The Ministry administers the Scheduled Castes Development Bureau’s Scheduled Caste Sub-Plan (SCSP), which is an umbrella strategy to ensure the flow of targeted financial and physical advantages from all general sectors of development for the benefit of Scheduled Castes. States/UTs are obliged by the strategy to develop and implement Special Component Plans (SCP) for Scheduled Castes as part of their Annual Plans by allocating resources. Currently, 27 States/UTs with a sizable SC population are implementing the Scheduled Caste Sub-Plan.
Purpose of the Scheme
- The major goal is to offer a boost to family-oriented economic development schemes for SCs living below the poverty line by giving resources to bridge important gaps and provide missing vital inputs so that the schemes can be more relevant. Because the schemes/programs for SCs may vary depending on the local occupational pattern and economic activities available, the states/UTs have been given complete flexibility in utilising SCA with the only condition that it be used in conjunction with SCP and other resources available from other sources such as various Corporations, financial institutions, and so on.
- Within the broad framework of the scheme, the State Government has been allowed latitude in the selection of schemes to be executed out of Special Central Assistance.
Centralized Special Assistance
Special Government Assistance (SCA) to Scheduled Castes Sub Plan (SCSP) is a central scheme in which States/UTs receive a 100 percent grant as an addition to their Scheduled Castes Sub Plan (SCSP).
Plan for Special Components
- The government launched the Special Component Plan (SCP) and Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP) as intervention methods in the 1970s to cater specifically to Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST). Such plans are intended to secure advantages to these particular groups by ensuring finances from all linked development sectors, both at the state and federal levels, in proportion to the size of their respective populations. In addition to SCP and TSP, the Government of India provides Special Central Assistance (SCA) to states and UTs. (The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment distributes a 100 percent funding under the Central Sector Scheme of SCA to SCP as a supplement to SCP to states/UTs.)
- SCP has since been renamed Scheduled Castes Sub-Plan (SCSP), following in the footsteps of TSP. The SCSP method entails significant interventions through the planning process for the social, educational, and economic development of Scheduled Castes, as well as improvements in their working and living situations.
- The TSP method envisions integrated development of tribal areas in which all programmes, regardless of funding source, work together to achieve the aim of bringing (tribal) areas on level with the rest of the state and improving tribals’ quality of life. It aims to implement family-oriented income-generating programmes, eliminate exploitation, develop human resources through education and training, and improve infrastructure. TSP programmes are funded by (a) TSP monies from State/UT Plans and Central Ministries/Departments, and (b) TSP Special Central Assistance (SCA). (b) Grants to states/UTs under Article 275 (1) of the Constitution (d) Central Sector Schemes/Centrally Sponsored Schemes; and (f) Institutional Finance.