Hello,
Two years ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a sweeping scheme that aimed to uplift some of the country's poorest communities. These were the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups, many of whom live without basic health and education services, and even necessities such as water and electricity.
Modi announced the scheme, named PM-JANMAN, in Jharkhand, a state in which around 4 lakh people belong to these groups. It had a budget of more than Rs 24,000 crore, to be spent towards safe housing, clean drinking water, education, health, telecom connectivity and livelihood opportunities.
But when Nolina Minj visited four remote villages in Jharkhand where the scheme was supposedly implemented, she found that work under it had barely made any difference on the ground. In fact, many locals she spoke to had not even heard of it.
"While I wasn’t expecting top class infrastructure, I presumed that conditions would have at least slightly improved due to the PM JANMAN scheme and other previous interventions," Minj said. "I was in for disappointment."
She was particularly struck by how little difference multi-purpose centres that had been constructed under the scheme had made. "The MPC structure at Salgi village was most preposterous as families there still don’t have access to basic facilities like potable water and electricity," she said. "Even in places like Range Tusrukona where the MPC had been running for a while, newborn babies are still dying due to lack of access to proper healthcare."

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Ajay Krishnan
Senior Editor

Follow the Scroll channel on WhatsApp for a curated selection of the news that matters throughout the day, and a round-up of major developments in India and around the world every evening. What you won’t get: Spam.

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This yield from Jharkhand’s trees might hold the key to rural livelihoods

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