NEW DELHI, October 18 — The Ministry of Tribal Affairs finalized the comprehensive operational guidelines on Sunday for the nationwide execution of the ₹79,156 Crore 'Dharti Aaba Janjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyan' targeting over 63,843 tribal-majority villages across 549 districts.
Commemorating the 150th birth anniversary year of tribal freedom fighter Bhagwan Birsa Munda, the transformative program converges 25 developmental interventions across 17 central ministries. The planned deliverables encompass all-weather road connectivity under PMGSY, universal tap water connections via the Jal Jeevan Mission, pukka housing under PMAY-G, solar microgrids for un-electrified hamlets, and the operationalisation of 1,000 multi-purpose tribal community centres.
The Ministry affirmed that the initiative specifically focuses on habitations with over 50% tribal demographic concentration, saturating essential welfare deficits to empower over 50 million tribal citizens with livelihood diversification, specialized sickle cell anaemia screenings, and direct forest produce market linkages.
Constitutional protections for tribal communities under the Fifth and Sixth Schedules (Articles 244 and 244A), special grants-in-aid under Article 275(1), the Provisions of the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act 1996 (PESA), Forest Rights Act 2006, and Birsa Munda's Ulgulan Movement are indispensable for UPSC GS-II and GS-I papers.