The tribal areas in the State of Assam and Meghalaya and the Union Territory of Mizoram are administrated subject to the provisions of the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution. Under the Schedule, they are divided into autonomous districts.
There are eight such districts, namely, North Cachar Hills and Mikir Hills districts in Assam, United Khasi-Jaintia Hills, Jowai and Garo Hills districts in Meghalaya and Chakma, Lakher and Pawi districts in Mizoram.
Each autonomous district has a district council consisting of not more than 30 members of whom not more than four can be nominated and the rest are to be elected on the basis of adult suffrage. The councils are vested with certain administrative, legislative and judicial powers.
1. Reservation.
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To facilitate their adequate representation, concessions such as, (i) relaxation in age limit, (ii) relaxation in the standard of suitability and (iii) selection, provided they are not found unfit for the posts, have been provided for. If no suitable scheduled caste or scheduled tribe candidates are available for the reserved posts, they are treated as unreserved and an equal number of reservations are carried forward to three recruitment years. In no recruitment year, however, the number of reserved vacancies is to exceed 50 per cent of the total vacancies.
To give effect to the reservations, model rosters of 40 points each have been prescribed for recruitment by open competition and otherwise on an all-India basis. If the vacancies in a service or cardre are too few for the purpose, all corresponding posts are grouped together; Annual statements are required to be submitted by the recruiting authorities for scrutiny by the government. For ensuring implementation of the special representation orders, liaison officers have been appointed in different ministries of the union government.
A high power committee, with Prime Minister as the Chairman, has been set up to review the progress of the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes under the Government of India, union territories and public sector undertakings.
State governments have also framed rules for the reservation of posts for these classes and taken steps to increase their representation in the state services.
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2. Welfare and Advisory Agencies.
A special officer designated as the Commissioner for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes investigates all matters relating to the safeguards for them provided under the Constitution and reports to the President on the working of the safeguards.
The organization of the Director General, Backward Class Welfare, in the union Ministry of Home Affairs is responsible for the formulation and implementation of schemes for the welfare of backward classes and maintains liaison with the states.
3. Parliamentary Committees.
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The Government of India set up three Parliamentary Committees, the first in 1968, the second in 1971, and the third in 1973, to examine the implementation of the Constitutional safeguards for the welfare of the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.
4. Welfare Departments in States.
The state governments and union territory administrations have separate departments to look after the welfare of the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes and other backward classes. The administrative set-up varies from state to state. In Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa, separate ministers have been appointed to look after tribal welfare as prescribed in article 164 of the Constitution. Some other states have set up committees of members of state legislatures on the pattern of the parliamentary committee at the centre.
5. Voluntary Organizations. A number of voluntary organizations also promote the welfare of the scheduled castes. Important organizations of all-India character are: All India Harijan Sewak Sangh; Delhi; Bharatiya Depressed Classes League, New Delhi; Iswar-Saran Ashram, Allahabad; Indian Red Cross Society, New Delhi; Hind Sweepers Sewak Sangh, New Delhi and Ramakrishna Mission, Narendrapur, West Bengal.
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Important voluntary organizations for the scheduled tribes are: Bhartiya Adimjati Sewak Sangh, New Delhi; Indian Council for Child Welfare, New Delhi; Andhra Rashtra Adimjati Sewak Sangh, Nellore; Ramakrishana Mission, Cherrapunji, Ranchi, Puri, Silchar, and Shillong; Thakkar Bapa Ashram, Nimakhandi, Orissa and the Indian Red Cross Society, New Delhi.
The Servants of India Society, Poona and All-India Backward Classes Federation, Delhi look after the interests of the backward Classes, while Bharatiya Ghumantu Jan (Khanabadosh) Sewak Sangh, Delhi, serves the nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes.
6. Welfare Schemes.
The welfare of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes is given special attention by both the central and state governments. Special programmes for their welfare have been undertaken in the successive Five Year Flans and size of investment on these special programmes has been increasing from Plan to Plan.
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In addition, state governments have also been spending a sizable amount from their non-Plan budgets on the welfare of these classes.
