VAID'S ICS – Best UPSC Anthropology Coaching in Delhi Since 1985

Comprehensive Classroom Course · Admissions openRegister now
+91 93113 37737
  • +91-93113 37737, +91-99999 46748
  • 73(FF), Old Rajender Nagar Market, Delhi - 110060
  • MON to SUN 9.00 am - 6.00 pm
Facebook Youtube Instagram
Menu
Enquire Now
Home/Anthropology/Mains PYQ/2022/Paper II/Tribal Development, Policy & Safeguards
UPSC MainsAnthropology Optional Paper II 2022 20 Marks Model Answer Available

Integrated Tribal Development Projects — 2022 Paper II

Question · 2022 · Paper II · 20 Marks

Discuss the objectives of Integrated Tribal Development Projects (ITDPs). How far have these objectives been achieved?

Model Answer

VAID ICS

Approach

  • Demand of Question: Analyze the rationale behind ITDP/ITDAs under the Tribal Sub-Plan framework, list their protective and developmental objectives, and critically evaluate their ground-level outcomes.
  • Structuring the Response: Introduce the historical origin (Fifth FYP) and spatial criteria; detail the core objectives; structure the evaluation into achievements and systemic shortfalls (linking to FRA/PESA); highlight the modern transition to DAPST, PM-JANMAN, and DAJGUA; conclude with a forward-looking perspective.
  • Key Dimensions to Cover: Fifth FYP; Tribal Sub-Plan; contiguous blocks with >50% ST population; poverty, infrastructure, anti-exploitation; PESA, FRA; line-department silos; PM-JANMAN and Dharti Aaba Janjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyan (DAJGUA).

Model Answer

Introduction: Integrated Tribal Development Projects (ITDPs), administered in various states through Integrated Tribal Development Agencies (ITDAs), were introduced during the Fifth Five Year Plan (1974-79). They serve as the principal area-based institutional framework of the Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP). The fundamental rationale was to ensure coordinated, holistic development in contiguous geographical blocks where the Scheduled Tribe (ST) population is 50% or more. Currently, there are 194 ITDPs/ITDAs functioning across 18 States and 2 Union Territories.

Objectives of ITDPs:

  • Protection from Exploitation: A core mandate is to shield tribals from structural exploitation. This includes preventing tribal land alienation, regulating the business of money-lending to curb indebtedness, and eliminating exploitative market relations in the trade of Minor Forest Produce (MFP).
  • Reduction of Poverty and Livelihood Generation: To upgrade the economic status of tribals by introducing modern agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry, and providing accessible credit, thereby reducing dependence on local intermediaries.
  • Human Development: To bridge the severe gaps in human capital by establishing targeted educational facilities (like Ashram schools and Eklavya Model Residential Schools), localized healthcare, and nutritional security.
  • Infrastructure and Connectivity: To integrate geographically isolated tribal hamlets with the mainstream economy through the provision of all-weather roads, rural electrification, telecommunication, and irrigation.
  • Integrated Administration (Convergence): To end the fragmented approach of different government departments by acting as a nodal, umbrella agency at the micro-level that pools sectoral schemes and tailors them to the specific socio-ecological realities of the tribes.

Extent of Achievement:

  1. Notable Successes:
  • Institutional Architecture: ITDPs successfully created a dedicated administrative and financial architecture for tribal welfare, preventing the diversion of tribal funds to general state projects.
  • Infrastructural Expansion: Over the decades, ITDP areas have seen a marked improvement in physical infrastructure, particularly in rural road connectivity and the expansion of the educational network (hostels and residential schools).
  • Poverty Reduction: Targeted agricultural and livelihood schemes have gradually diversified tribal incomes, contributing to a decline in extreme multidimensional poverty in several TSP areas.
  1. Persistent Shortfalls and Limitations:
  • Unabated Resource Alienation: Despite protective objectives, infrastructural expansion frequently facilitated the exploitation of tribal resources. Large-scale displacement due to mining and dams, and the alienation of tribal land to non-tribals, continued largely unchecked by ITDPs.
  • Top-Down Bureaucratic Approach: ITDPs largely functioned as bureaucratic silos. They failed to synergize with democratic, community-led institutions. Consequently, traditional indigenous knowledge was sidelined, and the mandates of the PESA Act (1996) and Forest Rights Act (2006) regarding Gram Sabha empowerment were often structurally bypassed.
  • Administrative Fragmentation: The goal of "integrated administration" remained on paper. Line departments (health, education, PWD) often worked in isolation, reducing ITDPs to mere accounting mechanisms that aggregated budgets rather than executing cohesive local planning.
  • Exclusion of Dispersed Populations: The rigid >50% demographic criterion meant that a vast number of tribals living outside these contiguous blocks were left out, necessitating supplementary frameworks like Modified Area Development Approach (MADA) clusters.

Contemporary Transition and Course Correction: Recognizing these implementation gaps, the TSP has been restructured as the Development Action Plan for Scheduled Tribes (DAPST). To correct the systemic failures of ITDPs and ensure last-mile saturation, the government has recently pivoted towards mission-mode convergences:

  • PM-JANMAN (2023-26): A targeted intervention for 75 Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) converging 11 critical interventions across 9 ministries.
  • Dharti Aaba Janjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyan (DAJGUA): Launched in late 2024 with a massive ₹79,156 crore outlay for 5 years (2024-25 to 2028-29), this mission aims to saturate infrastructural and human development gaps in over 63,000 tribal-majority villages through 25 interventions across 17 ministries.

Conclusion: While ITDPs succeeded in institutionalizing an area-specific focus for tribal development and expanding the state's welfare reach, they fell short of their transformative goal of ending historical exploitation. Moving forward, the success of massive convergence missions like DAJGUA relies on pivoting the ITDP machinery from a top-down administrative model to a rights-based approach, anchoring development strictly in Gram Sabha participation and the empowerment of forest rights.

2026 Write an account on Development Action Plan for Scheduled Tribes (DAPST). 2026 What are the provisions given in the Constitution of India for the safeguard of the Scheduled Caste populations? 2026 Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) of the islands. 2026 'Dharti Aaba Janjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyan aims to meet some of the Sustainable Development Goals'. Discuss.

Want feedback on your answer?

Join the Anthropology workshop or get structured answer-writing guidance from VAID ICS.

Join Workshop Contact VAID ICS

UPSC Anthropology Optional 2022 — Paper II

28 questions

5(e) Austroasiatic languages

10 Marks150 words
Syllabus: Paper II > 2. Demographic profile of India > Linguistic elements
2022Paper IIIndian Society, Caste & CivilizationModel answer available

1(c) Dharma versus Religion

10 Marks150 words
Syllabus: Paper II > 3.1 Structure and nature of traditional Indian social system > Dharma
2022Paper IIIndian Society, Caste & CivilizationModel answer available

1(a) Pit-dwellers of Kashmir

10 Marks150 words
Syllabus: Paper II > 1.1 Evolution of Indian Culture and Civilization > Neolithic > Burzahom
2022Paper IIPrehistoric ArchaeologyModel answer available

1(b) Varna and Buddhism

10 Marks150 words
Syllabus: Paper II > 3.4 Impact of Buddhism, Jainism, Islam and Christianity on Indian society
2022Paper IIIndian Society, Caste & CivilizationModel answer available

1(e) Westernisation and Modernisation

10 Marks150 words
Syllabus: Paper II > 5.3 Indigenous and exogenous processes of socio-cultural change
2022Paper IIVillage India, Urbanisation & Social ChangeModel answer available