Tribal people are not availing of various government schemes, meant for their welfare, due to their lack of awareness, said the speakers at the inaugural of an orientation workshop on ‘Welfare schemes of the Government of India for tribal people,’ here on Monday.
The workshop was organised by the Bureau of Outreach and Communication – Regional Outreach Bureau, Visakhapatnam, of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I & B) to train the field-level staff on reaching out to the tribal people in the interior areas.
Deputy Inspector General (Visakhapatnam Range) L.K.V. Ranga Rao, who participated as the chief guest, said that several government departments were involved in the protection of the interests of tribal people. The officers and staff of these departments should not be under the impression they were doing a favour to the tribals. The culture of tribal people was developed and there was no need to change it. All that they need was educational advancement and bringing about a change in some of their habits.
The artiste teams (kala brundalu) should identify the target groups and tell what was needed to that particular group. Youth should be told about the career prospects available to them and women on various aspects of their own health as also that of children. Mr. Ranga Rao said that though the Maoists would make their own efforts to influence the tribals, unlike the government departments, the Maoists do not have social outreach groups.
Field Publicity Officer M. Srinivas Mahesh in his report said that the Government of India has allocated ₹53,700 crore to tribal areas to provide better connectivity, improvement of roads, provision of drinking water and health. The objective was to ensure that the schemes reach the last person.
Jeevan Rani, District Immunisation Officer, briefed about the various schemes being implemented for the welfare of tribal women with the objective of bringing them on par with their counterparts in the plain areas. Apart from providing free education and health care, the tribal students were being given interest-free loans ranging between ₹10 lakh and ₹1 crore. K.S.L.G. Sastry, Chief Medical Officer, GVMC, explained about the programmes being implemented by the governments to improve the health facilities in tribal areas and appealed to the beneficiaries to utilise them.
Subedar Major Ramakrishna of CRPF 198 Bn, Tribal Welfare Officer Seetharamulu and a professor from Andhra University Srimannarayana were among those who spoke.
