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Home/Anthropology/Mains PYQ/2026/Paper II/Tribal Development, Policy & Safeguards
UPSC MainsAnthropology Optional Paper II 2026 15 Marks Model Answer Available

Development Action Plan for Scheduled Tribes (DAPST) — 2026 Paper II

Question · 2026 · Paper II · 15 Marks

Write an account on Development Action Plan for Scheduled Tribes (DAPST).

Model Answer

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Approach

• Demand of Question: Explain DAPST as a cross-ministerial budgeting and monitoring strategy, assess its development logic and critically evaluate problems of additionality, outcome measurement, implementation capacity and local participation.

• Structuring the Response: Trace TSP (1974-75, Fifth Plan) to DAPST; state the current 41 obligated Ministries/Departments in addition to MoTA; explain quantification/channelization and sectoral coverage; then critique accounting vs outcomes, relabeling/substitution, under-utilization and top-down priorities; propose Gram Sabha-linked outcome monitoring.

• Key Dimensions to Cover: TSP/DAPST; 1974-75; 41 Ministries/Departments plus MoTA; specified budget percentages; STC/DAPST monitoring system; education, health, agriculture, roads, housing, skills; additionality, outcomes, capacity and participatory planning.

Model Answer

Introduction: The Development Action Plan for Scheduled Tribes (DAPST) is the contemporary form of the Tribal Sub-Plan strategy adopted in 1974-75 during the Fifth Five Year Plan. Its core idea is institutional: tribal development should not be confined to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs. Sectoral ministries whose schemes shape health, education, roads or livelihoods must earmark and monitor resources for Scheduled Tribes.

Design and significance

  • Cross-government obligation: Current official guidance states that, besides MoTA, 41 Central Ministries/Departments allocate specified percentages of scheme budgets for tribal development.
  • Quantification and channelization: The strategy seeks both to quantify investment in tribal areas/populations and to channel it toward all-round development in accordance with needs, rather than rely on incidental “trickle down.”
  • Sectoral reach: DAPST covers education, health, agriculture, irrigation, roads, housing, electrification, employment and skills - sectors that no single tribal-welfare ministry can deliver alone.
  • Monitoring: MoTA operates an online STC/DAPST monitoring framework, increasing visibility of allocations and expenditure across obligated ministries.

Critical assessment

  • Input vs outcome: A rupee booked as DAPST does not prove improvement in learning, nutrition, tenure security or livelihood resilience. Output and outcome indicators must accompany expenditure.
  • Additionality / relabeling risk: Routine universal schemes can be notionally attributed to ST beneficiaries without creating a genuinely tribal-responsive design. The test should be whether DAPST closes a specific gap.
  • Implementation capacity: Delayed procurement, staff shortages and difficult terrain can produce under-use or poor quality even where funds are earmarked.
  • Top-down priority setting: Fiscal earmarking does not automatically incorporate tribal conceptions of well-being. In Scheduled Areas, Gram Sabha/PESA and FRA priorities should influence the local project mix.

Exam-ready schematic: Budget earmark -> need-based tribal component -> sectoral implementation -> transparent monitoring -> measurable capability/rights outcomes.

Conclusion: DAPST is indispensable because it turns tribal development into a whole-of-government duty. Its next step is to move from “accounting for tribal expenditure” to accountability for tribal outcomes, with additionality, independent evaluation and community participation built into the fiscal architecture.

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. 2026 Write an account on the contribution of Verrier Elwin in developing policies for the tribal populations in post-independent India. 2026 Article 371A of the Indian Constitution.

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