[ZESTCaste] SC, ST welfare: ‘we can see the figures but not the results'

http://www.hindu.com/2011/03/26/stories/2011032662471100.htm

New Delhi Printer

SC, ST welfare: 'we can see the figures but not the results'

Staff Reporter

MUMBAI: Plan after Plan and thousands of crores of rupees are allotted
for the welfare of the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and the Schedules Tribes
(STs).

Their condition, however, still remains dismal. "We can see the
figures, but we cannot see the results," activist Surekha Dalvi said
at a seminar on social sector budgeting here on Friday.

She said that funds for the Scheduled Caste Sub Plan (SCSP) and the
Tribal Sub Plan (TSP), meant specifically for these sections, got
routinely diverted for other purposes.

For instance, "TSP funds were used for the Surya dam in the
Adivasi-dominated area of Palghar in Maharashtra. It was said that the
water was meant for the Adivasis. However, we found it was being
diverted to the Vasai-Virar municipal corporation. This happens
everywhere," Ms. Dalvi said.

She said that on most occasions, the diversions were effected through
cabinet decisions by considerations of "special cases."

The Adivasis of Maharashtra form 8.9 per cent (around one crore) of
the total population of the State. More than 90 per cent of them are
below the poverty line, and a negligible 0.7 per cent is in higher
education.

"Five things were promised to them after independence — the right to
natural resources and forests, local administration, decision-making
power, cultural security, and the right to chart out their own
development path. None of this is reflected in the schemes formulated
for them," Ms. Dalvi said.

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