P r o j e c t s

Jharkhand-Chattisgarh

Tribal Development Programme

Among the social groups in India, Scheduled Tribes (STs) have the highest proportion of the poor. While they account for only 8% of the total population, they comprise 40% of the displaced population. The Government of India has allocated significant amount of resources for tribal development, but the impact has been rather limited. The approach adopted has been more welfare oriented, and there has been less empowerment.

This programme proposes to use the opportunity created by the recent Constitutional amendment concerning the extension of the Panchayats Act to Scheduled Areas and would assist the state governments in putting into practice the principles established by this act in empowering the local communities and in designing resource management strategies which meet their perceptions and aspirations.

Programme Area

The programme would cover selected blocks in three districts in Chattisgarh – Jashpur, Raigarh and Sarguja and equal number of districts – Ranchi, East Singhbhum and West Singbhum in Jharkhand. Nine and eight blocks respectively in Chattisgarh and Jharkhand have been identified for initiating programme activities in the first three years. The target groups would comprise all households in the selected villages, i.e. villages with tribal, Primitive Tribal Groups (PTGs) and scheduled caste population of not less than 50% of the total population where the majority of the households live below the poverty line.

Programme Objectives

The objective of the programme is to develop and implement a replicable model that ensures household food security and improves livelihood opportunities on a sustainable and equitable basis. To achieve this the programme would: 

• Empower tribal grassroots associations and users’ groups, including women and other marginal groups, so that they would become more capable to plan, implement and manage their own development.

• Promote activities which generate sustainable increases in production and productivity of land and water resources.

• Generate alternate sources of income outside of agriculture, particularly for the landless.

Programme Components

The programme is designed on the three main programme components - beneficiary empowerment and capacity building, livelihood systems enhancement and programme management and implementation. The following are the sub-components within the overall project design.

• Planning and management capacity strengthening of villagers.

• Technical capacity building.

• Land and water management.

• Community based forest management.

• Production system enhancement.

• Health and nutrition services.

• Tribal development societies.

• District project implementation units.

• NGO support.

A gradual and phased approach would be adopted to allow for the satisfactory empowerment of Gram Sabhas and for building up grassroot institutions. Therefore, the programme would be carried out in two phases - a pilot phase and a scaling up phase – with a reassessment and evaluation at the end of pilot phase and three years after the upscaling phase.

Programme Cost and Financing

The total programme cost over nine years is estimated at INR 2 276 million (USD 41.7 million). Of the total programme cost, IFAD loan would finance USD 23 million (55%) Governments of Chattisgarh and Jharkhand USD 4.7 million (11%) and the beneficiaries USD 3.3 million (8%), DFID, WFP and Government of India USD 18.66 million. Of these WFP contribution will be in the form of food assistance to the beneficiaries.