Budget '18 offers boost for SCs/STs

Presenting the Union Budget 2018-19 in the Parliament here on Thursday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that the total earmarked allocation for the Scheduled Castes (SCs) in 279 programmes has been increased from Rs 34,334 crore in 2016-17 to Rs 52,719 crore in RE 2017-18.

Likewise, for the Scheduled Tribes (STs), the earmarked allocation has been increased from Rs 21,811 crore in 2016-17 to Rs 32,508 crore in RE 2017-18 in 305 programmes.

Jaitley further said that the earmarked allocation has been increased to Rs 56,619 crore for the SCs and Rs 39,135 crore for the STs in BE 2018-19.

He also announced that the welfare fund for the SCs will get a boost.

The Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency Bank (MUDRA) Yojana launched in April 2015 led to the sanction of Rs 4.6 lakh crore in credit from Rs 10.38 crore MUDRA loans.

While 76 percent of loan accounts are of women, more than 50 percent belong to the SCs, STs and Other Backward Classes (OBCs).

Budget 2018-19 proposed to set a target of Rs 3 lakh crore for lending under MUDRA after having successfully exceeded the targets in all previous years.

Finally, by 2022, every block with more than 50 percent ST population and at least 20,000 tribal people will have 'Ekalavya' school at par with Navodaya Vidayalas.