Lok Sabha Question No. 4293 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-03-22
Subject: Impact of COVID-19 on Tribal Communities
Ministry: TRIBAL AFFAIRS
Asked by: Faizal P.P. Mohammed

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA LOK SABHA

## MINISTRY OF TRIBAL AFFAIRS UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 4293 TO BE ANSWERED ON 22.03.2021

## IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON TRIBAL COMMUNITIES

4293: SHRI MOHAMMED FAIZAL P.P.:

Will the Minister of TRIBAL AFFAIRS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government has made an assessment of the impact of COVID 19 and the lockdown on tribal communities;
- (b) if so, the details thereof including the tribal population and districts affected by COVID-19;
- (c) if not, the reasons therefor;
- (d) the measures undertaken by the Ministry to address problems faced by tribal communities because of COVID-19 and the lockdown as a result thereof?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE FOR TRIBAL AFFAIRS (SMT. RENUKA SINGH SARUTA)

- (a) to (c) The Ministry of Tribal Affairs had assessed district wise confirmed COVID 19 cases for 177 tribal dominated Districts based on the data mapped in the website https://pracriti.iitd.sc.in/ a dynamic dashboard which has been developed and maintained by a group of volunteers from M3RG of IIT Delhi. It was observed that about 3% of total confirmed cases in the country were from 177 tribal dominated districts till June, 2020.
- (d) The Ministry of Tribal Affairs has taken up the following proactive measures to lessen the adverse effects on tribal community during the Covid-19 pandemic-
- On request of this Ministry of Tribal Affairs, the Ministry of Home Affairs vide Order No. 40-3/2020-DM-I(A) dated 16/04/20 issued guidelines aiming to relax the provisions of lockdown for Collection, harvesting and processing of Minor Forest Produce (MFP)/ Non Timber Forest Produce (NTFP) by STs and other forest dwellers in forest areas across the country.
- The  Union  Minister  of  Tribal  Affairs  wrote  letters  to  Chief  Ministers  of  15  States  to sensitize respective State Nodal Agencies for undertaking procurement of Minor Forest Produce (MFP) at Minimum Support Price (MSP) in right earnest. These States include Uttar  Pradesh;  Gujarat;  Madhya  Pradesh;  Karnataka;  Maharashtra;  Assam;  Andhra Pradesh; Kerala; Manipur; Nagaland; West Bengal; Rajasthan; Odisha; Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.
- Amid COVID-19 situation, MoTA revised the minimum support price (MSP) for minor forest produce and also added 37 new items under the MFP list taking the total number of  MFPs  under  the  scheme  to  87  while  providing  a  fillip  to  the  Income  generating activities of tribals through MFP Procurement. During 2020-21, the State Government procured MFPs worth Rs. 157.51 crores to provide immediate livelihood support to tribal MFP gatherers. State-wise details of MFP procurement is enclosed as Annexure 1 .
- The Ministry disbursed an amount of Rs. 1986.31 crores to 35.2 lakh tribal students under Pre and Post-matric scholarship scheme through DBT during 2020-21 amid the pandemic situation to provide essential support for continuation of education. The Statewise funds released and number of beneficiaries is as per Annexure 2 .
- The Ministry also disbursed an amount of Rs. 1539.93 crores to States under major schemes  viz  Special  Central  Assistance  to  Tribal  Sub-Scheme  (SCA  to  TSS), Development of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs), Minimum Support Price

to  Minor  Forest  Produce  (MSP  to  MFP)   and  Grants  under  Article  275(1)  of  the Constitution  for  various  activities  related  to  welfare  and  development  of  Scheduled Tribes including livelihood support as detailed at Annexure 3 .

- TRIFED was asked to coordinate with States to ascertain the problems being faced by tribals  in  disposal  of  MFPs,  quantum  of  MFPs  available  with  States,  strategy  for procurement along with plan for storage, value addition and sale of MFP and TRIFED also organised a Webinar in association with UNICEF wherein members of Van Dhan Vikas Kendras were made aware about COVID-19 and related health issues.
- State Governments took various steps to shut down 'haat bazars', where traders from urban  areas  visit  during  weekly  markets  and  also  ASHA  workers  are  on  the  job  to create awareness on sanitation and hygiene, social distancing practice among the PVTGs and other tribal areas.
- The   State/UT   Governments   were   requested   by   the   Ministry   for   conducting awareness in tribal areas through grassroots level service providers (i.e. ASHA, AWW, ANM) on social distancing, wearing of masks and hand wash etc.
- Ministry  vide  letter  No.  08/02/2020-Livelihood  dated  22.12.2020  to  Tribal  Welfare Department  of  all  States/UTs  requested  the  support  of  state  officials  for  vaccine administration including generating awareness on Covid-19 vaccination among the tribal communities and their mobilization.

