The Odisha Government on Tuesday added 888 new villages in and around Micro Project Areas, to the list of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) and set up three new Micro Projects at Dhenkanal, Jajpur and Keonjhar.
As per the State Government, the recognition has given to about 1.05 lakh PVTGs residing in 888 villages/hamlets located in 160 GPs of 29 Blocks in 11 Districts among the existing 13 groups, Similarly, about 55,000 PVTGs residing in 250 villages/ hamlets coming under 76 GPs. Of 9 Blocks in 3 districts belonging to three PVTGs communities namely, Birhor, Juang and Paudi Bhuiyan are also going to be benefited with the constitution of three New MPAs in the state.
The state government has set up three new Micro Project Areas ( MPAs) first one, Birhor and Juang Development Agency (BJDA), Sukinda with headquarters at Sukinda Block Office in Jajpur Distrtict.
Second, Juang Development Agency (JDA), Dhenkanal with headquarters at Dhenkanal in Dhenkanal district and third Paudi Bhuiyan Development Agency (PBDA) Banspal with headquarters at Banspal Block Office in Keonjhar District.
Thus around 1.60 lakh persons belonging to 13 PVTGs of these newly included villages as well as Micro Project Agencies will now get benefits of various schemes and Programmes of the Central and State Governments and will be able to avail other entitlements of livelihood improvement, social Security and Welfare benefits. With the inclusion of these villages and MPAs, the total PVTG population of Odisha will be 2.5 lakhs.
Out of 75 PVTGs identified in India, 13 PVTGs are found in 12 districts of Odisha. To facilitate their all round development, 17 micro Project Agencies (MPAs) were established in Odisha in phases, wherein about 90,000 PVTGs are residing in 541 villages/ hamlets and were benefited through different schemes and programs of the Government.
Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) are characterized as homogeneous group with small population, physically isolated, low literacy level, adopting simple technology with stagnant or diminishing population and are the less developed and more vulnerable among the scheduled Tribes.
( With inputs from ANI )