Asserting that tribal welfare has always been the priority of the NDA government, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said the Centre’s focus is on “education”, “income” and “medicine” of the tribal society.

The Prime Minister visited Jamui, Bihar to commemorate Janjatiya Gaurav Divas, marking the commencement of the 150th Birth Anniversary Year celebration of Dharti Aaba Bhagwan Birsa Munda. Modi unveiled a commemorative coin and postal stamp in honour of Bhagwan Birsa Munda.

Modi also inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of multiple development projects worth over Rs 6,640 crore aimed at uplifting tribal communities and improving infrastructure in rural and remote areas of the region.

Addressing the gathering after inaugurating and laying the foundation stone of multiple development projects, the Prime Minister emphasised that his Government’s mindset, be it in the field of culture or social justice, was different.

“It was their good fortune to elect Droupadi Murmu as the President of India,” Modi said.

“She (Droupadi Murmu) was the first adivasi President of India and the credit for all the works incepted under the PM-JANMAN yojana goes to the President,” the Prime Minister said.

Underling that the Rs 24,000 crore PM JANMAN yojana was launched for the empowerment of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs), Modi said under the scheme, development of settlements of the most backward tribes of the country is being ensured.

He noted that the scheme had completed one year today and thousands of pucca houses were given to the PVTGs under the scheme. Modi also said the road development projects were under progress to ensure connectivity between PVTG settlements and drinking water was ensured under the Har Ghar Jal scheme in many houses of PVTGs.

The Prime Minister said the inauguration and laying of foundation stone of multiple development projects worth over Rs 6640 crore was done today. He added that projects comprised around 1.5 lakh approval letters for pucca houses for tribals, schools and hostels for the betterment of tribal children’s future, health facilities for tribal women, road projects connecting tribal areas, tribal museums and research centres to conserve the tribal culture.

Modi remarked that there was a Grih Pravesh of 11,000 Awas built for the tribals on the auspicious occasion of Dev Deepavali. He congratulated all the tribals on this occasion.

Highlighting the contributions of tribal society, the Prime Minister said it was the tribal society which transformed Prince Ram to Lord Ram as well as led the fight for centuries to protect India’s culture and independence.

However, he added, “There were attempts to wipe out such important contributions of tribal society in the decades after independence fueled by selfish politics.”

“Tribal welfare has always been the priority of our government,” said the Prime Minister. “It was Atal ji’s Government which formed a separate Ministry for Tribal affairs,” he added.

Modi noted that the budgetary allocation was increased 5 times from Rs 25,000 crore to Rs 1.25 lakh crore in the last 10 years. He said a special scheme named Dharti Abha Janjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyan (DAJGUA) was started recently benefitting more than 60,000 tribal villages.

Modi added that Rs 80,000 crore was being invested through the scheme which aimed at ensuring availability of basic facilities in the tribal villages along with creating job opportunities and training of the tribal youths.

He further said the Government was also setting up the upcoming Global centre for traditional medicine under the auspices of WHO, which will help further propagate the traditional medicine system of Tribals across the world.

“Our government’s focus is on education, income and medicine of the tribal society”, exclaimed Modi. He was pleased that the tribal children were coming forward in various fields like medical, engineering, armed forces or aviation.