Study on Skill Development for Tribal Youth
The Government of India’s approach paper for 12th Five Year Plan accords high priority for inclusion and development of Scheduled Tribes (STs) which constitute 8.6 per cent of the country population as the development indicators with regards to health, education, gender and other indices are well below the national average. While the Government of India has enacted various legislations and implementing programmes/ developmental schemes - Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (FRA); The Provision of the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996; Minor Forest Produce Act 2005; Tribal Sub-Plan Strategy; Central Sponsored Schemes/Programmes etc. for the socio-economic empowerment of STs, they continue to be socio-economically backward.
Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme has instituted a joint project ‘‘Strengthening National Capacities in Tribal Areas“ to advance tribal development and forest rights in the country. Project aims to contribute to MoTA’s efforts for tribal empowerment by strengthening mechanism and developing systems at national and state levels to address the gaps in the development of tribal community, specifically with focus on effective implementation and monitoring of Forest Rights Act, Tribal Sub-plans and integrating the tribal concerns in the development actions of different ministries/departments. One of the key components of the project is to generate evidence for policy advocacy through research studies to ensure that policy interventions reach their intended beneficiaries.
About the Study on Skill Development for Tribal Youth
Despite welfare efforts and schemes, tribal youth in the country find themselves increasingly restricted in terms of the kind of employment and opportunities that they are able to access. The Employment and Unemployment Survey of 2012 by the Bureau of Labour, indicated that, while overall unemployment among STs is lower than among the general castes category, for almost all categories of those educated above the primary school level, unemployment among STs is higher. This is partly the result of outright discrimination as well as socioeconomic factors, but it also reflects the failure of the mainstream education system to develop the skills that ST youth already have, and to assist them in acquiring new ones.
Notably, many tribal youth have sets of skills which are largely ignored, marginalized and eventually suppressed by the normal educational system. These include detailed customary knowledge of forest and other ecosystems; cultural traditions around natural resource management and collective decision making; understanding of techniques of traditional sustainable cultivation and wildlife management, etc. Alienating these youth from their cultural and social background is a serious blow to them, to their communities and to society as a whole. Therefore, while skill development programmes are a requirement for tribal youth, they must also be designed in such a manner as to be accountable to and controlled by the communities themselves, and dedicated to addressing the actual requirements of the youth (rather than imposed in a top down manner). However, most skill development schemes of the State and Central governments do not address these requirements. The result is that many tribal youth neither receive skills that are relevant to them, nor are they able to develop the skills that they already have. Hence, a study is required to ensure that current and future programmes of skill development are designed in an effective manner.
The key objective of the study is to identify areas of skill building for the tribal youth, both farm and non-farm in order to increase their household income and also create sustainable employment opportunities. The study is expected to answer the following questions:
- How successfully the current schemes/programmes of the Central and State governments have contributed in skill building of tribal youth leading to better quality of life?
- What are some major skill building needs of tribal youth that are not being met? How can these be met by various government programmes focused on skill building of marginalized communities?
- What are the difficulties in outreach of the skill building programmes of the government to the tribal youth and constraints being faced by the tribal youth in accessing them?
- How can these schemes be made more participatory and accountable to tribal communities?
- How to ensure that these schemes are coordinated - providing skill development at appropriate ages and ensuring continuity - as well as effective, in terms of enhancing choices and opportunities for tribal youth?