The Plan programmes for the welfare of backward classes fall into three mam groups: centrally-operated, centrally-sponsored and the states sector. Important schemes being implemented under these categories are briefly described below:
A. Central Schemes
(i) Training and Coaching Centres. With a view to helping the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes to secure employment, two schemes, namely, pre-examination training centres and coaching-cum-guidance centres have been started. Under the first scheme, there are four centres located at Allahabad, Jaipur, Madras and Patiala which impart coaching to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes for all Indian services examinations by the Union Public Service Commission.
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Centres for imparting training to candidates for state services examinations have also been set up in the States of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Kranataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Union Territory of Delhi. Two centres for imparting coaching for engineering services examinations have also been set up at Allahabad and Tiruchirapalli.
For coaching-cum-guidance centres one each at the employment exchanges in Delhi, Kanpur, Jabalpur and Madras have been set up to conduct courses of confidence building and interview techniques for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes applicants on the live registers of the concerned employment exchanges.
(ii) Post-Matric Scholarships. Under this scheme, all eligible students belonging to scheduled tribes are awarded scholarships without merit test and in the case of scheduled castes a liberal means test which denies scholarships to those coming from families having monthly income exceeding Rs. 50 is applicable.
(iii) Girls Hostels for Scheduled Castes and Tribes. Under the scheme, financial assistance is given to state and union territory governments for the construction of new hostels and to expand existing ones at any place where the facilities for girls belonging to these classes are inadequate. A sum of Rs. 1.96 crores was spent on the scheme during the Fourth Plan.
(iv) Tribal Development Blocks. The tribal development blocks scheme aims at the economic development of areas predominantly inhabited by the tribal people. There are at present 504 tribal development blocks in the country.
(v) Assistance to Co-operation. As the co-operative movement has a vital role in the elimination of the exploiters of the weaker sections, specially in the tribal areas, a net-work of cooperative societies-forest labour, multipurpose, labour contract and construction, and marketing societies and apex co-operative organization-has been organized with government assistance. A co-ordinating committee of the tribal apex co-operative organization has been set up.
(vi) Tribal Research Institutes. There are at present 11 Tribal Research Institute in the country. To co-ordinate their activities, a 30-member Central Research Advisory Council has been set up. The Council provides guidance on policy formulation and services as a clearing house for the Institutes, central and state governments and other research organizations connected with tribal problems.
(vii) Overseas Scholarships. Scholarships to deserving scheduled castes and scheduled tribes students for studies in foreign countries are being awarded by the union government since 1933.
The number of such scholarships every year is twelve for scheduled castes, six for scheduled tribes, one for denotified nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes and three for other backward classes. Tourist class sea passage is provided to students who receive foreign scholarships from other sources without travel grants.
Also, 17 per cent of merit scholarships granted by the centre to students of the lower income groups for studies in the institutions which are members of the Indian Public Schools Conference are reserved for backward communities. Some of the state governments as also some public schools offer similar scholarships.
State Sector Schemes
1. Education.
The state sector programmes for which central assistance is given in the shape of block grants and loans can be divided into three main groups, namely, education, economic uplift and health, housing and other schemes. The particulars of the schemes are:
(i) Pre-matric scholarships and stipends
(ii) Exemption from tuition and examination fees
(iii) Provision of educational equipments
(iv) Provision of mid-day meals
(v) Setting up of Ashram schools (basic type residential schools)
(vi) Grants for construction of school and hostel buildings.
2. Economic Development.
(i) Provision of land irrigation.
(ii) Supply of bullocks, agricultural implements, seeds, and manure.
(iii) Development of cottage industries
(iv) Development of communications
(v) Co-operation
(iv) Colonization of shifting cultivators
(vi) Supply of poultry, sheep, pigs and goats
3. Health, Housing and Others.
(I) Medical facilities
(ii) Drinking water supply schemes
(iii) Provision of houses and house-sites
(iv) Provision of legal aid
(v) Grants to non-official agencies working at state level.