Scheme For Economic Empowerment Of Denotified, Nomadic, Semi-nomadic (Seed)

Why in the News?

Recently, the Ministry of Social Justice has received several applications online for benefits under the Scheme for Economic Empowerment of Denotified, Nomadic, Semi-nomadic (SEED) Tribes.

Key Points:

About Scheme for Economic Empowerment of DNTs (SEED):

• • It is an umbrella scheme for empowering De-notified, Nomadic and Semi Nomadic Communities (DNTs, NTs, SNTs).
  • Timeline and Fund: Rs.200 crore to be spent over five years beginning 2021-22.
  • Implementing agency: Development and Welfare Board for DNTs, SNTs & NTs (DWBDNCs)

• Components of the SEED:

• • • Educational empowerment: Free coaching to students for these communities for civil services, entry to professional courses like medicine, engineering, MBA, etc.
    • Health Insurance: Through PMJAY of National Health Authority.
    • Livelihood to support income generation, and 

• Housing (through Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana PMAY/IAY)

• Feature of this scheme:

• Online Portal: Online portal has been developed to ensure seamless registration and will also act as a repository of the data on these communities.

• • • It will provide real time status of the application to the applicant.

About DNT/NT/SNT

• De-notified Tribes (DNTs), Nomadic Tribes (NTs) and Semi-Nomadic Tribes (SNTs) are one of the most deprived and economically weaker communities in India.

• De-notified Tribes stand for those communities which were notified as ‘born criminals’ under Criminal Tribes Act (CTA) 1871.

• Post-independence, CTA, 1871 was repealed, and these communities were “De-Notified”.
• It was replaced with Habitual Offenders Act, 1952.
• Population: More than 10 crore from 1,400 communities.