father/mother by the prescribed authority of the state of the father/mother’s origin except where
the prescribed authority feels that a detailed enquiry is necessary through the state of origin
before issue of the certificate. The certificate will be issued irrespective of whether the tribe in
question is scheduled or not in relation to the state/union territory to which the person has
migrated to.
National Commission for Scheduled Tribes
National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) was set up with effect from 19th
February, 2004 by amending Article 338 and inserting a new Article 338 A in the Constitution,
through the Constitution (Eighty-ninth Amendment) Act, 2003. The Chairman and the Vice-
Chairman of the Commission have been conferred the rank of Union Cabinet Minister and
Minister of State respectively, while the members of the Commission have been given the rank
of a Secretary to the Government of India. The main duties of the Commission are to investigate
and monitor all matters relating to the safeguards provided for the scheduled tribes and to
evaluate the working of such safeguards; and to inquire into specific complaints with respect to
the deprivation of rights and safeguards of the scheduled tribes. The Commission is vested with
all the powers of a civil court trying a suit while investigating any matter or inquiring into any
complaint relating to deprivation of rights and safeguards of the scheduled tribes.
Tribal Sub Plan
The present Tribal Sub Plan (TSP) strategy was initially developed by an Expert Committee
set up by the Ministry of Education and Social Welfare in 1972 for rapid socio-economic
development of tribal people and was adopted for the first time in the Fifth Five Year Plan. The
TSP strategy, with some modifications, continues till this day and the salient features with
respect to TSP for states, are: the funds provided under the Tribal Sub Plan of the state have to be
at least equal in proportion to the ST population of each state or UT; tribals and tribal areas of a
state or union territories are given benefits under the TSP, in addition to what percolates from the
overall Plan of a state/UT; the Sub-Plan should; (a) identify the problems and need of tribal
people and critical gaps in their development; (b) identify all available resources for TSP; (c)
prepare a broad policy framework for development; (d) define a suitable administrative strategy
for its implementation; and (e) specify the mechanism for monitoring and evaluation.
The Ministry has issued revised guidelines for inter-state allocation of funds and
implementation of programmes / activities under proviso to Article 275(1) of the Constitution
and under special central assistance to Tribal Sub Plan (SCA to TSP) in 2016. These guidelines
provide focused approach on sectoral allocation and revised inter-state allocation factoring
population, area and outcome based performance as parameters. Further, inter-district allocation
is also clearly spelt out. Major ST communities are also given priority. Conjunctural use with
dovetailing of financial resources from ongoing activities of line department is resorted to ensure
larger spatial and higher demographic coverage.
National Scheduled Tribes Finance and Development Corporation
With a view to pay a focused attention and accelerate the pace of economic development of
scheduled tribes, the erstwhile National Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Financial
Development Corporation was bifurcated and National Scheduled Tribes Finance and
Development Corporation (NSTFDC) was set up in 2001 under the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.
The NSTFDC has been granted license under Section 25 of the Companies Act (A Company not