Vocational Training Centres in Tribal Areas (J&K)

Is there a Vocational Training Centres scheme for tribal areas in J&K?

Vocational Training Centres in Tribal Areas is best understood in Jammu and Kashmir as an activity funded inside larger tribal development programmes, not as a scheme with its own application form. The Department of Tribal Affairs, Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, publishes a scheme list of eight entries; scholarships, UT Capex, Eklavya Model Residential Schools, residential hostels for Gujjar and Bakerwal students, the Tribal Research Institute, Dharti Aaba Janjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyan, the Forest Rights Act and Van Dhan Vikas Yojana, and a standalone vocational training centre scheme does not appear among them.

This matters, because readers searching for a "vocational training centre scheme" often expect a stipend or a personal grant. There is none to claim in Jammu and Kashmir under that name. What exists is public money that can build and equip training facilities in tribal-dominated areas, and free or subsidised training places once a facility is running.

The main funding vehicle is Special Central Assistance to Tribal Sub Plan (SCA to TSP), a 100 per cent grant from the Government of India that has run since 1977-78 and is charged to the Consolidated Fund of India. The guidelines the J&K Department of Tribal Affairs publishes on its own website are the Ministry of Tribal Affairs guidelines issued on 17 June 2016 for allocation and implementation from 2016-17 onwards.

Who benefits, and who cannot apply?

Who the funding is meant to reach:

• Scheduled Tribe residents of tribal-dominated areas of Jammu and Kashmir. The Department of Tribal Affairs recognises 12 scheduled tribes in the UT, including Gujjar, Bakerwal, Gaddi and Sippi.
• Residents of an Integrated Tribal Development Project (ITDP) area; one or more development blocks where ST population is 50 per cent or more, with a complete development block or panchayat samiti as the minimum unit.
• Residents of a MADA pocket: contiguous revenue villages with 50 per cent or more tribal concentration within a total population of 10,000 or more.
• Residents of a cluster pocket. The same 50 per cent concentration within a population of 5,000 or more.
• Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups and dispersed tribal population outside those categories.

Who cannot apply:

• Individuals cannot apply for a grant. SCA to TSP money is released to the Union Territory administration against proposals, not to persons. Proposals submitted to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs Project Appraisal Committee must first be pre-approved by an Executive Committee under the Chief Secretary.
• Private individuals and firms cannot apply directly to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs for a training centre. Areas must first be notified by the Ministry on the proposal of the state or UT government before they count for allocation.
• Non-tribal individuals are not the target group of these interventions, though tribal-area infrastructure is generally open to the locality it serves.
• A person seeking a personal cash benefit is not eligible under this head at all; the closest cash-linked tribal schemes in J&K are the pre-matric and post-matric scholarships run through the National Scholarship Portal.

How does the money actually reach a training centre?

1. The Department of Tribal Affairs, J&K identifies the ITDP, MADA and cluster areas and the specific gap it wants to fill, and prepares a plan. Area details with 2011 Census population and a map must be provided to the Ministry.
2. The proposal is pre-approved by an Executive Committee under the Chief Secretary of the Union Territory, as required by paragraph 5.4.3 of the 2016 guidelines.
3. The proposal goes to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs Project Appraisal Committee (PAC), where the UT must submit area details, with the revenue village as the smallest constituent unit for MADA and cluster pockets.
4. The Ministry allocates funds. Inter-state allocation is 50 per cent on ST population, 25 per cent on tribal area covered under ITDPs and ITDAs, and 25 per cent on outcome-based performance.
5. Within the district, funds are split two-thirds on population and one-third on area, counting only areas where ST population exceeds 50 per cent.
6. The department builds or equips the centre and runs the training, usually through a line department or an implementing agency.
7. A resident enrols as a trainee at the centre, with an ST certificate, Aadhaar and proof of residence in the identified area.

Step 7 is the only step an individual takes part in. Enrolment notices are issued locally by the centre or the Directorate of Tribal Affairs and are not published on a single national portal.

What can and cannot be funded

Can be funded under SCA to TSP:

• Primarily non-recurring activities, including infrastructure and equipment with at least a three-year lifetime. A workshop building, looms, tools and machinery for a training centre fit this description.
• Activities within the prescribed sectoral priorities: education 40 to 50 per cent, health 10 to 15 per cent, agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry, fisheries, dairy and other primary sector 20 to 30 per cent, other income-generating schemes to augment tribal household economy 10 to 15 per cent, and administrative structure, institutional framework and research below 5 to 10 per cent.
• Public-private participation projects, which the guidelines specifically encourage for education, health and other human resource development.
• Programmes for women's self-help groups and for ST households holding land rights under the Forest Rights Act, 2006.

Cannot be funded under SCA to TSP:

• Recurring costs of a programme. These must come from state funds or the Tribal Sub Plan allocation.
• Major infrastructure — road connectivity, electricity, drinking water, major irrigation and housing are excluded, because state plan funds already carry those.

The guidelines also require that fund allocation for any ST community be within plus or minus 10 per cent of that community's share of the UT's ST population. For Jammu and Kashmir, where Gujjar and Bakerwal households dominate the ST population and share a livestock-dependent economy, the guidelines expressly allow such communities to be clubbed together for common programmes.

What else serves tribal youth in J&K?

• Van Dhan Vikas Yojana, also known as Pradhan Mantri Van Dhan Yojana. A 100 per cent centrally sponsored programme helping tribal communities earn a livelihood from forest resources, implemented in J&K through the Rural Development Department. This is the closest thing to a working skills-and-livelihood route for tribal adults in the UT.
• Residential hostels for Gujjar and Bakerwal students, 100 per cent UT-funded and run directly by the J&K Department of Tribal Affairs, for students from class 6 to class 12 and postgraduate level.
• Eklavya Model Residential Schools, 100 per cent centrally sponsored and run by NESTS, set up in blocks having 50 per cent ST population and 20,000 or more ST persons.
• Dharti Aaba Janjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyan, which develops selected tribal-majority villages by converging schemes of 17 departments across 25 interventions.
• Article 275(1) grants, the other Ministry of Tribal Affairs funding line whose guidelines the J&K department publishes alongside the SCA to TSP guidelines.
• National Scheduled Tribes Finance and Development Corporation (NSTFDC), linked from the department's website, for concessional credit for tribal enterprise.

A note on the guidelines and the 2019 reorganisation

The SCA to TSP guidelines published by the J&K Department of Tribal Affairs date from 17 June 2016, when Jammu and Kashmir was a state and was named among the 23 states eligible for SCA to TSP grants. Those same guidelines say at paragraph 2.2 that Union Territories are not covered under SCA to TSP. Jammu and Kashmir became a Union Territory on 31 October 2019, so the current funding position for the UT should be confirmed with the Directorate of Tribal Affairs rather than assumed from the 2016 text. The department continues to publish the guidelines as its reference document.

Where to ask

• Department of Tribal Affairs, Jammu and Kashmir; tribalaffairs.jk.gov.in, which carries the scheme list, the SCA to TSP and Article 275(1) guidelines, district-wise ST population data, hostel and EMRS details, and an Orders, Circulars and Notifications page.
• Directorate of Tribal Affairs; linked from the department website, for enrolment and centre-level questions.
• Ministry of Tribal Affairs: tribal.nic.in, for the national guidelines.
• CM Grievance Cell, jkgrievance.in, for a written grievance.

No enrolment fee should be charged for training funded from these grants, and no individual or agent can obtain an SCA to TSP sanction on your behalf.