More than 10 crore Indians from 1,400 communities belong to Denotified, Nomadic, Semi-nomadic groups, show the latest estimates available with the government.
- But the Union Social Justice Ministry received only 402 applications online from across the country for benefits under the Scheme for Economic Empowerment of Denotified (DNTs, and ), Nomadic ( NTs), Semi-nomadic (SNTs) (SEED) Tribes.
Key points
- None of the applications received so far on the SEED’s online portal has been approved yet.
- The exercise to categorise all 1,400 communities under the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Classes is holding up the implementation of the scheme.
About SEED scheme
- SEED scheme aims to provide free competitive exam coaching to students, health insurance and financial assistance for housing and uplift clusters of these communities through livelihood initiatives.
- The Ministry has been allocated ₹200 crore for this scheme to be spent over five financial years from 2021-22 to 2025-26.
- The scheme would be implemented through an online portal that would issue a unique ID to each applicant to apply and track the status of the application online.
- Of the applications received on the portal so far, 17 are for free coaching, 111 for health insurance, 222 for housing, and 52 for livelihood assistance.
About DNTs, NTs and SNTs communities
- The misery of DNTs, NTs and SNTs communities began with the enactment of the Criminal Tribes Act, 1871 during the British rule.
- These communities were subjugated, persecuted and neglected. The first commission was set up in October 2003 to look into the problems of these communities.
- The Renke Commission was set up in 2008.
- The National Commission was constituted in 2015 under the chairmanship of Shri Bhiku Ramji Idate. This commission was tasked among others to identify and proper listing of these communities in different states, to evaluate the progress of development of these communities in the states so that a systematic approach can be developed for the development of these communities.
- Based on the recommendation of this commission, the Government of India set up the Development and Welfare Board for DNTs, SNTs &NTs (DWBDNCs) in 2019.
- There are a total of 425 Denotified Tribes, 810 Nomadic Tribes and 27 Semi Nomadic Tribes in India.
