A HIGH-LEVEL committee probing accusations of siphoning off tribal welfare funds has indicted former Maharashtra minister Vijay Kumar Gavit, now a BJP MLA, and over 50 serving and retired government officials for illegalities. In a state that sets aside nearly 9 per cent of its budget for the welfare of tribal families, this rampant siphoning of funds meant for the poorest of poor has meant that the condition of tribals remains significantly unchanged. Data released by the Centre shows that 61.6 per cent of the rural Scheduled Tribe population in the state are living below the poverty line. In spite of the massive funds spent by the state to improve their condition, data shows that percentage of BPL tribals in rural areas has been increasing in the state — from 50.38 per cent in 1993-94 to 56.6 per cent in 2004-05 to 61.6 per cent in 2011-12. Maharashtra is second only to Odisha where 63.5 per cent of the rural ST population is living below the poverty line, against a national average of 45.3 per cent. The magnitude of the state’s tribal problems can be gauged by the fact that it stands at seventh rank in the Human Development Index while Odisha is 22nd. This huge difference suggests that the machinery seems to be unable to reach out to the poorest of the poor in spite of better human development indicators. The state government spends Rs 4,000 crore per year on tribal development. It provides tribals with various sops, including foodgrains, books, household utilities, and farming equipment, which are procured through tendering process and then distributed. However, there had been complaints that many of these are products either procured by not following proper tendering procedures, and many times are not distributed to actual beneficiaries.The Maharashtra government appointed a five-member committee under Justice (Retd) M G Gaikwad to look into graft allegations in the tribal department. In its recently submitted report, the committee had acknowledged that there were irregularities in the implementation of schemes meant to benefit tribals. The state has a tribal population of 1.05 crore who constitute 9 per cent of its total population. There are 45 ST communities and the tribal population is largely concentrated in the Western hilly districts of Dhule, Nandurbar, Jalgaon, Nashik, Palghar, Thane and the districts of Chandrapur, Gadchiroli, Bhandara, Gondia, Nagpur, Amravati and Yavatmal. Over 85 per cent of these tribals stay in rural areas. Those who are deemed BPL are done so based on the parameters laid down by the Suresh Tendulkar committee, which stated that anyone with a daily per capita expenditure of lesser than Rs 27 and Rs 33 in rural and urban areas, respectively, was below poverty line. As per the committee’s calculations, 22 per cent of India was deemed to be BPL. The economic plight of STs is the worst among all social groups in the state. The situation is slightly better in urban areas. While urban poverty in Maharashtra is pegged at 9.1 per cent, that of STs staying in cities is 23.3 per cent. In an attempt to correct its course, the Maharashtra government had last week decided to start a process where it would provide direct subsidies to bank accounts for tribal students rather than procure goods through tendering and then distribute them. The state had started this initiative in an attempt to stop pilferage of purchased goods as well as corruption in the tendering process.Tribal activists however say while there is growing awareness among the community about its exploitation, it would take time for things to change on the ground. “This has been happening for years where people have fattened on the money meant for tribals. There has been massive exploitation but people are becoming aware of their rights now. There however also needs to be a change in the process by which welfare funds are distributed. Putting money in accounts or giving sops will not make a difference until fundamental infrastructure development takes place in tribal areas,” said Arjun Pawra, a tribal activist from Sakri in Dhule district. They also claim that state policies that have been formulated for improvement of the conditions of the group are largely ineffective. “Earlier, we had policies to improve the human development indicators. We have now moved on to policies which concentrate more on creation of wealth. Sadly, these policies are failing miserably because they are not in tune with ground realities. We have a situation where there is no movement of human development indicators, nor are we ensuring that wealth is created in these communities,” activist and former MLA Vivek Pandit had earlier said.
