Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram on Thursday said that the Ministry is committed towards a comprehensive and an all-encompassing development programme for the Scheduled Tribes.
Addressing a Press conference, he said, “The present focus is to enable an ecosystem of equal opportunity for education, health and livelihood, and to ensure sustainable development of the tribal community while preserving the unique identities and culture of these communities.”
Minister of State Mansukhbhai Dhanjibhai Vasava and Secretary
Dr Hrusikesh Panda were also present on the occasion.
Oram highlighted the few initiatives of the Ministry that led to change in work culture for improved delivery of services to common people.
He laid stress on strengthening of institutions and said, "While a number of focused efforts have been undertaken for the development of the tribals over the years, there remains a big gap in human development indices between Scheduled Tribes and other social groups."
He further informed about the umbrella scheme for Education of ST Children and said, " Educating tribal children has been a challenge for the Government due to various socio-cultural, economic, ecological and administrative reasons. Our Ministry with its mandate to fill critical gap to tribal people envisaged a holistic scheme to cover all aspects of education by subsuming and re-engineering following schemes for educational development."