Like UPA, NDA's Union Budget 2015 neglects tribals

The Narendra Modi government appears to have continued where the Congress regime left off as far as welfare of Dalits and adivasis is concerned. Plan allocation for schemes under various ministries and departments that serve Dalits and adivasis remains much below the targeted levels in the Union Budget for 2015-16.

Total Plan allocation in the recently presented Union Budget is Rs 4.65 lakh crore. To ensure that Plan funds reach Dalits and adivasis, an executive policy of allocating 16.6% of this for Dalits under the Schedule Caste Sub Plan (SCSP) and 8.6% for tribals under the Tribal Sub Plan (TSP) has been in place since the mid-1970s.

However, the budget for 2015-16 has allocated only 6.6% for the welfare of Dalits and only 4.3% for tribals. Various Dalit and tribal advocacy groups have expressed shock over this. While the practice of under-allocation to these two most vulnerable sections of Indian society has been going on for many years over successive governments, this time round the allocations are particularly low.

The Union government is explaining this by saying that some of the slack will have to be picked up by the state governments because more funds have been given to them than before, guided by the 14th Finance Commission.

Allocations made unkder the two schemes or sub-plans are meant to be used for economic development, community development through basic infrastructure and social development by attending to educational, health and other basic needs.

In the budget for 2015-16 presented to the Parliament by finance minister Arun Jaitley on 28 February , allocations for Dalits are pegged at Rs 30,850 crore, while the allocation for adivasis is only Rs 19,980 crore.