The Hindu : Karnataka News : Welfare schemes for tribal people on the anvil

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 22, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

Welfare schemes for tribal people on the anvil

By Our Staff Correspondent

MYSORE, SEPT. 21. The Union Minister for Tribal Affairs and Development of North-Eastern Region, P.R. Kyndiah, today said that the Centre would soon unveil programmes for the uplift of tribal people living in Karnataka.

Talking to presspersons here, Mr. Kyndiah said that the proposed programmes would incorporate those schemes that had not been implemented, but decided upon by the mini-Cabinet meetings held in Mysore and Chamarajanagar districts.

He said that several programmes had been chalked out for the tribal people during the mini-Cabinet meetings held during the S.M. Krishna regime.

Mr. Kyndiah said that the Centre would formulate special programmes for the uplift of tribal people and make efforts to merge them with the mainstream. He said that there were 180 tribal settlements in Mysore district, and that the Government had considered Mysore a focal point for implementation of programmes for tribal development in Karnataka. The commitment of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance Government was to ensure the development of tribal people and allow them to integrate themselves to the mainstream of society, he said.

NGO's demand

Representatives of NGOs working with tribal people appealed to the Minister to schedule the tribal areas in South that guaranteed constitutional rights to all the Integrated Tribal Development Project areas in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka.

The representatives also brought to the notice of the Minister the attempts made by other backward classes in Karnataka to secure the tag of Scheduled Castes. They said that the food gathering forest tribes and primitive tribes were not in a position to compete with these groups in the fields of education, employment, politics and development.

Policy sought

Seeking a national tribal policy, the representatives stated that it was necessary to safeguard the tribal people's power to self-rule, rights over forest lands as properties of communities, cultural identity, quality education, health care and promotion of tribal herbal practices. In a memorandum to the Minister, these tribal representatives said that the draft national policy had some lacunae that needed correction. Besides demanding better public and civic amenities to tribal villages, the memorandum sought provision of quality education and health care and rehabilitation of displaced tribal families. About 3,700 tribal families had become landless following the enactment Protection Act in 1972.

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