Ministry of Tribal Affairs

Agency overview
Jurisdiction	Government of India
Headquarters	Ministry of Tribal Affairs Shastri Bhawan Dr. Rajendra Prasad Road New Delhi,110011 New Delhi
Annual budget	₹6,000 crore (US$750 million) (2018-19 est.)[1]
Ministers responsible	Arjun Munda, Cabinet Minister Renuka Singh Saruta, Minister of State Bishweswar Tudu, Minister of State
Agency executive	Deepak Khandekar, Secretary, IAS
Website	tribal.gov.in

The Ministry of Tribal Affairs, also known by its abbreviation MOTA ,is an Indian Government ministry charged with overall development of Scheduled Tribe communities of India by providing them education, scholarships, grants to create more health infrastructure in tribal communities, preservation of Tribal Culture & languages and direct cash transfer schemes to economically backward tribal families.

History

The ministry was set up in 1999 after the bifurcation of Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (India) to have a more focused approach on the integrated socio-economic development of the Scheduled Tribes (STs), the most underprivileged of the Indian Society.^[2] Before the formation of the ministry the tribal Affairs was being handled by different ministries which were:

1. As a Division of the Ministry of Home Affairs known as Tribal Division since after independence up to September 1985.
2. Ministry of Welfare: From September 1985 to May 1998.
3. Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment from May 1998 to September 1999.

Functions of the Ministry

1. Tribal Welfare-Planning, Policy formulation, Research and Training.
2. Tribal development including scholarships to STs.
3. Promotion of voluntary efforts in development of STs.
4. Administrative Ministry with respect to matters concerning Scheduled Areas.

The Ministry of Tribal Affairs is the Nodal Ministry for overall policy, planning and coordination of programmes of development for Scheduled Tribes.

Organisations

Ministry has one Commission, One Public Sector Undertaking and one Co-operative Society under its administrative control, namely :

1. National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST)
2. National Scheduled Tribes Finance and Development Corporation (NSTFDC)
3. Tribal Co-operative Marketing Federation of India (TRIFED)

Ministers

Cabinet Ministers

The Minister of Tribal Affairs is the head of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and one of the cabinet ministers of the Government of India.^[3]

Portrait		Minister (Birth-Death)	Term of office			Political party	Ministry	Prime Minister
			From	To	Period
		Jual Oram (born 1961) MP for Sundargarh	13 October 1999	22 May 2004	4 years, 222 days	Bharatiya Janata Party	Vajpayee III	Atal Bihari Vajpayee
		Paty Ripple Kyndiah (1928–2015) MP for Shillong	23 May 2004	22 May 2009	4 years, 364 days	Indian National Congress	Manmohan I	Manmohan Singh
		Kantilal Bhuria (born 1950) MP for Ratlam	29 May 2009	12 July 2011	2 years, 44 days		Manmohan II
		Kishore Chandra Deo (born 1947) MP for Araku	12 July 2011	26 May 2014	2 years, 318 days
		Jual Oram (born 1961) MP for Sundargarh	26 May 2014	30 May 2019	5 years, 4 days	Bharatiya Janata Party	Modi I	Narendra Modi
		Arjun Munda (born 1968) MP for Khunti	31 May 2019	Incumbent	4 years, 75 days		Modi II

Ministers of State

Portrait		Minister (Birth-Death) Constituency	Term of office			Political party	Ministry	Prime Minister	Cabinet Minister
			From	To	Period
		Rameshwar Oraon (born 1947) MP for Lohardaga	6 April 2008	22 May 2009	1 year, 46 days	Indian National Congress	Manmohan I	Manmohan Singh		Paty Ripple Kyndiah
		Tushar Amarsinh Chaudhary (born 1965) MP for Bardoli	28 May 2009	19 January 2011	1 year, 236 days		Manmohan II			Kantilal Bhuria
		Ranee Narah (born 1965) MP for Lakhimpur	28 October 2012	26 May 2014	1 year, 210 days					Kishore Chandra Deo
		Mansukhbhai Vasava (born 1957) MP for Bharuch	26 May 2014	5 July 2016	2 years, 40 days	Bharatiya Janata Party	Modi I	Narendra Modi		Jual Oram
		Jasvantsinh Sumanbhai Bhabhor (born 1966) MP for Dahod	5 July 2016	30 May 2019	2 years, 329 days
		Sudarshan Bhagat (born 1969) MP for Lohardaga	3 September 2017	30 May 2019	1 year, 269 days
		Renuka Singh Saruta (born 1964) MP for Sarguja	31 May 2019	Incumbent	4 years, 75 days		Modi II			Arjun Munda
		Bishweswar Tudu (born 1965) MP for Mayurbhanj	7 July 2021	Incumbent	2 years, 38 days

Initiatives

Van Dhan Samajik Doori Jagrookta Abhiyaan

Amidst the COVID-19 crisis in May 2020 the TRIFED, a cooperative body under Ministry of Tribal Affairs registered under Multi-State Co-operative Societies Act launched this scheme in order to educate the tribals in COVID related safety measures. Nationwide and state specific webinars were organised in order to bring awareness on the issue. The Ministry also revised Minimum Support Price (MSP) for Minor forest products (MFP) to be procured from the tribals under MSP for MFP scheme meanwhile promoting door to door procurement and sale through mobile vans. The program was launched in association with UNICEF.^[4]

Swasthya portal

Ministry of tribal affairs launched the Swasthya portal, which will act as one stop solution for matters related to health and nutrition status of the Scheduled Tribes. The Ministry's centre of excellence for knowledge management in health and nutrition will manage the portal and it will be hosted on National Informatics Centre cloud.^[5]

Going online as leaders program (GOAL)

The Ministry had partnered with Facebook to launch "GOAL" program which aims at training 5000 tribal youths through digital education in order to make them emerge as the village level digital young leaders of their community. The scheme includes distribution of mobile phones for the promotion of digital literacy and to narrow the digital divide among various section of population.^[5]

ALEKH

It is an e-newsletter launched by the Ministry in order to showcase the efforts of various stakeholders which are involved in improving the health and wellbeing of tribal population. It will be launched on quarterly basis.^[5]