Jharkhand: Soren government starts process to prepare tribal digital atlas

Ranchi: In a major move towards providing the benefits of welfare schemes to tribal population, the Jharkhand Tribal Welfare Department has started an exercise to prepare the Tribal Development Digital Atlas for the tribal groups living in the state under the guidance of Chief Minister Hemant Soren. In the first phase of this work, a baseline survey of the Very Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) will be conducted and its preparation has been started under the guidance of Tribal Welfare Commissioner Ajaynath Jha.

As per the plan, apart from the critical gap survey on the current status of basic facilities of tribal villages and the standard target of development, details regarding education, skill capacity, employment, income, standard of living etc, in each village and hamlet will also be prepared.

According to an official, the state government would implement the action plan by focusing on their social infrastructure, livelihood, and health so that the people of such tribal groups get permanent housing, sanitation, pure drinking water through the pipeline, electricity/solar electrification, pension, Ayushman card, benefits of PDS and e-shram, access to health centres, etc.

“The Tribal Digital Atlas would be prepared by the welfare department, under which in the first phase all the PVTG settlements would be assessed and mapped and a database will be prepared. Based on the atlas a comprehensive action plan for the implementation of major socio-economic infrastructure projects and livelihood-centric initiatives would be implemented in mission mode,” the official said. On the one hand, the most vulnerable tribal groups will be integrated into the social infrastructure projects, and there will be work to strengthen their traditional livelihood activities on the other, the official said.