Values of MFPs procured by States during 2020-21*

|   Sl. No. | States                 |   Value of MFP (Rs in lakhs) |
|-----------|------------------------|------------------------------|
|         1 | Chhattisgarh           |                     11375.3  |
|         2 | Gujarat                |                       345.89 |
|         3 | Jharkhand (JHAMCOFED)  |                         7.91 |
|         3 | Jharkhand (JASCOLAMPF) |                       402.87 |
|         4 | Maharashtra            |                        31.59 |
|         5 | Andhra Pradesh         |                        96.09 |
|         6 | Madhya Pradesh         |                        96.1  |
|         7 | Odisha                 |                      3032.62 |
|         8 | Rajasthan              |                         5.92 |
|         9 | West Bengal            |                        28.44 |
|        10 | Manipur                |                         1.2  |
|        11 | Nagaland ( DUDA)       |                        12.4  |
|        12 | Uttar Pradesh          |                         0    |
|        13 | Kerala                 |                         3.8  |
|        14 | Karnataka              |                        41.54 |
|        15 | Assam                  |                        34.79 |
|        16 | Tripura ( TRPC Ltd.)   |                         0    |
|        16 | Tripura (MARKFED)      |                         0    |
|        17 | Tamil Nadu             |                         0    |
|        18 | Mizoram                |                         0    |
|        19 | Telangana#             |                       235.19 |
|        19 | Total                  |                     15751.7  |

Note : #Telangana State procured MFPs from State /Own Fund.

*Procurement as on date.

## Annexure 2 referred to in reply to part (d) of the Lok Sabha Unstarred Question for answer on 22.03.2021

## State-wise fund disbursement and beneficiary data under scholarship schemes of MoTA for 2020-21

0

0

0

|        |                      | Pre-matric                    | Pre-matric                                             | Post-matric                   | Post-matric                                             |
|--------|----------------------|-------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------|
| Sl.No. | Name of the State/UT | Fund Released (Rs. In lakhs)* | Beneficaries (Estimated As per Proposal by States/UTs) | Fund Released (Rs. In lakhs)* | Beneficiaries (Estimated As per Proposal by States/UTs) |
| 1      | Andaman & Nicobar    | 12.33                         | 450                                                    | 13.29                         | 700                                                     |
| 2      | Andhra Pradesh       | 1433.81                       | 63653                                                  | 6039.35                       | 181921                                                  |
| 3      | Arunachal Pradesh    | 0                             | 0                                                      | 5712.96                       | 24000                                                   |
| 4      | Assam                | 0                             | 0                                                      | 5413.54                       | 0                                                       |
| 5      | Bihar                | 0                             | 55198                                                  | 708.22                        | 19513                                                   |
| 6      | Chhattisgarh         | 1614.55                       | 149574                                                 | 4336.77                       | 158892                                                  |
| 7      | Dadar & Nagar Haveli | 234                           | 5548                                                   | 1688.14                       | 0                                                       |
| 8      | Goa                  | 41.35                         | 3475                                                   | 458.18                        | 6412                                                    |
| 9      | Gujarat              | 2198.84                       | 0                                                      | 22977.64                      | 0                                                       |
| 10     | Himachal Pradesh     | 91.87                         | 3534                                                   | 0                             | 5121                                                    |
| 11     | Jammu & Kashmir      | 0                             | 11470                                                  | 0                             | 27839                                                   |
| 12     | Jharkhand            | 0                             | 114609                                                 | 0                             | 83374                                                   |
| 13     | Karnataka            | 0                             | 62126                                                  | 0                             | 129094                                                  |
| 14     | Kerala               | 116.56                        | 11220                                                  | 3285.25                       | 16663                                                   |
| 15     | Ladakh               | 42.27                         | 3450                                                   | 738                           | 8200                                                    |
| 16     | Madhya Pradesh       | 5429.34                       | 350865                                                 | 12344                         | 350000                                                  |
| 17     | Maharasthra          | 0                             | 111939                                                 | 18149.52                      | 157070                                                  |
| 18     | Manipur              | 0                             | 0                                                      | 2184.19                       | 50000                                                   |
| 19     | Mizoram              | 167.86                        | 17000                                                  | 3446.82                       | 47000                                                   |
| 20     | Nagaland             | 60.75                         | 3000                                                   | 3226.37                       | 43373                                                   |
| 21     | Odisha               | 6944.96                       | 196355                                                 | 19095.97                      | 180109                                                  |
| 22     | Puducherry           | 1.63                          |                                                        | 19.56                         |                                                         |
| 23     | Rajasthan            | 3126.9                        | 202588                                                 | 25557.03                      | 315315                                                  |
| 24     | Sikkim               | 9.41                          | 414                                                    | 553.83                        | 5317                                                    |
| 25     | Tamil Nadu           | 241                           | 13471                                                  | 3328.99                       |                                                         |
| 26     | Telangana            | 0                             | 6000                                                   | 27297.83                      | 142167                                                  |
| 27     | Tripura              | 82.13                         | 12627                                                  | 4804.98                       | 26092                                                   |
| 28     | Uttar Pradesh        | 0                             | 0                                                      | 2218.67                       | 19782                                                   |
| 29     | Uttrakhand           | 138.24                        | 7117                                                   | 0                             | 7164                                                    |
| 30     | West Bengal          | 788.22                        | 41438                                                  | 2256.42                       | 68804                                                   |
|        | Total                | 22776.02                      | 1447121                                                | 175855.5                      | 2073922                                                 |

