In line with its commitment to transform the lives of the deprived communities, the Yogi Adityanath government has prepared an action plan to address the needs of the Musahar, Sahariya, Vantangiya and Nomadic communities in Uttar Pradesh.
According to the action plan, the government will not only provide housing facilities to these communities but will also work towards offering them employment opportunities. Along with this, the government will work to improve their access to basic facilities, education, and training in relevant fields.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has issued a strong directive to the officials for the welfare of these communities. The officials have been directed to provide residential facilities to these communities under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (both Rural and Urban) by allocating land through the Revenue department and facilitating setting up of businesses near their residential areas.
These families will be also linked with the MGNREGA scheme by providing them job cards by running a special campaign through Jan Suvidha Kendra. Apart from this, the officials have been instructed to identify all the families, ensure 100 per cent enrollment of their children in the local primary or secondary or higher secondary schools and provide scholarships to all of them.
Furthermore, the officials have been told to impart free training through district-level skill development institutions to the adult members of the deprived communities in accordance with their level of education and employment capacity under the Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Swarojgar Yojana of the Uttar Pradesh Scheduled Castes Finance and Development Corporation Ltd.
The previous governments had neglected these communities. In Uttar Pradesh, the people of the Musahar community reside in 19 districts, including Maharajganj, Azamgarh, Ghazipur, Gorakhpur, Ballia, Kushinagar, Jaunpur, Deoria, Varanasi, Sant Ravidas Nagar, Mirzapur, Ambedkar Nagar, Amethi, Chandauli, Mau, Pratapgarh, Sonbhadra and Sultanpur. According to the 2011 Census, the total population of these communities in Uttar Pradesh is 2,57,135.
At the same time, Lalitpur is home to a large population of Sahariyas. Their total population is 70,634. These people make baskets out of wood, collect vine leaves, and sell herbs for their livelihood. Vantangiyas reside in Gorakhpur, Balrampur, Bahraich, Pilibhit, Lakhimpur Kheri, and Maharajganj districts. Their total population is about 40,000.
Neglected during the previous regimes, these communities were taken care of by Yogi Adityanath when he became the chief minister for the first time in 2017. The government has now started efforts on a war footing to improve their standard of living and bring them into the mainstream.