New Delhi: The National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST), a government body that monitors safeguards for Scheduled Tribes and ensures they are met, has objected to the blueprint of the PM Social Inclusion Mission for Welfare of SCs and STs (PMSIM), as per an Economic Times report.
Their chief objection is that PMSIM will merge two major and vastly different central initiatives – the Development Action Plan for Scheduled Castes (DAPSC) and Scheduled Tribe Component (STC) – ET reported. Problems faced by the SCs and STs are very different, and need separate approaches; putting both initiatives under one head would endanger this, ET reported the NCST as having conveyed to the government.
The brand-new PMSIM
The Union government will soon launch the new “PM Social Inclusion Mission for Welfare of SCs and STs” or PMSIM. The newly conceived flagship mission, budgeted at Rs 2.5 lakh crore, aims to implement targeted schemes for the socially and economically backward Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. It will also directly fund schemes (including scholarships and skilling programmes) benefiting people in these communities, and habitations in villages with over 50% SC and ST population.
The new mission, however, will also merge two existing, and vastly different initiatives set up for the benefit of the SC and ST communities. These are the Development Action Plan for Scheduled Castes (DAPSC) and the Scheduled Tribe Component (STC). Currently, the two programmes are separate. As per the ET report, they required 41 Central ministries and departments to allocate a certain proportion of Budget outlay (around 16.6% for Scheduled Castes and 8.6% for Scheduled Tribes) for targeted schemes.
Two objections
This merging is one of the features of the PMSIM that the NCST has objected to, ET reported on May 11.
As per the newspaper’s sources, the NCST has told the government that the problems of SCs and STs are “distinctly different in nature and require separate strategies for identification of gaps and prevailing disparities as well as providing administrative arrangements and solutions thereof are also likely to be different for both categories”. ET also reported that the NCST recommended that separate guidelines and strategies be adopted for STs.
Another aspect of the PMSIM that the NCST has objected to is that it exempts some ministries and departments from allocating budgets for ST welfare schemes, ET also reported. These are the Ministry of Coal, the Department of Consumer Affairs, the Ministry of Mines and the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
The NCST has objected to this exemption and has sought justification for this, according to the report.