7% of the posts in the services of the State are reserved for Scheduled Tribes who account for about 9.4% of the population. This percentage has been increased to 9% - 22% in the districts of Raigad, Yeotmal, Chandrapur, Gadchiroli, Thane, Nashik, Dhule and Nandurbar which have high tribal population. The monitoring of the recruitment of ST candidates and filling up of the backlog vacancies is done by the General Administration Department. The Tribal Development Department also monitors this. As per the information available for July, 1997, the representation of the Scheduled Tribes in Group A,B,C and D services of the Government , Zilla Parishads and Municipal Bodies is given below :-

The backlog of posts reserved for Scheduled Tribes in Group A, B, C and D in Government are 172, 165, 1927 and 669 respectively. Special recruitment drives are conducted periodically to fill the backlog of the posts reserved for Scheduled Tribes.

As there is a substantial backlog of the posts of drivers reserved for STs in Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC), Tribal Develoment Department in collaboration with the MSRTC has taken up a programme for imparting training in the driving of heavy vehicles to tribal youth, so as to equip them for appointment as drivers in MSRTC and similar organisations.  A motor driving training centre was started at Pandharkawada in Yeotmal district in 1989-90 and another centre was started at Gadchiroli in 1996-97. At each of these centres, 50 persons are trained for a period of six months. Two such training sessions are held every year. The trainees are given a stipend of Rs. 350 per month.  At these two centres 616 drivers have been trained and out of them,  450 have secured employment in MSRTC. Two more such centres have been started by MSRTC at Chandrapur and Shahada.

In order to train the tribal youth for recruitment in the Army and Police forces, the State Government has set up recruitment centres at nine places in the predominantly tribal districts. At each centre about 100 students are enrolled during each session lasting for about four months and three such sessions are held every year. An expenditure of about Rs. 2000 is incurred per student.  So far, 10081 persons (including 72 girls) have been trained in these centres and 3688 persons (including 21 girls) have secured employment.

The scheme of providing self employment to the tribals with the help of financial assistance sanctioned by the National Scheduled Castes/Tribes Finance and Development Corporation (NSFDC) was taken up by TDC from the year 1994-95. Under this scheme 75% of the total project cost is sanctioned by the NSFDC as loan, 15%  by TDC as loan and 10% has to be contributed by the beneficiaries. The State Government provides guarantee to the loan sanctioned by NSFDC. The details of projects sanctioned under this scheme during the period from 1994-95 till June 1999 are as follows:

It was found that TDC, which is preoccupied with its marketing activities, was not able to pay  adequate attention to the task of helping tribals to start self-employment. The Government has, therefore, set up in December, 1998 a separate Shabari Tribal Finance and Development Corporation for the scheduled tribes for  assisting them to start their own business by providing financial assistance through subsidy, seed capital, loan etc., on the lines of Mahatma Phule Backward Class Development Corporation. This Corporation is registered under the companies Act, 1956. Maharashtra is the first State in the country to have established a separate Finance and Development Corporation for the scheduled tribes. The initial authorised share capital of the corporation will be Rs. 100 crore. The Government of Maharashtra will contribute 51% of the share capital and the Government of India was expected to contribute 49% of the share capital. Government of India has recently communicated their inability to contribute to the share capital of the corporation on the ground that they have already participated in the share capital of another finance and development corporation in the State, namely Mahatma Phule Backward Class Development Corporation. The matter will be further pursued with the Government of India.  During 1998-99 the Government of Maharashtra sanctioned an amount of Rs. 5 crore as share capital contribution to the Corporation. The proposal for sanction of staff for this Corporation is under consideration of the Government. After the sanction of the staff, the actual work of the Corporation will start.

This scheme was introduced in 1976-77 as a State Plan scheme. The scheme is intended to encourage educated unemployed persons to take up self employment ventures. Persons between the age group of 18 to 50 who have passed at least the VIIth standard examination are eligible to avail of seed money assistance upto Rs. 1.5 lakh. The loan is granted for a period of seven years at the interest rate of 10%. The recovery of the loan is started with effect from third year from the year of granting the loan. During the year 1999-2000, an outlay of  Rs. 23.39 lakh  has been made available for this purpose.

The objects of the scheme are to encourage enterpreneurs to start new ventures; training programmes are arranged and stipend is provided to participants of the programme. During the year 2000-2001, Rs. 3.04 lakh has been provided for this scheme.