A two-day long Manthan Shivir was organised by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs to undertake Progress-Review of Schemes, and deliberate on Vision 2047 and 100 days Action Plan of the Ministry, on July 18-19, in New Delhi.

In his inaugural address to the Principal Secretaries, Secretaries, Directors and officials of State Tribal Welfare Departments, Secretary (Tribal Affairs) Shri Vibhu Nayar reiterated the need to address the challenges in four key areas of tribal development - health, livelihood, education, and forest rights - and to chalk out a roadmap for Vision 2047.

Thematic workshops on Forest Rights Act, Livelihoods, Scholarships, PM JANMAN, EMRS, Health and TRI Projects were held as part of the Manthan Shivir. The participants  brainstormed on ways to build a robust response mechanism and address bottlenecks in the implementation of existing schemes.

Participants discussed ways to achieve harmonisation of scholarship schemes, and deliberated on bio-authentication as a means to prevent fraudulence. They deliberated on ways to address pendency of claims, create area maps, and foster the spirit of entrepreneurship among the tribals. Best practices from model cases provided food for thought.

On Day 2, the participants put their heads together on how to revamp the PM JANMAN scheme, how to create an action plan for training of EMRS school teachers, and how to spread awareness about Sickle Cell Disease at the National, State and grassroots level on a war footing as well as other initiatives being planned by the Ministry. Other points of discussion were:

• Progress of PM JANMAN with focus on MPC, Vandhan  Kendra and Model villages
• PM GatiShakti Portal-Progress tracking and physical verification at grassroots level Support and assistance for CSC household survey
• Data validation by DC/DM and approval by PS (TWD) on PM GatiShakti portal
• Expediting MPC construction works and inauguration of completed MPCs
• Installation of Public app by DC/DM and posting content at hyperlocal level
• Initiatives planned under PM JANMAN2/Homestay
• Revamping of Ashram Schools

Representatives from BISAG (Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Application and Geo-informatics) shared the know-how to use mobile application for capturing household data in door-to-door surveys in order to ensure that all the family members of a household can avail scheme benefits under PM JANMAN and allied benefits.

Plenary sessions were held at the close of each day, where the ideas churned out at the thematic workshops were collated and brought to the discussion table. The participants had much to learn and share in terms of increasing efficiency of data collection, optimisation of resources and liaising with state departments and non-governmental organisations to achieve the stated goals.

*****

VM