Which one of the following statements is not true with regard to tribal welfare?

Correct — C, The Special Area Development Programme aims at distribution of forest area produces to the tribals equitably. Area-development money in tribal pockets buys roads, minor irrigation, drinking water, schools and hostels — physical infrastructure in villages with a heavy tribal population. Equitable rights over forest produce come from a statute, not from an area programme: section 3(1)(c) of the Forest Rights Act, 2006 vests the right to collect, use and dispose of minor forest produce in forest dwellers and their gram sabha, and the marketing side is handled by the minimum support price scheme for minor forest produce. So the aim named in this option belongs to a different instrument.

• (a)The Comprehensive Tribal Development Programme aims at land development activities, improvement of roof houses, infrastructure development and so on. — This is a fair description of an integrated tribal-development package — land improvement, housing and village infrastructure taken together — so the statement is true and cannot be the answer.
• (b)As per the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers Act, villages in forests are provided with community rights. — True. Alongside individual tenure the 2006 Act recognises community forest rights — grazing, fishing, access to water bodies and protection of the community forest resource.
• (d)The Special Central Assistance to Tribal Subplan provides dairy cows to tribal groups living below the poverty line. — True in substance: this additive central grant to states funds family-oriented income-generating schemes for tribal families below the poverty line, and milch cattle are a standard use of it.

Tribal welfare spending runs on two rails. One is money — the Tribal Sub-Plan, into which each ministry earmarks a share of its outlay, topped up by Special Central Assistance for income-generating schemes. The other is rights — the Forest Rights Act, 2006, which recognises tenure and forest-produce rights that no scheme can grant or withdraw.

Once you separate those two rails the item solves itself: three options sit on a rail, and the fourth puts a rights outcome under a spending programme. The programme names in this question are loosely worded and are not all current central-scheme titles, so treat it as an elimination item rather than as a test of exact nomenclature. Two later changes are worth knowing: the Tribal Sub-Plan was renamed the Development Action Plan for Scheduled Tribes in 2017-18, and the Ministry of Tribal Affairs revamped Special Central Assistance to the Tribal Sub-Scheme as the Pradhan Mantri Adi Adarsh Gram Yojana for 2021-22 to 2025-26, covering 36,428 villages with a substantial tribal population.

• Section 2(i) of the Forest Rights Act, 2006 defines minor forest produce to include bamboo, brushwood, stumps, cane, tussar, cocoons, honey, wax, lac and tendu leaves.
• Section 3(1)(c) of the Act gives ownership, access, collection, use and disposal rights over minor forest produce.
• Community rights under the Act cover nistar, grazing, fishing, access to water bodies and protection of the community forest resource.
• Special Central Assistance to the Tribal Sub-Plan is an additive grant to states, not a stand-alone scheme run from Delhi.
• The Pradhan Mantri Adi Adarsh Gram Yojana replaced that assistance from 2021-22, aiming at model villages with at least 50 per cent tribal population and 500 Scheduled Tribe residents.

• Assuming an official-sounding programme title makes the aim attached to it true.
• Mixing up rights created by statute with benefits delivered by a scheme.

Four scheme-plus-aim statements with one mismatch, or a straight statement pair on the Forest Rights Act.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Ownership over minor forest produce for forest dwellers flows from

  • (a)the Indian Forest Act, 1927
  • (b)the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980
  • (c)the Forest Rights Act, 2006
  • (d)the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972

  Answer(c) the Forest Rights Act, 2006 — section 3(1)(c) recognises the right to collect, use and dispose of minor forest produce.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Special Central Assistance to the Tribal Sub-Scheme was revamped from 2021-22 as

  • (a)Van Dhan Vikas Yojana
  • (b)Pradhan Mantri Adi Adarsh Gram Yojana
  • (c)Eklavya Model Residential School scheme
  • (d)Pradhan Mantri Van Dhan Yojana

  Answer(b) Pradhan Mantri Adi Adarsh Gram Yojana — the Ministry of Tribal Affairs renamed and restructured the assistance for 2021-22 to 2025-26.