TISS: Tribal Sub-Plan Act needed

Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) has recommended to Maharashtra government that there is a need to formulate a Tribal Sub Plan Act (TSP) in order to face the serious economic and social issues of tribal communities.

According to the report, the Tribal Sub Plan Act or Bill is for the sake of managing TSP funds better and addressing serious economic and social issues of tribal communities.

A study has been conducted by TISS along with UNICEF in the financial year 2014 to analyze the tribal sub-plan formation, flow of funds, planning and implementation process, and monitoring and evaluation of TSP schemes and programmes in Maharashtra. According to the report from the study, it is highly recommended to have a Scheduled Tribe budgeting Act that should be formulated.

There is a large gap between the social indicators for Scheduled Tribes (STs). The gap is also increasing day by day when compared to non-STs. Such increase demands an immediate need for sharing more with them state the report.

The report recommended that a weighted average of allocation depending on grading of the extent of deviations is necessary to make budget more effective.

Furthermore, TISS suggested using needs based planning in order to have targeted development of groups which are particularly vulnerable. They suggested using planning management units (PMUs) combined with proper planning and IT skills. This unit can also be used to manage information systems and supervise the schemes.

The report suggested that involving Gram Sabhas and Gram Panchayats while selecting the beneficiaries. This will help reach the most marginalised among the ST population. If a scheme is being run by more than one department under different names, then they should be merged together into one scheme and be run by one department which has specialization. This will help schemes to be more efficient, states the reports.

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