the prestigious educational institutions of the country, coaching facility is being provided to them under the Akanksha Yojana.
During the lockdown period, an amount of Rs 1.5 crore was released for 721 tribal students. These tribal students are preparing for various entrance examinations like JEE, NEET and CLAT in Bhopal, Indore, Jabalpur and Gwalior.
Financial assistance is being provided through the Housing Scheme to provide residential facilities to tribal students, who are unable to get admission in the hostels run by the department. In the last 3 months an amount of Rs 11.30 crore was transferred to the accounts of 7,000 tribal students.
In order to ensure that the beneficiaries of tribal community get the benefits of the schemes with ease, the work to make the schemes, online and computerized was done. Software was developed for better implementation of schemes.
Now the beneficiaries have got rid of visiting office unnecessarily. All the beneficiaries of tribal and scheduled caste are required to register themselves to avail benefits of the schemes. This registration can be done free of cost at any internet kiosk easily. After registration, his/her income, educational details and other information related to the beneficiary are registered.
Till now, about 10 lakh beneficiaries of Scheduled Tribes and Caste were registered in the State through software. Efforts are being made by the department that the tribal community of the State can get the benefits of various schemes of the Government with ease and in transparent manner.
To achieve this goal, the software of the department was integrated with the Treasury, Board of Secondary Education and CCTNS server of the Police Department. Along with this, DBT payment module was made go-live to provide benefits of departmental schemes to the beneficiaries through Aadhaar linked accounts. With this module going live, DBT was made in the accounts of 2 lakh 58 thousand beneficiaries of the post-metric scholarship, housing assistance, Mukhya Mantri Madad Yojana, Hostel Scheme and Pratibha Yojana in the year 2020-21.
The department has transferred Rs 14.58 crore to one lakh 9,217 students under the Post-Matric Scholarship, Rs 39.41 lakh to 33,787 students under the Housing scheme, Rs 30.61 crore to 12,445 beneficiaries under the Mukhya Mantri Mada Yojana and Rs 90.37 crore in the accounts of 10.02 lakh students residing in hostels towards scholarship.