New Delhi, Feb. 15 (IANS): The 'Scheme for Economic Empowerment of DNT' (SEED) for the welfare of de-notified, nomadic and semi nomadic communities will be launched by the Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry on Wednesday, an official statement said.
Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Dr Virendra Kumar will launch the SEED on February 16 at Dr Ambedkar International Centre here.
In a statement, the ministry said that the de-notified, nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes are the most neglected, marginalised and economically and socially deprived communities. "Most of them have been living a life of destitution for generations and still continue to do so with an uncertain and gloomy future. De-notified, nomadic and semi- nomadic tribes somehow escaped the attention of our developmental framework and thus are deprived of the support unlike Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes," the ministry said.
According to the ministry, a scheme for empowerment of DNT communities have been formulated for families having income from all sources of INR 2.50 lakh or less per annum and not availing any such benefits from similar scheme of centre government or the state government. The scheme will have four components with an approximate cost of INR 200 crore to be spent over a period of five years starting Financial Year 2021-22 to 2025-26.
Component of scheme are to provide coaching of good quality for candidates from the communities to enable them to appear in competitive examinations, to provide health insurance to DNT/NT/SNT communities, as per norms of 'Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana', to facilitate livelihoods initiative at community level to build and strengthen small clusters of communities institutions and to provide financial assistance for construction of houses to members of the communities. As per the ministry, historically these communities never had access to private land or home ownership. These tribes used forests and grazing lands for their livelihood and residential use and had strong ecological connections. Many of them are dependent upon various types of natural resources and carve out intricate ecological niches for their survival. The changes in ecology and environment seriously affect their livelihood options.