Andaman Adim Janjati Vikas Samiti (AAJVS) Welfare Programme for Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups

What is the AAJVS Welfare Programme?

The AAJVS Welfare Programme is the body of health, nutrition, education and livelihood work that the Andaman Adim Janjati Vikas Samiti carries out among the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. AAJVS works under the Directorate of Tribal Welfare, Andaman and Nicobar Administration, and is the administration's field arm inside the tribal reserves.

Read one thing first, because it is the point readers most often get wrong: this is not a scheme you apply for. There is no form, no portal, no last date and no beneficiary list open to the public. AAJVS Tribal Welfare Officers and field staff take services into the settlements, and eligibility is a matter of belonging to one of the communities the Samiti serves, not of submitting a claim.

Communities covered

Census 2011 recorded the tribe-wise population of the islands' Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups as follows:

The Nicobarese, with a population of 27,168 in the same census, are the islands' largest Scheduled Tribe but are not a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group. Nicobarese students and households are served by the Directorate of Tribal Welfare's mainstream schemes, including the ST scholarships on the National Scholarship Portal, rather than by the AAJVS settlement programme.

Who is covered, and who is not eligible?

Covered by the programme:

• Members of the Great Andamanese, Jarawa, Onge, Sentinelese and Shom Pen communities living in the tribal reserves and settlements of the islands.
• Onge and Great Andamanese students at primary, middle and higher secondary levels, who receive financial support for their education through AAJVS.
• Pregnant women, lactating mothers and infants of the Onge and Great Andamanese communities, who receive nutritional supplements through AAJVS.

You cannot apply, and are not eligible, if:

• You are a member of the general public, of any category. There is no public application route and no individual cash benefit to claim.
• You are a non-PVTG Scheduled Tribe member, including a Nicobarese applicant. Use the Directorate of Tribal Welfare's scholarship and welfare schemes instead.
• You are a researcher, journalist, tour operator or visitor hoping to use AAJVS as a route into the tribal areas. Entry to the reserves is controlled under the Protection of Aboriginal Tribes Regulation, 1956.

What does AAJVS actually deliver?

Health

Health is the largest and oldest part of the programme. According to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, a health card is maintained for every individual in the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups by the Tribal Welfare Officers of AAJVS and the Medical Sub Centres, and updated regularly.

The infrastructure behind that record includes:

• Medical Sub Centres established at Dugong Creek in Little Andaman and at Strait Island, serving the Onge and Great Andamanese respectively.
• Exclusive medical wards for Jarawa patients at the Primary Health Centres near the Jarawa Reserve at Tushnabad and Kadamtala, and at G B Pant Hospital, Port Blair. These wards are themselves declared Tribal Reserve under the 1956 Regulation to keep unauthorised non-tribal contact out.
• Air evacuation of Shom Pen, Nicobari and Onge patients from Campbell Bay and Dugong Creek to Port Blair in emergencies, using the administration's helicopter fleet.
• Specialist expertise drawn in from the Regional Medical Research Centre, the AYUSH department and G B Pant Hospital.

Field camps carry that structure to the settlements. A multi-specialty health camp for the Jarawa was held at Kadamtala and Luis Inlet Bay from 18 to 21 August 2025, led by the Deputy Director (Tribal Health) with a paediatrician, ENT surgeon, microbiologist, dermatologist and paramedical staff. 160 of the 250 Jarawa in those two areas were examined, blood samples were taken to screen for anaemia, sickle cell anaemia screening and sensitisation were carried out, and two adults and six children were referred onward to a PHC and to G B Pant Hospital.

Nutrition

Nutritional supplements are provided through AAJVS to pregnant women, lactating mothers and infants of the Onge and Great Andamanese communities. Nutrition work also runs through livestock: on 7 October 2025 the Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services distributed 100 Nicobari grower birds, aged 14 weeks, to the aboriginal tribes of Strait Island under the Tribal Subsidy Scheme, with the distribution facilitated by AAJVS. The Nicobari breed is adapted to island conditions, and backyard poultry gives a household both protein and a small saleable surplus.

Education

AAJVS extends financial support to Onge and Great Andamanese students for education at primary, middle and higher secondary levels. Exclusive middle schools have been established inside the settlements: at Dugong Creek, Little Andaman for the Onge, and at Strait Island for the Great Andamanese. For Jarawa and Onge children an informal education system has been introduced using a bilingual, bicultural curriculum developed jointly by the Andaman and Nicobar Tribal Research Institute and AAJVS.

The clearest measure of this work came in 2025, when nine Onge students from Dugong Creek passed the CBSE Class 10 board examination. The first time in the community's history, and joined Class 11 at PM SHRI Government Senior Secondary School, R K Pur in Little Andaman. The Tribal Welfare Department recorded that a dedicated classroom, hostels and sustained support from AAJVS and the Education Department made that possible.

Livelihoods

AAJVS is the State Implementation Agency for central tribal programmes in the islands. Under PM-JANMAN and the Van Dhan Yojana of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, a Van Dhan Vikas Kendra was established at Dugong Creek for the Onge, registered as a society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, with the Directorate of Tribal Welfare as nodal agency and NABARD as mentoring agency.

• Government of India assistance of Rs 2.80 lakh funded the Kendra.
• Seven Self-Help Groups with 56 Onge members operate it.
• Members make copra and coconut oil from local coconut, trained in copra processing, oil extraction and equipment use, with toolkits of coconut peelers, steel containers, de-husking tools and knives distributed.
• A cold-press coconut oil extraction machine was installed at Dugong Creek.
• The Kendra became operational on 29 June 2025 and, at Adi Mahotsav 2026 in New Delhi in March 2026, generated roughly Rs 3 lakh from coconut oil sales.

How to apply for AAJVS support, and why there is no form

Because there is no application, the honest answer is that access runs through the administration rather than through the beneficiary. The real route works like this:

1. AAJVS Tribal Welfare Officers posted at the settlements identify needs and maintain the individual health and welfare records for each PVTG member.
2. The Directorate of Tribal Welfare plans and funds the programme from the Secretariat Complex at Sri Vijaya Puram, and coordinates with the Directorate of Health Services, the Education Department, Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services and central ministries.
3. Service delivery happens in the settlement — camps, schools, sub-centres, nutrition distribution and livelihood projects; rather than at a counter that a beneficiary travels to.

If you are a member of the public with a concern relating to the welfare of the islands' Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups, the route is to write to the Directorate of Tribal Welfare rather than to attempt contact with a settlement.

Protection of the communities

The welfare programme sits inside a protective legal framework and cannot be understood apart from it. The Protection of Aboriginal Tribes Regulation, 1956 governs entry into the tribal reserves. For the Sentinelese the administration follows a declared "eyes-on and hands-off" policy to keep poachers out of North Sentinel Island, and a protocol of circumnavigation of the island has been notified in consultation with the Government of India. With the Jarawa, the administration has opened channels of communication to understand the community's own concerns, which it reports has improved the sharing of information about poaching, encroachment and other abuse.

Where to raise a query

• Directorate of Tribal Welfare, Andaman and Nicobar Administration, Secretariat Complex, Sri Vijaya Puram (Port Blair), the nodal office for AAJVS and for all tribal welfare in the islands.
• Andaman Adim Janjati Vikas Samiti (AAJVS), which works under the same directorate and posts Tribal Welfare Officers in the settlements.

No fee is payable for anything under this programme, and no agent can obtain a benefit under it, because there is nothing an individual outside the covered communities can claim.