Bhubaneswar: With a view to improving the socio-economic condition of the vulnerable tribal population, the state government has included 888 villages to the list of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) villages, official sources said here Tuesday.
PVTGs are characterised as homogeneous group with small population, physically isolated, low literacy level, stagnant or diminishing population and adopting simple technology and are less developed and more vulnerable among the scheduled tribes.
Out of 75 PVTGs identified in India, 13 PVTGs are found in 12 districts of Odisha. To facilitate their all-round development, 17 micro project agencies (MPAs) were established in Odisha in different phases, wherein about 90,000 PVTGs are residing in 541 villages/hamlets and were benefited through different schemes and programs of the government.
The state government has further recognised about 1.05 lakh PVTGs residing in 888 additional
villages/hamlets located in 160 gram panchayats (GPs) of 29 Blocks in 11 districts among the existing 13 groups.
Similarly, the government has also decided to take up three new micro projects at Dhenkanal, Jajpur and Keonjhar. About 55,000 PVTGs residing in 250 villages under 76 GPs of 9 blocks in three districts belonging to three PVTGs communities namely, Birhor, Juang and Paudi Bhuiyan, will be benefited with the constitution of three new projects, the source said.
The three new MPAs are–Birhor & Juang Development Agency (BJDA), Sukinda in Jajpur district, Juang Development Agency (JDA) Dhenkanal and Paudi Bhuiyan Development Agency (PBDA) Banspal in Keonjhar district.
Thus around 1.60 lakh persons belonging to 13 PVTGs of these newly included villages as well as MPAs will now get benefits of various schemes and programs of the Central and state governments and will be able to avail other entitlements of livelihood improvement, social security and welfare benefits.
With the inclusion of these villages and MPAs, the total PVTG population in the state will be 2.5 lakh.