Scheme for Economic Empowerment of DNTs( (SEED) Scheme

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• Recently, the Parliamentary panel on Social Justice and Empowerment has pulled up the Union government over the “very slow” process to categorise over 260 denotified, nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes under either the SC/ST/OBC lists.

Scheme for Economic Empowerment of DNTs( (SEED) Scheme

• Aim: 
  • To provide free competitive exam coaching to students, health insurance and financial assistance for housing and uplift clusters of these communities through livelihood initiatives. 
• Implementation: 
  • The Scheme will be implemented through a portal, developed by the Department of Social Justice & Empowerment. 
  • The funds will be transferred directly to the beneficiaries in their account. The other implementing agencies are the Ministry of Rural Development, National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) and National Health Authority (NHA).
• 4 components:
  • To provide coaching of good quality for DNT candidates to enable them to appear in competitive examinations.
  • To provide Health Insurance to them.
  • To facilitate livelihood initiative at community level; and
  • To provide financial assistance for construction of houses for members of these communities.
• Budget: 
  • The Ministry has been allocated ?200 crore for this scheme to be spent over five financial years from 2021-22 to 2025-26. 

Source: TH