Eradication of poverty, removal of disparity in income and upliftment of the living standards of the weaker sections of the society form part of the twenty point programme. Item 11-b of this programme deals with the welfare of Scheduled Tribes. There are 22 individual beneficiary schemes implemented under the programme. During the year 1998-99, as against the target of 1,25,000 beneficiaries, the achievement was 1,62,395. During  the year 1999-2000 as against the target of 1,40,000 beneficiaries the achievement was 1,48,326. Keeping in view this achievement, the target for the year 2000-2001 has been fixed at 1,45,000 beneficiaries.  Some of the major individual beneficiary schemes are discussed in the following paragraphs.

The Tribal Sub Plan (TSP) is formulated taking into consideration the various schemes approved by the Government. In order to provide for local variations and specific needs which cannot be met from regular schemes, a special scheme 'Nucleus Budget' is being implemented since 1981-82. Under the scheme, the project officers of the ITDPs are empowered to formulate and implement (if necessary through other departments), schemes of local importance. The ceiling for financial assistance under this scheme is Rs. 10,000 per family. Schemes benefiting a group of families can also be taken up subject to this ceiling. The schemes under nucleus budget are categorised into four groups:-

1. Income generation schemes like minor irrigation, increase in agricultural production and land levelling. The grant-in-aid given to the beneficiary is 50% for normal tribals and 80% for primitive tribals.  In respect of schemes costing below Rs. 2000, full amount is given as subsidy to all tribals.
2. Training schemes under which  various training programmes are arranged for unemployed tribals, for example, pre-recruitment training;  training in radio repairing, wiring, carpentry, etc.
3. Welfare schemes for women and children.
4. Human resource development schemes related to sports, tribal arts and tribal culture.

The entire cost can be given as a grant-in-aid for the schemes under the groups (ii), (iii) and (iv). The Direction Committee at the project level finalises the schemes under Nucleus Budget. Additional Tribal Commissioner who is the Chairman of the Committee can sanction group schemes upto Rs. 5 lakh each. Commissioner (Tribal Development) can sanction schemes costing upto Rs. 20 lakh and only schemes costing more than that are referred to Government. The details of implementations of the schemes during the last four years  are given below:-

The tribal cultivators  are provided with electric pumps and oil engines. A tribal cultivator who has a minimum 0.6 hectare and maximum 6.4 hectares cultivable land is eligible to benefit from this scheme. However, for them to be eligible there should be sufficient quantity of water at least for six months during the year, either from well or other sources for irrigating their land. Moreover, for getting an electric pump, there should be an electric line passing nearby. Those having no such facility can get the benefit of oil engines. Even two or three agriculturists, who have less then the prescribed area of land can jointly take advantage of this scheme. The beneficiaries have to pay their own contribution at the prescribed rates, namely Rs. 250 for land holders having land up to 4 hectares and Rs. 500 to those holding land more than 4 hectares. Outlays of Rs. 568.14 lakh (for electric pumps) and Rs. 279.07 lakh (for oil engines) have been provided for the year 2000-2001. The cumulative performance under this scheme is as follows:

The problem of housing is acute among the tribals in the State. Even though some tribal families own houses, these are covered by thatched roofs, which do not give them proper protection from rain, cyclones, etc. Under this scheme, assistance of Rs. 4000 is given to each tribal family below the poverty line for replacement of thatched roof by Manglore tiles/G.I sheets. Out of Rs. 4000, an amount of Rs. 2500 is for the purchase of tiles or G.I.sheets and the remaining Rs. 1500 is for the purpose of accessories etc. An outlay of Rs. 382.00 lakh has been provided for this scheme for the year 2000-2001. This scheme is being implemented through the Zilla Parishads.

This scheme is very useful for providing shelter to the poor tribal families. The facilities given to the beneficiaries of Tribal Co-operative Housing societies include provision of free land, 50% loan by the Maharashtra State Co-operative Housing Finance Corporation and 30% subsidy  by the State Government.  The remaining 20% amount is to be contributed by the beneficiary.  An outlay of Rs. 13.44 lakhs has been provided for the year 2000-2001 for this scheme.

There are two different sets of data available about the tribal families below poverty line. As per the census conducted by Rural Development Department in 1997-98, there are in all 9.71 lakh tribal families below the poverty line in the whole State (TSP area and outside). This roughly comes to 67% of the tribal population. The other set of data regarding population below poverty line among the tribals comes from the Bench Mark Survey conducted by the Tribal Research and Training Institute, Pune during 1996-97. According to this survey, the percentage of tribal families below poverty line in the TSP area  comes  to 68.69% (this was 90.88% according to the Bench Mark Survey conducted during 1979-80). Thus the results of both surveys are not different. Based on an analysis of the results of these two surveys, it is estimated that the percentage of tribal families in the TSP area of the State in 1999 would be about 65% and the number of such families would be about 4.71 lakh.

Though all developmental programmes should eventually help reduce poverty, the programmes which directly help the BPL families are limited. Apart from employment in Government services and the individual beneficiary schemes implemented by the Tribal Development Department, the other schemes which can help the BPL families to come up above the poverty line are creation of irrigation facilities, self-employment programmes implemented with NSFDC assistance, Employment Guarantee Scheme and construction stage employment on irrigation and road works.   It has been estimated that with the present level of funding, the number of families which can be brought above poverty line in the TSP areas with these latter schemes is about 5500.  Recruitment in Government Service can account for about 900 families in TSP areas.  As far as the individual beneficiary schemes under the Tribal Sub-Plan are concerned, the outlay available annually for this purpose is about Rs. 105 crores.  Assuming an average investment of Rs. 35,000 for bringing up a BPL family above poverty line, this amount will suffice for 30,000 families. The share of individual beneficiary schemes at present accounts for about 22% of the total outlay. This could be increased to 30% without much adverse effect on infrastructure development schemes. As a result, the number of families which can be brought up above BPL in a year through the individual beneficiary scheme in a year will be about 41,000 families.  Thus an optimistic estimate is that aboutt 47,400 BPL tribal families in TSP areas can be brought above poverty line annually.  At this rate, it will take about 10 years to bring up all the BPL families above the poverty line.