The human development index reports by the Government and other agencies for different social groups in the country shows prevalence of persistent inequality. Especially, the SCs and STs are lagging behind in their progress in comparison to other social groups.
There has been widespread atrocities against the marginalised in rural parts in many forms like resource alienation, landlessness, lack of quality education, credit, low wage, distress migration and distress condition with limited access to basic amenities for quality living. Inherent limitations in allocation of targeted funds and its effective implementation to reach out to the deserving marginalized poor are galore. There is also lack of dedicated institutional mechanism and legislation to monitor the process of implementation.
In the late eighties it was decided to boost the provisions of sub plan for SCs and STs within the annual plans of the Central and State Government budgets to make the benefit of development inclusive of the marginalised poor but such planning concepts and policy directives have not been fully worked out. As a result, the human development impact over SCs and STs has been very negligible. The second most important issue is ensuring transparency and accountability in the process of implementation. It has been observed that the various schemes and programmes under Scheduled Caste Sub Plan and Scheduled Tribe Sub Plan lack transparency and the officials in charge of its implementation are not accountable for any omission and commission. The sub plan provisions are never been followed by many States such as Odisha and there has been only notional allocation to fulfill the formalities without any specific schemes and institutional mechanism to allocate, plan and monitor such fund. The nodal departments are not empowered to plan and coordinate but for sake of reporting they have been doing this as a formality. There has been regular compliant of diversion of funds allocated for sub plan in the State.
It is being argued by development planners that the special provisions are meant to eliminate inequalities in status, facilities and opportunities not only among individuals but also among different social groups. Though the concept of SCSP and TSP has been dominating the development discourses of SCs and STs in the country for last forty years but there has been very less improvement due to lack of political and administrative willpower. The limitations of sub plan for SCs and STs have been debated among planners and legislators, researchers, CSOs and social movements for a long time since its inception in 1976. During the UPA Government, there was an attempt by States such as AP and Karnataka for legal status to sub plan to make it more formal to promote accountability of the State Government.
Though it was a forward step but it did not work as much as desired. The Government of AP has enacted the AP SCSP and TSP (planning, allocation and utilization of financial resources) Act 2012. The Government of Karnataka has a similar law.
Most recently the Government of Telangana has repealed its earlier Act of 2013 and brought a new legislation in this direction to bring further improvement. The Act is named as the Telangana State Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Special Development Fund (planning, allocation and utilization of financial resources) Act, 2017. It is said that the law is going to ensure and accelerate the development of SCs and STs with emphasis on achieving equality focusing on economic, educational and human development along with ensuring their security and social empowerment by creating a special development fund of the State.
As per the provisions of the Act, the State Government has to set up a council for development of SCs and STs headed by the Chief Minister and special funds for the SCs and STs. In every financial year the State Government shall earmark a portion fund for the development schemes proportionate to the SC and ST population. Along with ongoing general schemes, the special development funds shall include only such schemes which will have direct and quantifiable benefit to SCs and STs habitations and tribal areas to bridge the gap in the development. The departments have to identify gaps and prepare action plan for SCs and STs and promote equity among different social groups within SCs and STs and their habitations with more attention to STs in scheduled areas of the State. Each department has to submit its proposal to nodal department and nodal agency for SCs and STs for its appraisal.
The schemes exclusively benefiting SCs and STs households and habitations shall get 100 per cent of the cost of the scheme out of the special fund. In respect of non -divisible infrastructure works a portion of the schemes cost shall be deemed to have been attributed out of special fund. There shall be an exclusive Secretary Finance in the Finance Department to function to fulfill the purpose as determined by the Finance Department. The State Council headed by the Chief Minister, nodal departments and nodal agencies for SCs and STs have to coordinate and maintain database of beneficiaries and monitor the progress through State and district monitoring units. There shall be annual social audit and annual report to be placed before State legislature. It is important to note that the State of Telangana also has been pursuing land distribution schemes for the landless sharecroppers of SCs and STs out of the State fund so that the rural poor have assets for livelihood and productive engagement.
It is argued that SCs and STs constitute 40 per cent of the population of Odisha and also almost half of the geographical area of the State is 5thScheduled area but the Government is not implementing the sub plan approach to bridge the wider gap that exists among social groups and among different regions. It is suggested that the Government of Odisha must follow the States such as Telangana in enacting a special legislation to accelerate the development of the SCs and STs.
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