## Release of funds to States during 2020-21 under major schemes of MoTA / Grant as on 28.02.2021

(Rs. in lakh)

| Sl. No   | State/ UT         |   Article 275 (1) Grants |   SCA to TSS |    PVTGs |   MSP to MFP |
|----------|-------------------|--------------------------|--------------|----------|--------------|
| 1.       | Andhra Pradesh    |                  2055.55 |      3205.8  |  1245.51 |         0    |
| 2.       | Arunachal Pradesh |                  4894    |      4465.5  |     0    |         0    |
| 3.       | Assam             |                  4592.37 |      3361.09 |     0    |         0    |
| 4.       | Bihar             |                     0    |       994    |     0    |         0    |
| 5.       | Chhattisgarh      |                  8484.43 |      8769.06 |   989.32 |         0    |
| 6.       | Goa               |                     0    |       724.26 |     0    |         0    |
| 7.       | Gujarat           |                  5940.04 |      9358.36 |   552.2  |         0    |
| 8.       | Himachal Pradesh  |                  1161    |      1367    |     0    |         0    |
| 9.       | Jharkhand         |                  8993.12 |      6743.55 |  1136.06 |         0    |
| 10.      | Karnataka         |                  3305.68 |         0    |   438.46 |         0    |
| 11.      | Kerala            |                     0    |       459.15 |    88    |         0    |
| 12.      | Madhya Pradesh    |                  4279.78 |         0    |  2188.11 |         0    |
| 13.      | Maharashtra       |                  4573.16 |         0    |   753.67 |         0    |
| 14.      | Manipur           |                     0    |         0    |     0    |         0    |
| 15.      | Meghalaya         |                     0    |         0    |     0    |         0    |
| 16.      | Mizoram           |                  1909.71 |      1236.22 |     0    |        91.5  |
| 17.      | Nagaland          |                  1717.38 |      1515.5  |     0    |         0    |
| 18.      | Odisha            |                  4685.24 |      9010.42 |  1202    |         0    |
| 19.      | Rajasthan         |                  9011    |      5910.5  |   968    |         0    |
| 20.      | Sikkim            |                   516    |         0    |     0    |         0    |
| 21.      | Tamil Nadu        |                     0    |       377.47 |   551.08 |       259.91 |
| 22.      | Telangana         |                  2517    |      3451    |  1460.5  |         0    |
| 23.      | Tripura           |                   201.74 |      1173.3  |   231.43 |         0    |
| 24.      | Uttar Pradesh     |                   927.43 |       508.83 |    82.04 |         0    |
| 25.      | Uttarakhand       |                     0    |       757.8  |   295    |         0    |
| 26.      | West Bengal       |                  4041.14 |      3746    |   519.4  |         0    |
|          | Total             |                 73805.8  |     67134.8  | 12700.8  |       351.41 |

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