Need to formulate Tribal Sub-Plan Act: TISS tells Maha govt

To address the serious economic and social issues of the tribal community, there is a need to formulate a Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP) Act, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) has recommended to the Maharashtra government.
"There is a need for a Tribal Sub-Plan Act or Bill designed to address the management of TSP funds and to address serious economic and social issues of tribal communities," the report suggested.
TISS along with UNICEF conducted a study in FY14 to analyse the tribal sub-plan formulation, funds flow, planning and implementation process and monitoring and evaluation of TSP schemes and programmes in Maharashtra.

The report recommended that a Scheduled Tribe budgeting Act needs to be formulated.
Since the gap between the social indicators for STs (Scheduled Tribes) is not only large, but also increasing compared to non-STs, there is an urgent need for a larger share of the pie to be shared with them, it further noted.
"Hence, a weighted average of allocation based on grading of the extent of deviations will be necessary for budgeting to be effective," the report recommended.

TISS also suggested facilitation of needs-based planning for targeted development of some of the most vulnerable groups by planning management units (PMUs) with adequate planning and IT skills. This unit could also manage management information system and monitor the schemes.

"The Gram Sabhas and Gram Panchayats need to be involved in selection of beneficiaries in order to reach the most marginalised among the ST population. Also, the schemes run by more than one department under different names should be merged and run by only one department that has specialisation, to ensure better performance and impact," it suggested.
The TISS report also said that needs regarding housing, water supply, health, nutrition, integrated child development services scheme and public distribution scheme must also be addressed. TSP can serve as an additional component to cover hard to reach and sparsely populated areas.
For health, interventions beyond the lowest facility levels (sub-centres and Anganwadis) in high mortality, morbidity areas have been recommended.