News Excerpt:

With the 2021 Census indefinitely delayed, the government’s attempt at using the PM Gati Shakti portal to estimate the total population of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTG) across the country is hitting one wall after another.

Key Points:

• This has led the government to arrive at three different estimates for the total PVTG population in the last three months — around 28 lakh in November, 36.75 lakh in mid-January, and 44.64 lakh by the end of January.
• The information on population is crucial to the implementation of the government’s ₹24,000 crore PM-JANMAN package for PVTGs. 
• This data is needed for accurate gap assessment and to sanction certain infrastructure projects that have a population criteria that need to be met.
• When the package was launched in November 2023 to ensure that PVTG villages had all basic facilities and infrastructure,there were around 28 lakh PVTG people in the country. 
• The government’s goal was to plug infrastructural gaps in the around 22,500 habitations they occupy.
• But by the time the operational guidelines were released in January 2024, the Tribal Affairs Ministry claimed the total population of PVTGs stood at 36.75 lakh. 
• By the end of January, the government had further revised the total population tally — pegging it at 44.64 lakh as of January 31, 2024. 
• Neither of these estimates had included data from Bihar and Manipur, with officials saying that population of some habitations are yet to be fed into the portal for the rest of the States as well.

What are the challenges in PVTG’s development:

• PVTGs are severely marginalised due to their isolation, low population, and distinct socio-economic and cultural traits. 
• They struggle with limited access to basic services, social discrimination, and vulnerability to displacement from development and natural disasters. 
• They have little political representation, hindering their participation in decision-making.
• Mainstream society often overlooks their traditional knowledge and practices, and stereotypes about their backwardness are prevalent.
• They are also battling loss of traditional livelihoods and resource rights, lack of market knowledge for Non-Timber Forest Produce, and exploitation by middlemen, threatening their traditional occupations.

Issues related to implementation of Scheme:

• Lack of current data on PVTG populations:
• Variation in PVTGs population data in the previous 3 times raise a concern about the actual data of PVTG population.
• Since 1951, there has been no separate Census for PVTG communities separately and no data has been submitted on their socio-economic indices.
• Different data collection methods in different locations are also one the the reason for different population data.
• Some districts are using population data from ration distribution charts, others are using data from as far back as the 2011 Census or surveys conducted in 2015 by government institutes.
• Some districts have designed detailed surveys and have conducted a near-headcount of the PVTG population as recently as 2023 while others have only estimated it based on household and habitation surveys, according to the district officials working on the project in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Rajasthan.
• According to government officials, most of the population data being gathered on the portal was based on “habitation-level surveys”, insisting that it was “not a Census-like exercise”.
• Challenges in implementation, such as resource limitations, lack of awareness, and unequal treatment among different PVTG groups will also affect the effectiveness of the schemes.

About PM-JANMAN package

• Under the PM-JANMAN package, the government has been able to sanction building of 1,207 km out of the targeted 8,000 km of roads; 450 of the targeted 1,000 multipurpose centres; and electrification of a little over 87,000 PVTG households. 
• The latest available government data from January shows that there are at least 12.70 lakh PVTG households across the country.
• Based on assessment available at the time, the JANMAN package has accounted for building 4.9 lakh pucca homes, for which the first instalment was released to 1 lakh beneficiaries this January. 
• In addition, close to 1,000 Anganwadi centres have been sanctioned so far out of the targeted 2,500.
• The entire ₹24,000 crore allocation for the JANMAN package is meant to be spent over a period of three years. 
• Each of the nine Ministries attached to the project have set aside funds from their respective Scheduled Tribes Component for this purpose. 
• So far, projects sanctioned under the package amount to a little over ₹4,700 crore.

Way Forward:

• Population data of PVTG is important for the implementation of the JANMAN scheme. Hence proper and common data collection methods should be developed and used for data collection.
• For the proper implementation of the scheme, the government should work for equal distribution of resources, raising awareness about the PVTG and their vulnerability so that they can be included in mainstream, equal treatment of different PVTGs etc.